Mexico has appealed to the International Court of Justice to expel Ecuador from the United Nations, following a nighttime police raid on its embassy in Quito.
President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said Mexico filed a complaint with the court on Thursday, calling Ecuador’s actions a violation of international law.
“The court, according to the United Nations Charter, should approve the expulsion and there should be no veto,” López Obrador said at a press conference.
On social media, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena repeated the president’s statement, saying that Ecuador should be held responsible “for the flagrant violation of the inviolability of our embassy and the attacks on our personnel.”
“The letter and spirit of international law are the guide for our steps,” she wrote.
The Mexico case centers on a controversial police operation that resulted in the capture of former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, who was taking refuge in the Mexican embassy in Quito to avoid arrest.
Embassies are considered protected spaces. Although they are not “foreign soil” – a common misconception – international law places them outside the bounds of local police.
This, in turn, allows embassy staff to carry out their work without fear of arrest or harassment from local authorities.
The 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, for example, says: “The facilities of [diplomatic] mission will be inviolable. Agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.”
However, this “inviolability rule” has also been used by political dissidents and other figures to avoid detention by taking refuge in a foreign embassy.
Glas, for example, was convicted twice on bribery and corruption charges. He was sentenced in 2017 to six years in prison and again in 2020 to eight years in prison.
Since December, Glas had sought refuge in the Mexican embassy and, shortly before his arrest on Friday, President López Obrador offered him political asylum in Mexico.
But on Friday night, Ecuadorian police scaled the wall of the Mexican embassy, breaking down its doors and pointing a gun at one of its diplomatic chiefs.
A video released by the Mexican government on Wednesday shows that officer, diplomat Roberto Canseco, being thrown to the ground as he tried to block police vehicles leaving the embassy with Glas inside.
Mexico has since called for Ecuador’s suspension from the UN. He stated that the suspension should only be lifted when Ecuador issues “a public apology recognizing its violations of the fundamental principles and norms of international law”.
President López Obrador’s administration also severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador as a result of Glas’ arrest.
Other countries and international organizations also expressed concern and outrage over the police operation, calling it a violation of international law.
On Tuesday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, based on security footage of the police operation, that his government believes “these actions were wrong.”
The Organization of American States (OAS) also released a statement saying that “strict compliance” with international law governing diplomatic relations is “essential.”
Furthermore, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro suggested that the situation with Glas should have been handled differently.
Neither “the use of force, the illegal incursion into a diplomatic mission, nor the detention of an asylum seeker are the peaceful way to resolve this situation”, he stated.
However, Ecuador defended its decision to storm the Mexican embassy. President Daniel Noboa’s government questioned whether Glas met the requirements to receive political asylum and reaffirmed its commitment to combating corruption within its borders.
Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Gabriela Sommerfeld, also said that a public apology “is not something that is under discussion at this time.”
Meanwhile, Glas is on hunger strike in his prison in Guayaquil. He was briefly hospitalized on Monday.
Rafael Correa, the former president in whose administration Glas served, said the former vice president attempted suicide after his arrest.
Correa himself lives in exile in Belgium and faces a prison sentence in his home country, Ecuador, also on corruption-related charges.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
