Ecuador has recovered the vote in the United Nations General Assembly that it had lost due to maintaining a debt of around 11.7 million dollars that it has carried since 2016. “It is another of the inherited debts,” said Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld. The country had to make a minimum payment of 1.9 million dollars to get off the list of defaulters and regain the power to cast its vote. A right that was lost in the General Assembly that was convened in an emergency at the beginning of May, when the members resolved to reinforce the participation rights of Palestine within the organization and asked the Security Council where Ecuador is one of the ten non-permanent countries since December 2023, and hopes to be accepted as a member. At that time, the Ecuadorian representative could not vote. It is not a minor issue, explains Esteban Santos, international lawyer. “A country always wants to sell itself to the world as a serious, stable, attractive nation for investments, and it is difficult to do so when we cannot even sit at the table of all the countries,” he adds.
The complex economic situation in Ecuador did not allow the payment to be made immediately. The country must solve an internal debt of nearly 30 billion dollars, which includes municipalities and State providers who, in cases such as the health sector, have been waiting for months for payment from the Government for the services they have provided. But the United Nations organization was a priority for the Government. On May 22, Ecuador’s minimum payment was registered that allowed it to recover the vote and get off the list of defaulting countries that include Afghanistan, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia and Venezuela. “We are going to pay in installments,” added the Ecuadorian chancellor, without specifying a schedule. The economic obligations began in the Government of Rafael Correa. The debt began to accumulate in the administration of Lenin Moreno and Guillermo Lasso, who ordered a payment at the end of 2022.
The General Assembly is the main body of the United Nations, which is made up of 193 nations that have equal voting representation. In article 19 of the UN Charter, it specifies that the member country that is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions for the expenses of the organization will not have a vote in the General Assembly. “When the amount owed is equal to or greater than the total of the installments owed for the two full previous years,” the document specifies. The country’s debt corresponds to the quotas for the regular budget of the UN, as well as the contribution to international courts, where Ecuador has been sued by Mexico for violation of international law by forcibly entering its Embassy in Quito to capture the former vice president Jorge Glas, who had taken refuge in the diplomatic house since mid-December. Therefore, being in default and losing the right to vote in the organization is not the best scenario for the country that has been condemned by the international community after the presidential decision to attack the Mexican legation.
Furthermore, Mexico has asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague that Ecuador be suspended as a member of the UN until it issues a public apology, and recognizes the violations of the fundamental principles and norms of international law, and in this way, guarantee reparation for moral damage. But Ecuador’s defense at the ICJ has supported President Noboa’s decision to have entered the embassy to avoid impunity in the country. The argument is that Glas has two convictions for corruption sentenced by the national justice system and another judicial process underway.
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