Latin America has a long tradition of granting asylum, so the bizarre images of Ecuadorian law enforcement officers forcing their way inside the Mexican embassy in Quito on the evening of Friday, April 5, sparked a public outcry. The police removed former Ecuadorian vice-president Jorge Glas, who had been living in exile in the embassy since December 2023. Wanted by his country's justice system, he had requested and obtained political asylum in Mexico a few hours before his arrest.
Denouncing a "flagrant violation of international law and Mexico's sovereignty," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – known as AMLO – subsequently broke off his country's diplomatic relations with Ecuador. Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, followed suit and did the same "out of solidarity." Mexico's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Barcena, announced that Mexico would take the case to the International Court of Justice. The images of Mexican consul Roberto Canseco being beaten and thrown to the ground by a police officer shocked the country.
The Mexican diplomats returned to their country on Sunday, accompanied at Quito airport by the German, Panamanian, Cuban and Honduran ambassadors. "Our diplomatic staff are leaving everything behind in Ecuador and returning home with their heads held high. Even the dictator [Augusto] Pinochet didn't dare enter the Mexican embassy in Chile," Alicia Barcena told a press conference on Sunday, surrounded by her diplomatic staff, whom she hugged for a long time. She added that 18 Latin American countries and 20 European countries supported Mexico.
Left-leaning Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Venezuela immediately condemned the Ecuadorian police operation and the violation of international law. The Organization of American States (OAS), the UN and almost every country on the continent followed suit. The Secretary General of the OAS, Uruguay's Luis Almagro, recalled that "States cannot invoke internal norms to justify non-compliance with their international obligations." United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was "alarmed" by the raid, his spokesperson said.
The United States and Javier Milei's Argentina, close allies of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, also denounced the violation of the Vienna Convention on the immunity of diplomatic personnel and the inviolability of embassies. Six Venezuelan opponents have been taking refuge in the Argentinean embassy in Caracas since the end of March. Buenos Aires has been trying to obtain their safe passage.
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