International leaders condemned Ecuador after police in the nation’s capital forced their way into the mexican embassy to arrest a former vice president who had received political asylum.
The Friday night raid caused the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obradorbroke diplomatic relations with Ecuadorwhile the Mexican Foreign Secretary said she would take the event to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Police forced their way through the outer doors of the embassy in Quito to arrest Jorge Glas, who had resided there since December. He had requested asylum after being indicted on corruption charges, protection he had obtained a few hours earlier.
The assault was widely condemned.
In a statement, the Organization of American States (OAS) reminded its members, which include Ecuador and Mexico, of their obligation “not to invoke norms of domestic law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations.”
For its part, the Spanish Foreign Ministry indicated in a statement on Sunday that “the forcible entry into the Mexican Embassy in Quito represents a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. We call for respect for the right international harmony and harmony between Mexico and Ecuador, sister countries of Spain and members of the Ibero-American Community.”?
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “The United States condemns any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and takes seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect the inviolability of diplomatic delegations.” He called for the two countries to resolve their differences.
The European Union (EU) condemned this Sunday the “violation” of the headquarters of the Mexican embassy in Quito and stressed “the importance of respecting” the Vienna Convention, which regulates diplomatic relations between States.
”Any violation of the inviolability of the premises of a diplomatic mission violates the Vienna Convention and must therefore be rejected,” said the Twenty-Seven in a statement signed by the spokesperson of the European External Action Service (the diplomatic corps of the EU). , Peter Stano.
The EU affirmed that protecting the integrity of diplomatic missions and their personnel “is essential to preserve stability and international order,” as well as fostering “cooperation and trust between nations.”
The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, repudiated and described the act as “an intolerable act for the international community” and a “violation of the sovereignty of the Mexican State and international law” because “it ignores the historical and fundamental right to asylum.”
Diplomatic compounds are considered foreign territory, they are “inviolable” according to the Vienna treaties and the security forces of the host country are not authorized to enter without permission from the ambassador. Asylum seekers have lived for days and even years in embassies around the world, including Ecuador’s embassy in London, which housed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for seven years without British police being able to enter to arrest him.
The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena, said on Friday on the social network X that several diplomats had been injured in the operation.
Bárcena said Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice to denounce “this clear and flagrant violation of international law.” He also withdrew Mexican diplomats in Ecuador.
Glas is taken to prison
Glas was transferred on Saturday from the attorney general’s office in Quito to the port city of Guayaquil, where he will be held in a maximum security prison. People gathered in front of the prosecutor’s office exclaimed “strength!” when the former official left in a convoy of police and military vehicles.
Glas’s lawyer, Sonia Vera, told the AP that the police broke into his room, put his hands behind him, to which Glas resisted and “they knocked him to the floor, kicked him in the head, in the spine, in the his legs, his hands” and when he could not walk, “they dragged him out.”
The defense was not allowed to see Glas while he was in the prosecutor’s office, so he is preparing a habeas corpus petition, he added.
Authorities are investigating Glas for alleged irregularities during his handling of reconstruction efforts after a powerful earthquake in 2016 that killed hundreds of people. He has been convicted of bribery and corruption charges in other cases.
The Ecuadorian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabriela Sommerfeld, told reporters on Saturday that the decision to enter the Mexican diplomatic headquarters was adopted by the president of Ecuador, given “a risk of imminent escape” by Glas and after having exhausted, as he assured, all the possibilities of diplomatic dialogue with Mexico.
Mexico granted Glas asylum a few hours before the raid. Sommerfeld said it was not legal to grant asylum to people convicted of common crimes and by competent courts.
Reelection in 2025
Noboa became president of Ecuador last year as the country faced record crime rates linked to drug trafficking. He declared the country to be in an “internal armed conflict” in January and designated 20 drug trafficking organizations as terrorist groups that the military was authorized to “neutralize” within the margins of international humanitarian law.
Will Freeman, a Latin America expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S.-based think tank, said the decision to send police to the Mexican embassy raises concerns about the steps Noboa is willing to take to be re-elected. His term ends in 2025 because he was elected to complete the term of former President Guillermo Lasso.
“I really hope that Noboa is not taking a course more like Bukele’s,” Freeman said, alluding to El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, whose tough-on-crime strategy has been widely criticized by human rights organizations. “That is, less respectful of the rule of law to get a boost in his popularity before the elections.”
Freeman added that the question of whether Glas was abusing diplomatic protection is “a separate issue” from the decision to send police to the embassy.
“We see a pattern of this in Latin America in which politicians abuse embassies and foreign jurisdictions, not to flee persecution but to avoid responsibilities,” he said.
The Mexican embassy in Quito remained under strict police surveillance after the raid, the turning point in recent tensions between Mexico and Ecuador.
Glas’ lawyer expressed concern about the former official’s safety during his detention, given the reputation of the country’s prisons, where hundreds of people have died in violent riots in recent years. Among those who died in detention are suspects in the murder of a presidential hopeful last year.
Vera added that he held President Noboa responsible for Glas’s safety.
Source: Gestion
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