ANDunited states this Tuesday condemned “the use of force against embassy officials” of Mexico in Ecuadorr, after the president's claim Andrés Manuel López Obrador for his initially lukewarm reaction to the assault that led him to break relations with Quito.
Just a few hours after the criticism of the leftist president, the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan condemned this violation of the Vienna Convention of 1961 on the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters.
According to Sullivan, “the Ecuadorian government ignored its obligations under international law as a host state to respect” that principle and “jeopardized the foundations of basic diplomatic norms and relations.”
In his usual press conference this Tuesday, Lopez Obrador considered the statements of the United States and Canada “ambiguous”, while presenting unpublished images of the police raid to capture the exiled Ecuadorian former vice president Jorge Glas, accused of corruption.
In that video you can see how police with long weapons point at the diplomat Roberto Canseco and drag him by the neck last Friday night. Also, the moment in which they are carried out glass lifted up and apparently handcuffed.
“We have reviewed the images from the security cameras of the Mexican embassy and we believe that these actions have been a mistake,” Sullivan said.
Initially, The State Department condemned “any violation” of the Vienna Convention and called on Mexico and Ecuador to resolve their differences “jointly.”
'We fear for his life'
Amlo, as the Mexican president is known by the initials of his name, called this statement and that of Canada – which referred to the “apparent” violation of diplomatic immunity – “ambiguous” and said that a direct reaction was missing. from his American counterpart, Joe Biden.
For this reason, he had urged both countries – his partners in the powerful USMCA trade bloc – to “speak openly”, ruling out that this situation could affect relations.
But if this “violation” is not denounced and if international treaties are not “respected,” “respect for sovereignty disappears, it is now the law of the strongest,” he warned.
Meanwhile, Glas, 54, returned to a high-security prison in Guayaquil (southwest) on Tuesday after being hospitalized on Monday due to a decompensation he suffered after refusing to eat for 24 hours, according to Ecuadorian authorities.
His capture, hours after receiving political asylum, led Mexico to break relations with Ecuador and announce a lawsuit against the South American country before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The police raid was condemned by thirty countries and seven world and regional organizations such as United Nations and the Organization of American Stateswhere the issue was discussed this Tuesday at the request of Ecuador, which considers Glas's asylum illegal because he is accused of a common crime.
Quito also justified the assault due to an “imminent risk” of the former dignitary's escape.
Glas' lawyers claim that they had not been able to see him because he remains isolated.
“We fear for his life,” said Spanish MEP Manu Pineda on Tuesday at a press conference in the European Parliament alongside former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, of whom Glas was vice president.
The former president (2007-2017), also convicted of corruption and exiled in Belgium, called for a “strong response” from the international community, even proposing the withdrawal of European Union ambassadors from Ecuador.
Celac meeting
López Obrador presented for the first time images of the interior of the embassy during the raid.
In the video, the police are seen entering abruptly – one of them after climbing a wall – with long weapons and shields, after which another agent points gun at Canseco in the library.
Later the diplomat is seen struggling with the agents who drag him by the neck. Canseco gets up and continues resisting the police as they leave the diplomatic headquarters, outside which he confronts them again until he is brought to his knees.
The crisis was addressed this Tuesday in a meeting of representatives of Colombia, Honduras and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, coordinators of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac).
“Mexico urges the member states of Celac to endorse the claim” before the ICJ, Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena requested at that meeting.
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