Jorge Glas Espinel, Ex-Vice President of Ecuador, was accused of corruption and embezzlement of government funds intended for the reconstruction after the 2016 earthquake. After Glas was convicted of corruption for a second time, he requested political asylum from the Mexican Government. He was granted asylum and taken in as a refugee by the Mexican Embassy on Dec. 17, 2023 under political asylum until he was hospitalized on Apr. 5, 2024.
The Ecuadorian Government was not happy with the intervention of the Mexican Government due to the high profile of the case. After countless debates, the Mexican Government stood strong against the efforts to remove Glas from their custody.
On the evening of Apr. 5, 2024, on orders from Ecuador’s President, Daniel Noboa, the Ecuadorian military invaded the Mexican Embassy in Quito, the capital city of Ecuador. This invasion was an attempt on behalf of the Ecuadorian authorities to extract Glas, violating multiple international norms. Now Noboa is being accused of poor management of foreign affairs.
The raid of the embassy is in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. This law prevents the search and seizure of embassies by the homeland’s government, granted that the embassy belongs to the country it represents, not the host country. Ecuador violated its obligations of peaceful settlement established by Chapter VI of the United Nations Charter.
After the attack on the embassy, Glas was admitted to the hospital, then transferred from Quito to the city of Guayaquil. There he was placed in the maximum security prison, La Roca.
Andres Manual Lopes Obrador, the Mexican President, announced that the country will be cutting all political ties to Ecuador. Along with this, Mexico is taking some preventive measures to further ensure the safety of their country. This includes a report filed to the International Court of Justice, who is in charge of settling international disputes, and ordering for the immediate suspension of Ecuador as a member of the United Nations, an organization in charge of maintaining international peace and security.
On Monday Apr. 15, 2024, the National Court of Justice of Ecuador came to a consensus after a 12 hour trial and decided that Jorge Glas must remain under arrest in custody of the Ecuadorian government. In the hearing Glas announced that he will be reaching out to the German consulate to discuss the possibility of exercising his rights using his dual citizenship.
You may be asking yourself, how does this impact the rest of the world? This has multiple economic and trading consequences.
One of the most pivotal consequences of the alliance’s end, is the imbalance it will cause within the World Bank, a financial and technical assistance fund for developing countries across the world. This is reason enough for a resolution due to the number of countries involved.
According to Hugo Vela, Mexican journalist and internationalist, “the de facto commercial relationship is not going to end.” Many analysts believe this does not shut down the entire trade operation between Ecuador and Mexico, rather a momentary pause until both parties come to a resolution.
In solidarity with Mexico, on Apr. 16, 2024 President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro announced that the Venezuelan Embassy and consulates will be shut down. Not far behind, President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, announced that the Honduruian Embassy would also be shutting down.
The actions taken and the severance of diplomatic alliances are measures to promote the respect of international law. There is hope in the restoration of the two countries alliance in the future but as of now we must wait to see the situation further develop.
