Ecuador condemned for its police break-in at Mexican Embassy
QUITO, Ecuador — The global condemnation of Ecuador’s government for its decision to break into the Mexican Embassy snowballed Sunday with more presidents and other leaders expressing disapproval, shock and dismay.
The criticism came as Mexico’s ambassador and other personnel arrived Sunday in Mexico City after departing Ecuador’s capital, Quito, on a commercial flight. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador immediately after Friday’s raid, which international law experts, presidents and diplomats have deemed a violation of long-established international accords.
Alicia Bárcena, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, thanked the returning diplomats “for defending our embassy in Quito even at the risk of their own physical well-being.”
“Not even the dictator Pinochet had dared to enter the Mexican Embassy in Chile. They entered violently and without authorization, physically assaulting (diplomats),” she said in a news conference Sunday. “We energetically condemn it.”
Police broke through the external doors of the embassy to arrest Jorge Glas, a former vice president who had been residing there since December. He sought asylum after being indicted on corruption charges.
Mexico plans to challenge the raid Monday at the World Court in The Hague, Bárcena said, adding that 18 countries in Latin America, 20 in Europe and the Organization of American States have backed Mexico.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said “the United States condemns any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and takes very seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.”
Glas was taken from the attorney general’s office in Quito to the port city of Guayaquil, where he will remain in custody at a maximum-security prison.
An exit poll released after Poland’s local and regional elections Sunday showed Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-EU party trailing the conservative opposition party that governed Poland for eight years until December. But the socially liberal mayor of Warsaw, a Tusk ally, easily won another term in the capital.
Sunday’s elections were the first electoral test for Tusk’s coalition government nearly four months since it took power. Poles voted for mayors, local councilors and representatives to the nation’s 16 regional assemblies.
The exit polls have a small margin of error; final results are not expected until Monday. But they indicated that Law and Justice, the conservative party that governed Poland from 201523, remains a political force to be reckoned with in the nation of 38 million people.
According to the Ipsos exit poll, Law and Justice won 33.7% of votes, and Tusk’s Civic Coalition won 31.9% in elections to the regional assemblies.
Runoff votes will take place April 21 for mayoral candidates who did not win at least 50% of the vote.
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski won nearly 60% of the vote, according to the exit poll. Another Tusk ally, the mayor of Gdansk, also won outright.
Elections in Poland:
The Rev. Dr. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray, an influential pastor and civil rights leader who used his tenure at one of Los Angeles’ oldest churches to uplift the predominantly Black neighborhoods of South Los Angeles after one of the country’s worst race riots, has died. He was 94.
Murray died Friday, according to an announcement from the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. He died of natural causes, his son, Drew Murray, told the Los Angeles Times.
Born in Lakeland, Florida, in 1929, Murray spent 27 years as the pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles. The church was small when he took over. But by the time he retired, it had grown into an 18,000-member mega church.
In 1992, the acquittal of four police officers who were caught on video violently beating Rodney King triggered an explosion of violence in the predominantly
Black LA pastor dies:
Black neighborhoods of South Los Angeles. Murray emerged as a calming presence and was a frequent guest on national television news shows. He used his connections with the city’s political and business leaders to raise money for recovery efforts, including loans for businesses and assistance for people displaced by the violence.
During his time as pastor, First AME became a muststop for prominent politicians, including former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and former California governors Pete Wilson, Gray Davis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Under Murray’s leadership, the church worked to transform the community through a host of programs and initiatives, including job training, support for foster children and developing affordable housing units for low-income families.
After retiring as First AME’s pastor, he joined the faculty at the University of Southern California.
Fur-ever cared for: Feral cats have long wandered the gardens and elegant halls of Mexico’s presidential palace. But 19 felines made history this past week when the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared them to be “living fixed assets.”
The investment term “fixed assets” usually applies to buildings and furniture, but by applying it to cats — the first animals in Mexico to receive the title — López Obrador’s government has obligated the country’s Treasury to give them food and care for them for the rest of their lives, even after the leader leaves office in October.
Staff say they remember feral cats living among the cacti and dense brush of the National Palace’s gardens as far back as 50 years ago.
But it’s unclear when they appeared or how they even got into the building. While 19 live in the building full time, many more come and go, and staff suspect that they slip under a small crack
in the palace gate by night.
Oregon ticket wins Powerball:
A Powerball player in Oregon won a $1.326 billion jackpot Sunday, ending a winless streak that had stretched more than three months.
The ticket — revealed after a delay of more than three hours to the drawing — matched 22-27-44-52-69 and the red Powerball 9.
The Oregon Lottery said the ticket was sold in Portland. The winner has a year to claim the top prize. According to state law, players in Oregon, with few exceptions, cannot remain anonymous.
The jackpot, the eighth largest in U.S. lottery history, has a cash value of $621 million if the winner chooses a lump sum rather than the 30-year annuity.
Previously the largest Powerball prize won in Oregon was $340 million in 2005. The last Powerball jackpot win in Oregon was a $150.4 million prize claimed by a Salem man in 2018.