Ecuador accused Mexico this Monday (8) of violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. The accusation comes after the Ecuadorian authorities invaded the Mexican embassy in Quito, which took place last Friday (5), with the aim of arresting former vice-president Jorge Glas, who had requested political asylum in the North American country.
Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabriela Sommerfeld, defended the operation carried out by her country, claiming that Mexico was the first to violate the convention by not responding adequately to Ecuador's requests regarding Glas, indicted in corruption cases.
“It is important to mention that Mexico is the first to start violating several articles of the Vienna Convention and of diplomatic asylum”, emphasized Sommerfeld, adding that “as a diplomatic channel, we sent all the documentation that demonstrated, through Justice, what was the situation of the then guest, as they called it, and then asylum seeker, so that the measure did not continue because it did not correspond”.
According to the head of Ecuadorian diplomacy, Mexico did not give “a positive response, and only mentioned that it was analyzing the case.”
In turn, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, condemned the action this Monday, classifying it as an “authoritarian act” that not even the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet “would have dared” to carry out.
“It was an authoritarian, incredible act, sometimes it is bad to use examples, but neither Pinochet, nor the fearsome Pinochet and others dared to do this,” declared Obrador, adding that “I think those who made this decision are very ill advised.”
Diplomatic tension between Ecuador and Mexico began to intensify last week when Daniel Noboa's government declared the Mexican ambassador, Raquel Serur, “persona non grata”, in response to Obrador's comments on the assassination of former presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and its electoral consequences in 2023.
Because of the invasion of its embassy, Mexico announced that it will denounce Ecuador before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) this Monday. Obrador stated that the “majority of the international community supports Mexico”, considering the invasion a “flagrant violation of sovereignty and the right to asylum”.
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