Mexico to take Ecuador embassy raid to international court

MEXICO, April 8 — Mexico said it will file a complaint against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice today following the raid on its embassy in Quito, which prompted searing international condemnation.

Mexican diplomatic personnel left Ecuador yesterday as the two countries severed ties after Quito’s security forces stormed the embassy late Friday to arrest a former vice president sheltering inside.

“Starting tomorrow we are going to the ICJ where we are presenting this sad case,” Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said at an event to welcome the diplomats home.

“We believe that we can win this case quickly,” she added.

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Spain and the European Union joined the United Nations chief and Latin American countries in criticising Quito for the raid, which it carried out to capture former Ecuadoran vice president Jorge Glas.

Glas sought refuge there last December after an arrest warrant was issued against him for alleged corruption.

On Friday, Mexico granted Glas political asylum, in a move that Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government branded an “illicit act.”

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That came a day after Ecuador ordered the Mexican ambassador out of the country in response to comments from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that irked Quito.

Late Friday, Ecuadoran special forces equipped with a battering ram surrounded the embassy, and at least one agent scaled the walls, in an almost unheard-of raid on diplomatic premises, which are considered inviolable sovereign territory.

‘Flagrant violation’

Diplomatic personnel and their families left Ecuador yesterday and returned to Mexico on a commercial airline, after a military plane was ruled out due to the soaring tensions.

The officials and their families were accompanied to Quito airport by the ambassadors of Germany, Panama, Cuba and Honduras, as well as the president of the Ecuador-Mexico Chamber, according to the Mexican foreign ministry.

Lopez Obrador has called the raid a flagrant violation of his country’s sovereignty.

Mexico has also denounced physical violence against head of mission Roberto Canseco, who was pushed to the ground by officers while trying to prevent the invasion.

“How is it possible, it can’t be. This is crazy!” a shaken Canseco told local television after the raid.

Condemnation has poured in from regional governments across the political spectrum, including Nicaragua, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Peru and Venezuela.

Bolivian President Luis Arce said his government had recalled its ambassador to Ecuador in a show of support for Mexico, and summoned the Ecuadoran envoy in his country for an explanation.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “alarmed” by the raid, while Spain, Germany and the European Union issued statements condemning it as a violation of the Vienna Convention.

The 1961 convention, a treaty governing international relations, states that a country cannot intrude upon an embassy on its territory.

“Protecting the integrity of diplomatic missions and their personnel is essential to preserve stability and international order, promoting cooperation and trust between nations,” the EU statement said.

Tensions had flared on Wednesday after Lopez Obrador drew a comparison between 2023 election violence in Ecuador, in which candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered, and crime in Mexico ahead of the June 2 legislative and presidential elections.

The Ecuadoran government criticized his comments as offensive and said the country was still in “mourning” for Villavicencio, a fierce opponent of corruption. — AFP