The ex-minister’s escape from Rafael Correa’s government, Maria de Los Angeles Duarteof the Argentine Embassy in Quito has caused problems for diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Given the situation, Ecuador has made the decision to declare itself as a person not free Ambassador Gabriel Fuks and continued his expulsion. The same decision was made by the Argentine government with Ecuadorian ambassador Xavier Monge.

In conversation with ecuavisa, Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Holguín said that Fuks had been summoned three times and that the decision was made after several meetings with Argentine and Ecuadorian authorities. After inconsistencies in the statements and there was a breach of trust with the ambassador.

Argentina expels Ecuadorian ambassador, Xavier Monge, in response to request for his country’s ambassador, Gabriel Fuks, to leave

Regarding the Argentinian position towards the Ecuadorian ambassador, Holguín pointed out that this was the normal course of action in these cases.

“The fact that we are currently declaring Mr. Fuks as a person not free it must not affect in any way the relations between Ecuador and Argentina in the medium and long term, which are relations based on a solid foundation of principles with a very strong bilateral coherence and we hope that this deadlock resolved soon,” he added.

Santiago Perez Samaniego, from the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences of the Private Technical University of Loja (UTPL), indicated that Argentina reacted reciprocally to Ecuador’s position and informed the Ecuadorian ambassador of the decision in the same terms. He also recalled that in 2018 Ecuador expelled the Venezuelan ambassador to Quito for statements deemed offensive by Nicolás Maduro. Caracas made the same decision with Ecuador’s representative.

He further explained that it is not an obligation of states to reciprocate. “The actions one state takes against the other are sovereign, reciprocity is an option, but not an obligation. It all depends on the seriousness of the situation and the interests of the state, these types of measures are a reminder that a specific action (such as Ms. Duarte’s escape) is unacceptable and that it has consequences,” he said.

For Pérez, diplomatic relations between the two countries will not be broken completely or for a long time, nor will they escalate, although he added that this needs to be clarified. deadlock as well as establishing high-level dialogue channels and finding consensus.

Currently, both countries have chargé d’affaires in their embassies as managers.

The 1961 Vienna Convention, to which Ecuador and Argentina accede, provides in Article 9 that a State may “at any time and without having to explain the reasons for its decision” inform the State that the head or any other member of the diplomatic staff to a person not free. “The sending state will then withdraw that person or terminate his position in the mission, as appropriate.”

Ecuadorian government declares Argentine ambassador to Quito ‘persona non grata’ after María de los Ángeles Duarte’s escape

In 2017, Ecuador and Argentina experienced a diplomatic episode when the then ambassador, Luis Juez, stated that on one occasion he had changed his clothes to avoid comments that “I’m filthy and I adopted Ecuadorian habits”. Faced with this situation, the business manager was called to request the withdrawal of the ambassador, who was in Argentina at the time.

Finally the government of Mauricio Macri decided to withdraw Judge due to transfer of duties.