THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ecuador on Wednesday defended the attack on the Mexican Embassy in Quito last month, telling judges at the United Nations’ top court that he had moved to arrest “a common criminal” – the former vice president of Ecuador – who was hiding inside the diplomatic post.
The statement by Ecuador’s lawyers was part of the hearings of a case presented by Mexico at the International Court of Justice that accuses Quito of openly violating international treaties storming the embassy to arrest the former vice president Jorge Glas.
The April 5 attack, hours after Mexico granted Glas asylum, fueled tensions that were brewing between the two countries since the former vice president, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge in the embassy in December.
Leaders across Latin America condemned the attack as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
“Mexico improperly used its diplomatic facilities in Quito for months to shelter a common criminal” who had been convicted twice of corruption and other crimes, the leader of Ecuador’s legal team at the International Court of Justice, Andres Teran Parral, told the judges on Tuesday.
In the case presented on April 11, Mexico asked the court to grant reparation and suspend Ecuador from the United Nations. It also asked judges to take “appropriate and immediate measures to provide full protection and security to diplomatic facilities” and prevent further intrusions.
“There are limits in international law that should not be exceeded. Regrettably, the Republic of Ecuador has surpassed them,” Alejandro Celorio Alcantara, legal advisor to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the court on Tuesday.
But Ecuador argued on Wednesday that the ICJ does not need to act now because Quito has already complied with the measures requested by Mexico.
“This hearing is unnecessary and unjustified because Ecuador has already given assurances of its own volition, both to Mexico and to this court, that it will respect and protect Mexico’s facilities” and other diplomatic properties, Teran Parral said.
Another lawyer for Ecuador, Sean Murphy, said Mexico had made no attempt to negotiate a solution to the dispute between them – one of the preconditions for the court to impose provisional measures.
“In any case… there was no genuine attempt at negotiation,” Murphy said.
The justices will likely take weeks to reach a decision on Mexico’s request for preliminary orders.
On the eve of two days of court hearings this week, Ecuador also filed a lawsuit 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 ICJ 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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