Consequences Ecuador faces after raiding Mexican embassy

The raid on the Mexican embassy to arrest the former vice president could alienate many countries and cause economic damage to Ecuador.

Diplomatic relations between Mexico and Ecuador are seriously strained after Ecuadorian special police on the evening of April 5 climbed over the wall and stormed the Mexican embassy in the capital Quito to arrest former Mexican vice president Jorge Glas, who is taking refuge there.

Glas served as vice president of Ecuador from 2013 to 2017 under leftist President Rafael Correa and served for several months in the administration of President Lenin Moreno, before being dismissed and sentenced to six years in prison on corruption charges.

He was released from prison early in November 2022, but after businessman Daniel Noboa, 36, took office as President in November 2023, Glas was again investigated for allegedly embezzling funds to help with the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake and was ordered back to prison.

The former vice president of Ecuador has appealed the decision and sought asylum in the Mexican embassy in Quito, claiming he is being treated unfairly by the Ecuadorian Ministry of Justice. He has been staying in the diplomatic facility for months.

The embassy raid was carried out by Ecuadorian authorities just hours after Mexico approved Glas' asylum request on April 5. However, the move to deploy armed forces in the middle of the night to enter the diplomatic facility, considered "untouchable", has caused Ecuador to face a series of criticisms and many consequences.

Mexico immediately announced that it was severing diplomatic relations with Ecuador, withdrawing embassy staff and filing a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Police raided the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador, on the evening of April 5. Photo: AP

According to Esteban Nicholls, a Latin American studies expert at Ecuador's Simon Bolivar Andean University, after accepting the case, the ICJ may find that Ecuador has violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and will punish it by stripping the country of its voting rights in multilateral bodies such as the Organization of American States (OAS).

Before the ICJ, Ecuador will likely argue that the Mexican embassy sheltered an ordinary prisoner, not a politically persecuted person. "International law does not allow an ordinary criminal to seek refuge in an embassy," Nicholls said.

But this expert believes that the ICJ will certainly rule against Ecuador, because raiding an embassy is an act of violating the "inviolable" territory of another country.

International law experts and regional leaders also said that Ecuador's move violated a long-standing international legal framework that few rulers dare to cross and will certainly cause Quito to suffer a heavy diplomatic blow.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry said that "the use of force to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito is a violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations".

The Vienna Convention stipulates that the premises of diplomatic missions are inviolable, emphasizing that local forces are not allowed to enter without the consent of the head of the diplomatic mission.

Bolivia has withdrawn its ambassador from Quito. Nicaragua has announced it is cutting diplomatic relations with Ecuador in protest.

"The United States condemns any violation of the Vienna Convention," said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, calling on Ecuador and Mexico to resolve their differences.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Mr Glas' right to asylum had been "flagrantly violated", while Honduran President Xiomara Castro called the raid on the Mexican embassy "an intolerable act against the international community".

A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was "surprised" by the raid, and reiterated "the fundamental principle of the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises and personnel".

Natalia Saltalamacchia, professor of international relations at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, explained that the Ecuadorian police storming the embassy to arrest people was a deliberate act of invading Mexico's sovereign territory.

On the other hand, according to Saltalamacchia, the Ecuadorian security forces' injury of diplomatic staff in the embassy also violated another part of the Vienna Convention.

Mexican diplomat knocked down while trying to stop Ecuador from arresting former vice president — Mexican diplomat Roberto Canseco was knocked down while trying to stop a motorcade carrying former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas from leaving the country's embassy in Quito on April 5. Video: *Telegram/RIA Novosti*

Video from local media shows Minister Counsellor Roberto Canseco, head of the consular section at the Mexican embassy in Quito, being tackled by police as he tried to stop a motorcade carrying the former Ecuadorian vice president from leaving the area.

Saltalamacchia added that by arresting Mr. Glas, the Ecuadorian government may also have violated a regional agreement known as the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, which allows individuals to seek asylum at embassies.

“When a country like Ecuador makes a decision like this, they are really endangering all the embassies of all the countries in the world” by “ignoring precedent,” Saltalamacchia said. “They are creating chaos.”

The provisions of the Vienna Convention are designed to maintain healthy diplomatic relations around the world and allow diplomats to carry out their work without fear of reprisal, the US State Department noted, asserting that immunity exists to ensure diplomatic staff "effectively carry out their duties on behalf of their governments."

According to observers, the raid on the evening of April 5 was an action that even the most criticized governments in the region would hesitate to carry out, and the Ecuadorian government had also declared such an action illegal.

Ecuador was the country that gave asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in its London embassy in 2012. When British police threatened to raid the premises to search for Assange, Ecuador said at the time that it was "deeply shocked", stressing that "this is a clear violation of international law and the provisions of the Vienna Convention". British police ultimately did not storm the embassy, but instead kept watch over the premises to prevent Assange from escaping.

Roberto Beltran, a professor of conflict management at Ecuador's private Loja Technical University, described the country's rift with Mexico as "extremely dangerous", warning it could hinder cooperation in anti-drug trafficking efforts.

The embassy raid also had economic consequences. Mexico said negotiations with Ecuador on a free trade agreement, which would require Ecuador to join the Pacific Alliance trade bloc, had been suspended.

"Mexico's decision to cut ties with Ecuador is a significant punishment. They have a lot of influence in the region," said Michel Levi, professor of international studies at Simon Bolivar Andean University. "The move to withdraw all diplomatic staff, leaving no consular offices in Quito, is also quite a radical measure by Mexico."

Vu Hoang (According to AFP, AP, CNN )

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