The purpose of the invasion (I use that word with absolute responsibility) of the National Police of Ecuador to the Mexican embassy, in Quito, was the arrest of Jorge Glas, former vice president of that country until 2018 and accused by the State Attorney General's Office. for various positions (this will be important later).
The cost associated with the illegal Ecuadorian invasion is the violation of two international norms. By attacking the embassy, Ecuador violated the inviolability of the Mexican diplomatic premises, as well as the historical right of asylum. A move as illegal as it is thankless.
So much for the incontrovertible facts.
The first norm broken—the inviolability of embassies—is found in Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. This provision establishes, with pristine clarity, that Ecuadorian agents cannot enter the premises without the consent of the ambassador. Historically, this principle has meant treating embassies as extensions of the territory of the countries they represent. Mexico in Quito.
The second rule broken—known as right of asylum— has its origin in the Convention on Diplomatic Asylum adopted in Caracas in 1954. This right corresponds to the States, not to the asylum seekers: it is the right of the Mexican State to grant asylum to Jorge Glas.
Mexico is fully aware of this right and has exercised it with enthusiasm and, at times, perhaps excessively. In our country, asylum for political refugees is a historical tradition and leitmotiv. What began with José Martí, continued with Trotsky, the Allende family, Rigoberta Menchú, Manuel Zelaya, Evo Morales and, more recently, with the family of Pedro Castillo.
Today's newspaper would not be enough to list the names of our historical refugees. Why then yes and not today? What's different now?
Ecuador's argument to justify the assault is misleading and short-sighted. It highlights that the Caracas Convention prohibits granting asylum to people prosecuted for common crimes. Up to this point, the premise is true: Jorge Glas is persecuted by multiple criminal cases.
Then comes deception or forgetfulness. It seems that the Ecuadorian legal department did not finish reading a very short Convention of just four pages. If they had done so, they would know that asylum is appropriate when it is motivated by political events and that it is Mexico, exclusively, that can qualify it as such. The right to arbitrariness belonged to us. Furthermore, they would have noted that even in the extreme case that Mexico had granted asylum to an ineligible person, the appropriate thing to do was to invite them to leave the premises. It was not the case. They broke in by force.
Ecuador has not only read the Caracas Convention at convenience, it has also incurred a profound historical contradiction (irony, they call it). Wasn't it the leftist government of Rafael Correa that granted Julian Assange asylum in his embassy in London for seven years? At that time, the founder of WikiLeaks He was accused of espionage by the United States Government and of rape and sexual harassment in Sweden. The State of Ecuador was, during that period, the great defender of the Caracas Convention. Today, he aspires to be his gravedigger.
At that time, although a 1987 law empowered the United Kingdom government to withdraw recognition of diplomatic facilities to arrest Assange, it preferred not to do so. Precedents and international law matter.
The consequences of the Ecuadorian assault have begun and will continue in time and scope. The event will not leave a bad taste in your mouth. We have broken relations with Ecuador — which has happened before with countries like Spain, Chile, Nicaragua and Guatemala in their darkest moments. Furthermore, we will go (the plural is not figurative) to the International Court of Justice to denounce the facts and trigger convictions.
To finish, a poem. In the darkest times of polarization and dismemberment of public opinion in Mexico, some of the most obfuscated opponents have acted sensibly and farsightedly. Fierce detractors have come out to publicly denounce the Ecuadorian atrocity, even if that means a boost to their eternal enemy: Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
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