It’s the newest escalation in a long-simmering diplomatic feud: On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) is ready to listen to a case introduced by Mexico in opposition to Ecuador over alleged violations of worldwide legislation.
On the coronary heart of the case lies the controversial choice to storm Mexico’s Embassy in Quito.
On April 5, Ecuadorian police scaled the embassy’s fence and burst by its doorways to arrest Jorge Glas, a former vice chairman twice convicted of corruption.
He had been sheltering in Mexico’s Embassy since December. His arrest, nonetheless, got here simply hours after Mexico provided him political asylum — and warned Ecuador in opposition to any intervention in that course of.
The police raid on Mexico’s Embassy prompted widespread outcry, with many specialists seeing it as a violation of worldwide legislation, which protects embassies from the interference of native legislation enforcement.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador additionally reacted with indignation over the raid, condemning it as a violation of Mexican sovereignty.
The ICJ will weigh his nation’s demand that Ecuador be suspended from the United Nations (UN). The ICJ is one in every of six precept our bodies throughout the UN, in command of adjudicating worldwide disputes.
On Monday, nonetheless, Ecuador responded in form, submitting a criticism in opposition to Mexico on the ICJ for granting asylum to the disgraced former vice chairman.
What’s the nature of the dispute? What are each nations hoping to realize with their ICJ complaints? And what can this inform us about political schisms in Latin America? Al Jazeera breaks down the controversy.
PRESS RELEASE: #Ecuador institutes proceedings agt #Mexico earlier than the #ICJ regarding the alleged violation by Mexico of a sequence of obligations owed to Ecuador underneath worldwide legislation, arising from Mexico’s conduct relative to Mr Jorge David Glas Espinel https://t.co/E3ksTKxlZ6 pic.twitter.com/UOYPsKSpj4
— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) April 29, 2024
What does Mexico’s criticism say?
The hearings on each Tuesday and Wednesday will begin at 10am native time (8am GMT) and run for 2 hours. Lopez Obrador introduced on April 11 that his nation had filed a criticism with the ICJ, alleging that Ecuador had “violated Mexico’s rights underneath customary and traditional worldwide legislation, in addition to elementary ideas upon which the worldwide authorized system relies”.
That criticism urges the ICJ to droop Ecuador’s membership within the United Nations — at the very least till the nation points “a public apology recognising its violations to the basic ideas and norms of worldwide legislation”.
Legal guidelines just like the 1961 Vienna Conference on Diplomatic Relations set up that embassies and consulates are protected areas. “The premises of the mission shall be inviolable,” the conference reads, except the pinnacle of the consulate or embassy consents for native legislation enforcement to enter.
Mexico filed its case on the ICJ shortly after severing diplomatic relations with Ecuador on April 6, a day after the raid.
It referred to as the storming of the embassy a “forcible break-in” and denounced the remedy of its embassy employees, one in every of whom allegedly had a gun pointed at him.
What has Ecuador accused Mexico of in return?
In a press launch on April 29, the ICJ mentioned that Ecuador had introduced proceedings in opposition to Mexico for allegedly appearing “to defend Mr Glas from enforcement by Ecuador of its prison legislation”.
Glas had been staying in Mexico’s Embassy since round December 17, 2023. He had been twice convicted on prices associated to bribery and the misuse of public funds. In 2017, he was sentenced to 6 years in jail and in 2021, he acquired one other sentence of eight years.
Ecuador has referred to as Glas’s keep on the Mexican Embassy a “blatant misuse of the premises of its diplomatic mission”. It additionally describes Mexico’s provide of political asylum as illegal.
As well as, the criticism accuses Mexico of interfering in Ecuador’s home affairs.
Within the days main as much as the embassy raid, Mexican President Lopez Obrador used his every day press briefing to touch upon Ecuador’s 2023 presidential election, questioning whether or not the centre-right candidate Daniel Noboa would have gained if violence had not marred the race.
