Mexico withdrew its diplomatic staff and closed its embassy in Quito this Sunday after breaking relations with Ecuador due to the unprecedented police raid on the headquarters to capture former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas . The group of 18 people, made up of officials and their families, moved to the airport accompanied by the ambassadors of Germany, Panama, Cuba and Honduras, who ensured that their integrity was respected, according to the Mexican government. Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena warned that Mexico will go to the International Court of Justice on Monday to denounce Ecuador’s responsibility for violations of international law .
“An outrage that is difficult to measure”
The ambassador of Mexico in Ecuador, Raquel Serur , assured this Sunday that she was returning to Mexico “with her head held high and the satisfaction of having fulfilled her duty.” Serur, an academic and widow of the prominent Ecuadorian-Mexican intellectual Bolívar Echeverría, said in a press conference that Daniel Noboa ‘s government was wrong to order the assault on the Mexican embassy.
” The abuse committed against our embassy is of such magnitude that the current government of Ecuador still cannot measure what it did to its people , who do not deserve the government they currently have,” said Serur, who returned to Mexico with a contingent of 18 people. Mexican citizens traveled on a commercial airline after sending a military plane was ruled out due to tensions.
The departure of the diplomats occurs after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared the breakdown of relations due to the entry of police into the embassy, an event never seen in the world that was condemned by Latin American countries and also by the United States. Nicaragua emulated Mexico and on Saturday also broke relations with Ecuador. The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, announced that he summoned his ambassador to Ecuador, Segundina Flores.
Claim before the ICJ
The Mexican Foreign Minister, Alicia Bárcena, said this Sunday that her country will go to international organizations to condemn the actions of the government of Ecuador. “Starting tomorrow (Monday) we will be going to the International Court of Justice, where we will be presenting this sad case and of course we will go to all the corresponding regional and international multilateral forums so that this is truly condemned by the entire international community,” Bárcena said.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Mexican government thanked the international community for its solidarity and noted that at least 18 Latin American countries and 10 European countries expressed their support, as well as the United States and Canada. The police raid on the embassy was also condemned by the European Union, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations.
Bárcena stressed that Mexico will not request that Ecuadorian diplomats leave the country and the security of its embassy will be guaranteed, outside of which dozens of protesters gathered. The chancellor was accompanied at the airport by ambassador Raquel Serur and the head of mission, Roberto Canseco, who appeared with a neck brace after being attacked by police officers. The diplomat, who tried to prevent the assault, stressed the need to sanction what happened to “discourage these actions from being taken in the future.”
Tensions between Noboa and AMLO
Jorge Glas, accused of corruption and vice president in the government of Rafael Correa (2013-2018), had taken refuge in the Mexican diplomatic headquarters since December, alleging political persecution. The diplomatic crisis began last Wednesday when López Obrador raised a parallel between the violence that marked the 2023 Ecuadorian presidential campaign , during which candidate Fernando Villavicencio was murdered, and the crime that is being recorded in Mexico ahead of the elections on 2 of June.
According to the Mexican president, the Villavicencio crime created a “rarefied atmosphere of violence” that caused the fall in the polls of the Correista candidate Luisa González and the rise of Daniel Noboa, who was the winner. Quito declared the Mexican ambassador persona “non grata” on Thursday , to which López Obrador responded on Friday by granting asylum to Glas.
Noboa called this protection “illicit” and defended the operation, alleging an “abuse of the immunities and privileges” granted to the diplomatic mission. On Saturday, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld justified the action on the grounds that there was “a real risk of imminent escape” by Glas. Mexico , which for a century received politically persecuted people from different countries, claimed that the right to asylum is “sacred” and denounced the assault on its embassy as “a “flagrant violation of international law” and its “sovereignty.”
Arrested in “The Rock”
Glas , 54, was transferred on Saturday to a maximum security prison in Guayaquil known as “The Rock,” according to government sources. Former President Correa, exiled in Belgium since 2017 and sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison for corruption, described the events on Saturday in his X account as “madness” and maintained that Glas “has difficulty walking because he was beaten.” .
Mexico announced that the embassy will remain closed indefinitely and that its approximately 1,600 citizens residing in Ecuador will be able to be assisted through a network of the agency or in Mexican embassies in neighboring countries. Mexico and Ecuador established diplomatic relations in 1830.
Ecuador was currently seeking a visa-free agreement and was negotiating its entry into the Pacific Alliance with Mexico. Mexico had only rotated relations with the Spain of Francisco Franco, the Chile of Augusto Pinochet and the Nicaragua of Anastasio Somoza.
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