THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Mexico took Ecuador to the UN’s top court on Tuesday, accusing the country of violating international law by storming the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest a former vice president who had just been granted asylum by Mexico.
The April 5 raid, hours after Mexico granted asylum to former vice president Jorge Glas, heightened tensions that had been growing between the two countries since Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge in the embassy in December. .
Leaders across Latin America condemned the attack as a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Ecuador said Glas was wanted for corruption convictions rather than political reasons, and argued that Mexico’s granting asylum to a convicted criminal was itself a violation of the Vienna Convention.
Two mornings of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice center on Mexico’s request that provisional measures, known as provisional measures, be put into effect while the case progresses through the court — a process that will likely take many months.
Among the measures Mexico seeks are that the world court order Ecuador to take “appropriate and immediate measures to provide full protection and security to diplomatic facilities” and prevent any further intrusions. It also wants Ecuador to let Mexico clean its diplomatic facilities and the homes of its diplomats in the country.
In its case filed on April 11, Mexico also asked the court to grant reparations and suspend Ecuador from the United Nations.
On Monday, Ecuador also filed a case at the International Court of Justice, accusing Mexico of using its embassy to “protect Mr. Glas from Ecuador’s application of its criminal law” and arguing that the actions “constituted, among other things, a flagrant misuse of the facilities of a diplomatic mission.”
It asked the court to rule that Mexico’s actions violated a series of international conventions. No date was immediately set for hearings in the case brought by Ecuador.
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