“Ecuador thought of these statements unacceptable and an interference by Mexico in its inside affairs,” Monday’s courtroom filings point out.
Noboa is now president of Ecuador and has defended his nation’s choice to raid the embassy.
Who’s Jorge Glas, the determine on the centre of the controversy?
Glas served as vice chairman within the administration of former President Rafael Correa, a strong left-wing determine in Ecuadorian politics.
However his tenure, which began in 2013, got here to an finish underneath Correa’s successor, Lenin Moreno. In 2017, lower than three months into Moreno’s time period, he stripped Glas of his duties as vice chairman.
Glas later claimed on social media that he was being punished for voicing his opinions.
Nevertheless, later that very same 12 months, Glas was sentenced to 6 years in jail for his involvement within the Odebrecht scandal, a corruption case that enveloped politicians throughout the area. Leaders like Glas had been accused of accepting bribes in alternate for awarding Odebrecht, a Brazilian building firm, beneficial contracts.
A second bribery-related conviction got here in 2021.
What have the Ecuadorian courts mentioned?
Glas’s try to hunt refuge within the Mexican embassy has put Ecuador’s authorized system in a pickle.
On December 18, a day after Glas entered the embassy, an Ecuadorian prosecutor alleged {that a} drug trafficker paid bribes to high-ranking authorized officers to make sure the previous vice chairman might be launched on parole.
Ecuadorian President Noboa had been in workplace lower than a month at the moment. However his authorities warned Mexico in opposition to granting Glas asylum.
Shortly after, on December 28, an Ecuadorian decide dominated that Glas had not abided by the necessities of his parole and ordered his arrest.
Noboa mentioned in a press release earlier than the April embassy raid that his authorities wouldn’t enable “any prison to remain free”.
A 3-member Ecuadorian tribunal would nonetheless declare the raid unlawful on April 13.
Nonetheless, it upheld Glas’s imprisonment: For the reason that embassy raid, he has been imprisoned within the metropolis of Guayaquil.
Why did Mexico grant Glas asylum?
The Mexican authorities introduced in a press launch on April 5 that it had determined to grant Glas political asylum.
It requested Ecuador to supply “the respective secure passage, in accordance with the 1954 Diplomatic Asylum Conference, a global treaty to which Mexico and Ecuador are occasion states”.
Asylum is a authorized class granted to people fleeing persecution. Whereas Mexico has lengthy provided refuge to political figures, specialists say that Lopez Obrador has used asylum as a instrument to point out assist for embattled political allies throughout the area, significantly on the left.
For instance, Lopez Obrador provided asylum final 12 months to former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, who was impeached after making an attempt to dissolve the nation’s Congress, a transfer broadly seen as unlawful.
In response, Peru recalled its ambassador to Mexico, and its Congress declared Lopez Obrador a persona non grata.
Carlos Bravo Regidor, a author and political analyst based mostly in Mexico Metropolis, advised Al Jazeera that Lopez Obrador has used Mexico’s custom as a spot of asylum for private positive aspects.
“I believe Lopez Obrador is invoking the custom to make use of it as a method to assist his ideological or political associates in Latin America, however he’s actually devaluing that custom when it comes to the profile of the individuals he’s granting asylum to,” he mentioned.
How produce other nations responded to the raid?
Ecuador’s actions have been roundly condemned by governments and organisations in Latin America and america.
In a press release following the raid, the Group of American States (OAS), a regional physique, expressed “solidarity with those that had been victims of the inappropriate actions that affected the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador”. It additionally referred to as on Mexico and Ecuador to “resolve their variations” by actions aligned with worldwide legislation.
International locations equivalent to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela additionally condemned the raid. Nicaragua additionally ended its diplomatic relations with Ecuador, in solidarity with Mexico.
The US State Division issued a press release saying that it “takes very significantly the duty of host nations underneath worldwide legislation to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions”.
