the president takes advantage of the state of emergency to settle scores and force the doors of the Mexican embassy

Ecuadorian authorities entered the Mexican embassy this weekend to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice-president, already convicted in 2017 for corruption.

This rare police operation contrary to international law caused the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico. It aimed to arrest Jorge Glas, vice-president of the country, from 2013 to 2017, already convicted of corruption in 2017 and who was the subject of an arrest warrant, for alleged corruption, upon his release from prison in November 2023.

Jorge Glas then tried to escape by obtaining political asylum at the Mexican embassy in Quito on Friday April 5, 2024. A few hours later, he was exfiltrated, manu militari, and the Ecuadorian authorities clearly spared no one, as evidenced by the reaction of the head of the Mexican diplomatic mission. “All this is contrary to international law, it’s very serious! They hit me”he declared, kneeling in front of the embassy and hounded by television cameras.

The violation of an embassy is an extremely rare act and what is even more rare is that it is committed by the representative forces of the receiving state, in this case, the Ecuadorian police. The last case of an embassy invasion dates back to 2011, when Iranian protesters entered the premises of the British embassy in Tehran. However, it is difficult to find traces of a violation of this type in history. The UN spokesperson also said “alarm” of this Ecuadorian raid against the Mexican embassy and the European Union and many Latin American states immediately condemned it.

An abuse of power for several South American countries

The left-wing governments of Brazil, Venezuela, Chile and Bolivia see this method as an abuse of power and a settling of political scores. It should be remembered that the government of Daniel Noboa declared a state of emergency and declared Ecuador in a situation of internal conflict to fight against drug trafficking gangs.

This coup proves that the Ecuadorian right is slipping and this is what Rafael Correa, a political refugee in Belgium, who worked with Jorge Glas, says. “It’s obvious that this situation of ‘internal conflict’ has been taken advantage of to settle other issues. No drug trafficker, no mafia leader is in prison, it’s a pure fiction! The right has always done that. She creates fear to scare people, so they don’t think anymore and she can manipulate them. Violating a foreign embassy is like invading a country. It’s a casus belli, a reason for war .”

Rafael Correa goes a little far, since the Vienna Convention does not recognize the violation of an embassy as a reason for war. Obviously, she forbids it and requires “repair”, vis-à-vis the attacked State. Mexico has decided to refer the matter to the International Court of Justice and everything indicates that the Ecuador of Noboa, in a state of emergency, is moving further and further away from the rules imposed by international law every day.