Mexico seeks UN ruling against embassy raid by Ecuador to ‘fight cartels’
Mexico will bring a formal complaint against Ecuador before the United Nations amid a spiral in relations after Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy there to arrest a top politician who had sought asylum.
After Mexico’s diplomatic staff in Ecuador returned home on Sunday, Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Barcena said the government of Ecuador had violated international agreements by raiding the embassy in Quito and arresting former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas.
“The entry with was force, with great violence, and of course without authorisation,” Barcena said at a press conference at Mexico City’s international airport. “It’s something that has never happened before in the history of Mexico.”
Mexico will bring a complaint to the UN General Assembly and to the International Court of Justice, Barcena said.
The country has broken off diplomatic ties to Ecuador and, in addition to calling back its diplomatic staff, will also halt conversations over trade.
Officials will also reconsider a programme that provides a stipend for Ecuadorians in Mexico to return home as part of a jobs plan to reduce migration in Latin America ahead of elections in both Mexico and the US this year.
Mexico has accused Ecuador of violating the Vienna Convention, which forbids entry without permission into a diplomatic space in another country.
Ecuadorian judicial authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Glas following his sentencing for graft, and he sought shelter at the Mexican embassy where he was granted political asylum.
Ecuador’s presidential office accused Mexico of granting asylum “contrary to the conventional legal framework” and abusing the privileges of a diplomatic mission.
Meanwhile, Ecuador’s government was rebuked across Latin America for breaching of diplomatic protocol that President Daniel Noboa linked to his fight against criminal gangs and cartels.
Governments including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Honduras denounced the embassy storming, while Nicaragua’s government accused Ecuador of “neofascist political barbarism” and said it is also cutting diplomatic relations.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said it “takes very seriously the obligations of host countries under international law” to respect diplomatic missions and called on the two countries to resolve their differences.