The protest at the Ecuadorian Embassy in Mexico City: from the “terrorist Noboa” to “not falling into provocations”

In Mexico City, the Ecuadorian Embassy has not had a representative since September 2023. The only person who was at the headquarters this Saturday was the person in charge of maintaining the headquarters. In the morning he removed one by one the photographs of Ecuadorian landscapes that decorated the exterior of the building. At four o'clock there was a demonstration called outside the diplomatic headquarters against the assault on the Mexican Embassy in Quito. The response in Mexico has been a peaceful protest that has attracted about 100 people who rejected the “total aggression” against Mexico by the Government of Daniel Noboa. The proclamations called him “fascist” and “terrorist.” Hours before, the Mexican Government had sent a message for people not to go to the Embassy so as not to fall into “provocations.”

The demonstration has attracted numerous people who have passed a loudspeaker that most of the time reproduced proclamations directed towards the Ecuadorian president. Attendees have pointed this out for the arrest at the Mexican Embassy in Quito of former Vice President Jorge Glas. The former right-hand man of presidents Rafael Correa and Lenin Moreno (2013-2018), who has two corruption convictions in the South American country, has been supported by Protestants. “Thank you to the diplomatic corps that put their physical integrity to try to stop this harassment and persecution against former vice president Jorge Glas,” journalist Alina Duarte has claimed.

Only requests came from the loudspeaker that it be a peaceful demonstration. However, one of the protesters, after graffitiing the proclamation “Corrupt Noboa” on the ground, threw two glass bottles at the fences that protected the Ecuadorian headquarters. Paradoxically, while on Friday the Ecuadorian police forcibly entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito, this Saturday in Mexico City the building has been guarded by more than 50 agents from the Secretariat of Citizen Security of the capital. At no time have they had to act against the protesters.

The Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, Luisa Alcalde, called through social networks for people to avoid going to the protests in front of the Ecuadorian diplomatic headquarters. “We make a respectful call not to go to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Mexico today to avoid acts of provocation or violence,” she announced on her X account —formerly Twitter—. An hour later, the president also called for calm. “We respect the brother people of that country and we ask our fellow citizens to behave with great caution to evade harassment and not fall into any provocation,” López Obrador launched in his official accounts. “We are here peacefully defending our national sovereignty,” said a young man at the top of his voice.

Eduardo Pérez drove 20 minutes from Satélite, in the State of Mexico, to attend the demonstration. The night before he saw on television the images of the Ecuadorian police entering the Mexican Embassy in Quito. “What they did is not the fault of the Ecuadorian people, it is the fault of the governments. But regardless of whether they are accepted or not, there are ways of doing things,” thinks the 63-year-old engineer. The man believes that the assault on the Embassy is a “total aggression” against Mexico. “We don't come to fight. I don't know why there are so many police. We only come to demonstrate and tell you that Mexico is standing,” he reasons. Next to him, a boy with a military pose who does not want to give his name, looking straight at the building, points out in a harsh tone that he wants “them to leave the country.”

The last ambassador, Francisco Carrión Mesa, resigned in September of last year. He was appointed in October 2021 by the previous president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso. After Carrión's resignation, neither the previous president nor Noboa appointed a new ambassador. Currently, the South American country only has representation from one chargé d'affaires, Luis Gustavo Espinosa, who was not in the Ecuadorian building this Saturday. The capital police verified that there were no diplomatic personnel inside the premises. Only the Mexican employee from the headquarters maintenance was there, as the agents have explained to this medium.

The tense relationship between Mexico and Ecuador was precipitated after several police officers attacked the embassy of the North American country in Quito on Friday night to arrest Jorge Glas. Hours earlier, the former vice president, who had been in the Mexican headquarters since December, had received political asylum from the Government of Mexico and was trying to seek safe passage to leave Ecuador. Noboa rejected him and ordered his capture, which materialized abruptly. Glas was immediately transferred to the maximum security prison of La Roca, in Guayaquil.

The Mexican president immediately announced a break in relations with Ecuador. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico, which is why I have instructed our chancellor to issue a statement regarding this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government.” from Ecuador,” he published on his social networks. The Mexican Executive has insisted that it will file a complaint before the International Court of Justice for what they consider a serious violation of international law.

In this Saturday's demonstration, not only the Ecuadorian Government has been singled out. The protest has also targeted the United States, which has so far not condemned the attack. The Organization of American States (OAS), to which the North American country also belongs, has done so. “The General Secretariat rejects any action that violates or puts at risk the inviolability of the premises in diplomatic missions,” the institution said in a statement. At the same time, several Latin American states have given their support to the Mexican Government for what they consider to be a violation of the 1963 Vienna Treaty, in which embassies and consulates are considered the territory of the country they represent in another nation.

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