More than a dozen Latin American governments supported Mexico this Saturday in its diplomatic crisis with Ecuador and denounced the assault on its embassy in Quito by police, described as “improper” by the OAS.
The operation by the security forces culminated in the arrest of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, wanted by the justice system of his country and who had taken refuge in the Mexican diplomatic headquarters.
Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic
Together with Panama, the governments of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic lamented in a joint statement “the inexcusable violation by the government of Ecuador of the territorial integrity of the Embassy of Mexico in Quito”.
“International norms regulating asylum should never serve as any justification for violating the diplomatic headquarters of a State,” they stressed.
The three Caribbean countries hope that Ecuador and Mexico “can overcome this serious conflict as soon as possible through dialogue”, according to the statement.
Panama
The Panamanian government presided over by Laurentino Cortizo rejected “the use of force as an instrument of diplomatic negotiation (…) in open defiance of the fundamental principles of international law and diplomatic relations,” according to a statement from its foreign ministry.
Nicaragua
The Nicaraguan government presided over by Daniel Ortega was the most forceful, breaking this Saturday “all diplomatic relations” with Ecuador.
“In the face of the unusual and reprehensible action […] our forceful, emphatic and irrevocable repulsion, which we convert into our Sovereign Decision to break all diplomatic relations with the Ecuadorian government,” it said in a statement.
Last February, Nicaragua granted political asylum in its embassy in Panama City to the conservative former president of that country (2009-2014) Ricardo Martinelli, convicted of money laundering.
Brazil
The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva condemned “in the strongest terms” the measure carried out by the Ecuadorian government, according to a statement from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.
It is “a clear violation” of international conventions that establish that “the premises of a diplomatic mission are inviolable”, and constitutes a “serious precedent” that deserves an “energetic repudiation”, stated the Itamaraty Palace in a statement.
“All my solidarity with the president and friend (Andrés Manuel) López Obrador,” Lula wrote on the social network X, formerly Twitter, where he shared the Foreign Ministry’s statement.
Argentina
The Argentine Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it “condemns” the assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito, while calling for “full observance” of the provisions of the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The government of far-right Javier Milei recalled in the document that Argentina itself “has recently granted this condition (of diplomatic asylum) to Venezuelan political leaders and is awaiting the issuance of the corresponding safe-conducts”.
Venezuela
The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Glas was “illegally” captured after receiving asylum “as a result of the atrocious persecution of which he has been a victim”.
“All this constitutes an action that not even in the most atrocious dictatorships in the region, such as that of Augusto Pinochet in Chile or Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina, have been recorded,” said the government of Nicolás Maduro in the note, released on social networks by Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil.
Cuba
Cuba condemned “energetically” the “incursion of Ecuadorian military forces”. “It constitutes a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the right to asylum and the sovereignty of Mexico,” said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez on X.
Bolivia
The president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, described the incursion as a “serious and unacceptable” event that “has no precedent in the history of international law”.
“We reject the transgression of the right to asylum after the kidnapping and detention of Ecuador’s former vice-president Jorge Glas, who remained awaiting safe-conduct at the Mexican diplomatic headquarters,” the president said on X.
Honduras
The president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, said that the assault on the embassy was aimed at “kidnapping” Glas and represents an “intolerable act”.
“We energetically repudiate this violation of the sovereignty of the Mexican State and international law. We stand in solidarity with the Mexican people and their president López Obrador,” Castro said.
Chile
“All our solidarity with Mexico in the face of the unacceptable violation of its sovereignty through the irruption of the Ecuadorian police into the Mexican embassy in Quito,” writes Chilean President Gabriel Boric on X.
The foreign ministry of the Andean country expressed in a statement “its deep concern for the violation of the right to asylum, contemplated in the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and recognized as a contribution of Latin America to international law”, advocating that “this incident between sister nations be overcome promptly”.
OAS
The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) said in a statement that it “rejects any action that violates or puts at risk the inviolability of the premises of diplomatic missions” and said that countries cannot “invoke norms of domestic law to justify non-compliance with their international obligations”.
“In this context, it expresses solidarity with those who were victims of the improper actions that affected the Embassy of Mexico in Ecuador”.
The organization called for “dialogue between the parties” and deemed “necessary a meeting of the OAS Permanent Council”.
