Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced Friday the suspension of diplomatic ties with Ecuador following the forcible entry of Ecuadorian police into the Mexican embassy in Quito and the next arrest of the previous vice chairman of Ecuador Jorge Glas. These occasions occurred someday after the Ecuadorian authorities determined to expel the Mexican ambassador Raquel Serur in response to statements made by López Obrador on Wednesday.
Via his X account (previously Twitter), López Obrador strongly denounced the Ecuadorian police’s intrusion into the Mexican embassy in Quito and the next detention of Glas, who had been on the Mexican Embassy in Quito since December 17, 2023, and had lately been granted political asylum by the Mexican authorities. On this regard, López Obrador acknowledged that the invasion of the Mexican embassy was “a flagrant violation of worldwide legislation and the sovereignty of the State of Mexico.”
The Nationwide Courtroom of Justice of Ecuador issued an arrest warrant for Glas, who served as vice chairman of Ecuador from 2013 to 2018 and was beforehand convicted of the crimes of illicit affiliation and bribery, in a case of embezzlement (delito de peculado). On this regard, his lawyer, Eduardo Franco Loor, identified that there was political persecution towards Glas since 2017. He went on to say that the Lawyer Common’s Workplace supposed to prosecute and imprison him, regardless of him being harmless.
In an official assertion launched Friday, the Ministry of Overseas Affairs of Ecuador stated that it offered Mexico’s embassy with data relating to the conviction of Glas and the arrest warrant issued towards him. The ministry claimed that diplomatic asylum for Glas was not licensed by the provisions of Article III of the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and Article 1 of the 1933 Convention on Political Asylum. These articles stipulate that it isn’t lawful to grant asylum to individuals who’ve been convicted or are being prosecuted for widespread crimes by competent extraordinary courts.
Ecuador’s Minister of Overseas Affairs Gabriela Sommerfeld stated throughout a Saturday press convention held that the Ecuadorian authorities determined to forcibly enter the Mexican embassy as a result of it was conscious of the upcoming threat of Glas fleeing the nation. As well as, Sommerfeld described as “unlucky” and “opposite to the precept of non-interference within the inner affairs of different states” statements made on Wednesday by López Obrador, commenting on how the assassination of former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio affected the outcomes of Ecuador’s 2023 presidential election. Because of these statements, the Ecuadorian authorities decided, invoking Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961), to declare the Mexican ambassador in Quito persona non grata.
In response, the Common Secretariat of the Group of American States (OAS) issued a press launch on Saturday, expressing its rejection of any motion that violates or endangers the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions. The OAS’ Common Secretariat expressed its solidarity with “those that have been victims of the inappropriate actions that affected the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador.” Additionally they referred to as for dialogue between Ecuador and Mexico and deemed it essential to convene a gathering of the Everlasting Council of the OAS to deal with the problem.
The governments of a number of nations, corresponding to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela additionally strongly condemned the forcible entry of the Ecuadorian police into the Mexican embassy in Quito.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
