Mexico rules out resuming relations with Ecuador and has taken another step in that direction. The Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has closed an agreement with Switzerland for that country to act as diplomatic representative of Mexican citizens and exercise consular functions in Quito, after the breakdown of relations between both countries due to the violent assault on the Embassy ordered in April by President Daniel Noboa to capture former Vice President Jorge Glas. The North American country had already requested Swiss assistance to protect its facilities, which were abandoned after the abrupt departure of the 18 diplomats.
The Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, took advantage of her participation in the peace summit in Ukraine to close the agreement with her Swiss counterpart, Ignazio Cassis. Both signed the document last Saturday to “safeguard Mexico’s interests in Ecuador,” according to what the Mexican chancellor wrote on the social network International Court of Justice the physical protection of the files and assets that remained in the Embassy. Switzerland will exercise consular representation in Quito for Mexicans. The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry confirmed that both nations will maintain “mirror agreements” with Switzerland as a diplomatic channel and support in consular services, without giving more details about what these “mirror agreements” contemplate.
Ecuador had initially turned to the Government of Peru for a similar agreement, requesting to be its consular representative in Mexico after the closure of offices in Mexico City and Monterrey. The breakdown of relations has left its effects felt on the thousands of Ecuadorians who are in the North American country. Around 115,000 Ecuadorians have crossed Mexican territory irregularly since 2022, according to local authorities, expelled by violence and the economic crisis in Ecuador.
Mexico’s latest decisions lead to an increasingly distant path toward reestablishing diplomatic relations with Ecuador. The winner of the electoral elections, Claudia Sheinbaum, has reaffirmed that position. “What Ecuador did with Mexico is not minor, so it is not a matter of sitting down and talking,” said Sheinbaum in a press conference, in which he reiterated the demands included in the Mexican argument presented before the highest court of the United Nations. .
“They have to take the step, the public apology, what the lawsuit is asking for and also the recognition of the right to asylum,” Sheinbaum added. In Ecuador, the authorities do not refer to this matter. A public apology seems not to be on the table of the Government of Daniel Noboa, who saw the resolution of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Mexico on the provisional measures that he had requested as a victory. Among the demands was providing protection and security to the diplomatic residence and the archives inside. In addition to clearing the legation and private residence of diplomatic agents.
The Government of Mexico awaits the ruling of the ICJ on this unprecedented case in which they sue Ecuador for violating the agreements of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which enshrines the inviolability of embassies and also the right to asylum. Ecuador insists that the asylum that López Obrador granted to Glas was illegal because he is a person who has two sentences for corruption. The presidential decision was ratified by a Court of the National Court of Justice of Ecuador, which said that the detention of the former vice president was not illegal or arbitrary, because it occurred under the state of emergency that restricted rights such as the inviolability of the home.
At the beginning of April, an elite group of the Ecuadorian Police scaled the walls of the Mexican Embassy to force their way in and arrest Glas. The head of the diplomatic mission, Roberto Canseco, tried to prevent the entry of the uniformed men who pointed weapons at him. Two days later, the 18 diplomatic members suddenly left Ecuador. Bárcena has made it clear that Swiss mediation does not mean the beginning of a diplomatic dialogue to which she has slammed the door again on Ecuador.
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