The International Court of Justice (ICJ) began this Tuesday in The Hague the hearings to resolve the lawsuit filed by Mexico against Ecuador after the police assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito, on April 5, to arrest the former Ecuadorian vice president, Jorge Glas, who had taken refuge in the diplomatic legation.
“There is no rule of international law that can annul the inviolability of the Mexican embassy, ??nor any rule by virtue of which the assault can be considered a lawful operation,” Alejandro Celorio, legal advisor to the Ministry, assured the judges of the Court. of Mexican Foreign Affairs.
The process begins a day after this Monday, by surprise, Ecuador also presented a countersuit against Mexico before the ICJ, considering that the Mexican government could not grant asylum to Glas because he had been firmly condemned by the Ecuadorian justice system.
In addition, last week the Ecuadorian authorities filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office of Ecuador against the head of the Mexican embassy in Quito, Roberto Canseco, for obstruction of justice. During the assault, Canseco confronted the Ecuadorian police, who violently subdued him to prevent Glas’s arrest.
“Mexico will present its arguments regarding the violations of international law committed by Ecuador, specifically the principle of inviolability of diplomatic headquarters established in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement this Monday in relation to the first hearing this Tuesday in The Hague. “The allegations were foreseeable and will be responded to at the appropriate procedural time,” added the statement regarding the Ecuadorian counterclaim before the ICJ. Tomorrow, Wednesday, it will be Ecuador’s turn, which must respond to the arguments presented today by Mexico.
In relation to the complaint against Canseco before the Ecuadorian justice, López Obrador reacted angrily. “It is nonsense, it is an act of supreme arrogance, a shamelessness,” declared this Monday the Mexican president, who defended Canseco and said that he would propose that he be decorated along with all the members of the attacked Quito legation, whom he plans to invite to have breakfast at the presidential palace to publicly express their support. “A public servant, a diplomat of our country who acts with dignity, who is a source of pride for our country’s foreign policy, in defense of asylum rights, how is he going to be denounced by the invaders!” López Obrador exclaimed.
When on April 5 the Ecuadorian police forcibly entered the diplomatic headquarters in Quito, Canseco had been in charge of the diplomatic mission after the declaration of persona non grata by the Mexican ambassador, Raquel Serur Smeke, after statements by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, questioning the climate of violence experienced during the Ecuadorian elections last year.
The assault provoked widespread condemnation from the international community, which accused Ecuador of violating the Vienna Convention, which enshrines the inviolability of diplomatic headquarters.
Meanwhile, Glas remains imprisoned in a maximum security prison in Guayaquil serving a sentence for corruption, although he denounces that he is a victim of political persecution. Former vice president of Ecuador (2013-2018) during the last government of Rafael Correa and the beginning of that of Lenín Moreno, after his arrest in the Mexican embassy, ??Glas received signs of support from different governments, starting with the Mexican one, which demands that the authorities Ecuadorians his release from prison and a safe passage to travel to Mexico, where he continues to have the status of political asylum.
