Ecuador's Invasion of Mexican Embassy Has Greater Implications

[Judi Lynn]

Rules of behavior, in place since World War II, are being destabilized.

BY JEFF ABBOTT APRIL 13, 2024 8:00 AM

Mexico has severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador after heavily armed police raided the country’s embassy, in a direct violation of international norms. Late in the evening on April 7, police entered the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador’s capital, to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had requested political asylum in the embassy.

“No government has the right to enter an embassy in the way that occurred in Ecuador,” Mariana Aparicio, an expert on foreign relations and professor at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, or UNAM, tells The Progressive. “It seems to me that it is a very dangerous precedent, not only for the region, but for the world.”

The raid of the Mexican embassy has been condemned by governments across Latin America and in the international community.

Glas had served as vice president between 2013 to 2017. His term ended when he was convicted of acts of corruption in 2017 and sentenced to serve six years in prison. He sought political asylum after being released, citing political persecution. He has resided in the embassy since December 2023.

“Asylum rights exist,” Aparicio says. “At no point in history, at least in the twentieth century has a government dared to invade an embassy in order to extract a person, as has occurred in Ecuador.”

More:
https://progressive.org/latest/ecuador-invasion-of-mexican-embassy-has-greater-implications-abbott-20240412/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Ironically, Ecuador sheltered Assange in its embassy. "Do as I say, not as I do" comes to mind. . . . nt