Latin America | Mexico plans to take the embassy raid to the International Court of Justice

Mexico plans to appeal the raid on its embassy to the International Court of Justice on Monday.

“We believe we will win the case,” Mexico's foreign minister Alicia Barcena said.

Ecuadorian police conducted a highly unusual raid on the Mexican embassy in Ecuador's capital, Quito, on Friday. Among others, Spain, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, the EU, and the leadership of the UN have criticized the Quito raid.

Ecuador's special forces took part in the raid, which also included a wall breaker.

Several members of the embassy's staff were injured in a heavy-handed raid aimed at arresting Ecuador's former vice president Jorge Glas. He acted as a leftist Rafael Correa as vice president in 2013–2017.

Correa has been sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption. Glas, on the other hand, previously spent years in prison due to a corruption conviction, but was released from prison in November.

Mexico has also been judged by the head of mission Roberto Canseco the violence used against. Canseco tried to stop the Ecuadorian troops from entering the mission, but was violently knocked to the ground.

“How is this possible, this cannot be. This is sheer madness,” Canseco told a local television station after the raid.

Mexico had granted Glas asylum after Ecuador issued an arrest warrant for him on corruption charges. Glas has denied the charges. Ecuador responded to Mexico's asylum decision by calling it an illegal act.

Several South American countries have severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador as a result of the raid. The raid is considered a brazen violation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. According to the agreement, no state may invade the territory of a mission on its soil.

Mexican diplomats and their families flew out of Ecuador on a civilian flight on Sunday, as the use of a military plane was seen as impossible amid strained relations.