The Latin American presidents gathered yesterday at the virtual summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) They put Ecuador on the ropes for attacking the Mexican diplomatic headquarters in Quito and debated possible sanctions for an action that has not only generated regional rejection but also from the international community.
The meeting, called by Honduras and headed by the country's president, Xiomara Castro, gave rise to several announcements with serious diplomatic implications, such as the closure by Venezuela of its diplomatic headquarters on Ecuadorian soil and the “immediate” return of its representatives in Quito and Guayaquil.
That diplomatic personnel return to Venezuela immediately (…) until international law is expressly restored in Ecuador
“Let the diplomatic personnel return to Venezuela immediately (…) until international law is expressly restored in Ecuador,” he stated.
Maduro expressed to López Obrador “absolute solidarity”. “Mexico is not alone, it has the voice of our America accompanying it in circumstances that you did not seek,” she told him. “There is no doubt” that President Noboa's decision “to assault the territory of Mexico, its embassy, to beat, to beat its diplomatic staff, in front of the world, live and direct on social networks, of Capturing, tying up, torturing former vice president Jorge Glas has been an act of barbarism,” he stressed.
The virtual summit suspended its public broadcast to privately debate the proposed declaration approved by the foreign ministers last week, which condemns the assault and imposes sanctions on Ecuador.
“We strongly condemn” the incursion, Castro said, in a speech in which, like other leaders, he described “barbarism” the police assault on the Mexican embassy on April 5 to arrest former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas.
The ruler of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, advocated that “a villainy” such as the assault on the diplomatic legation not be committed again and proposed that countries accompany his country by “signing the complaint in the International Court of Justice.”
At the meeting The president of Ecuador was not therer, Daniel Noboa, who was represented by Chancellor Gabriela Sommerfeld.
Barbarism can penetrate our piece of continent
Faced with possible divisions over the approval of sanctions and a unanimous condemnation, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, spoke out in favor of not requiring consensus to make decisions in the bloc. Petro said that the assault on the embassy has caused “unrest, even global.” “Barbarism can penetrate our piece of continent,” he warned. “Ecuador has violated the American Convention” because “has violated the right to asylum, the right to due process,” he added.
The shocking operation in Quito to arrest Glas led López Obrador to immediately break diplomatic relations with Ecuador. Nicaragua did it a day later.
For his part, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, expressed that the “violent invasion” of the Mexican embassy “is an unacceptable hostile act that deserves the most categorical rejection.”
Some of the presidents asked to restore Glas's asylum status and for Ecuador to give him safe passage so he can leave the country.
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, proposed creating a commission to review Glas' health status, a topic present in the draft declaration.
The Ecuadorian president declared on Monday of last week that he was willing to “resolve any differences” with Mexico, but warned that “justice is not negotiated.” Throughout this crisis, Noboa has argued that it was Mexico that first violated the red lines of diplomacy by granting asylum to a person against whom there were serious accusations of corruption, and who also had signs of escape.
Glas took refuge in the Mexican embassy in December, before the court issued a prison order for accusations of corruption during his tenure as right-hand man of fugitive former president Rafael Correa.
EFE/AFP
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