Ecuadorian police broke into the Mexican embassy, ​​sparking outrage. Why is this a big deal?

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Diplomatic relations between Mexico and Ecuador imploded dramatically after Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito and arrested Jorge Glasformer vice president of Ecuador.

Glas, arrested Friday evening, was convicted of bribery and corruption and remains under investigation for other potential crimes. After the arrest, leaders in the Americas expressed outrage over the incident and the Mexican president announced he was severing diplomatic relations with Ecuador.

But in a region that is no stranger to political outbursts, what has sparked such outrage?

International law experts and regional leaders said the move violated long-established international laws that few leaders have dared to break. This is almost an unprecedented act. To date, only a tiny handful of cases of searches against embassies have been recorded.

By forcing their way into the Mexican embassy to make the arrest, Ecuadorian police effectively intruded on Mexico’s sovereign territory, said Natalia Saltalamacchia, professor of international relations at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called the break-in “a flagrant violation of international law and Mexican sovereignty.”

The law cited by Saltalamacchia, López Obrador and other leaders is a 1963 agreement known as the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. It establishes clear rules on “diplomatic immunity”, which notably prevents the authorities from entering embassies by force.

By injuring diplomatic staff at the embassy, ​​Saltalamacchia said, the Ecuadorian government violated another section of the agreements.

“When a state like Ecuador makes such a decision, you are really endangering all the embassies of all the states in the world” by ignoring precedent, Saltalamacchia said. “You enter a state of anarchy, a sort of law of the jungle. »

Such rules were established to maintain healthy diplomatic relations around the world and allow diplomats to carry out their work without fear of reprisal. The US State Department notes that diplomatic immunity exists to “ensure the efficient and effective performance of their official missions on behalf of their governments.”

Friday night’s raid is a move that even the region’s most criticized governments have been reluctant to make, and something that Ecuador’s own government once declared illegal.

Most notably – and somewhat ironically – the British government threatened to raid the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 to go after WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange, who was seeking asylum in Ecuador.

“We are deeply shocked by the British government’s threats against the sovereignty of the Ecuadorian embassy and its suggestion that it could force its way into the embassy,” the Ecuadorian government said at the time. “This is a blatant violation of international law and established protocols. in the Vienna Convention.”

British authorities have never followed through on their threats and only a few examples of actual violations have been documented in recent decades.

Saltalamacchia cited the storming of the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979, when diplomats were held hostage for 444 days. In Cuba, in 1956, before the adoption of the Vienna Convention, nine people were killed in the Haitian embassy following a raid by Cuban police under the Batista dictatorship.

In 1981, Cuba carried out another raid on the Ecuadorian embassy to capture a number of officials seeking political refugee status.

The Organization of American States also on Saturday compared Friday’s break-in to an incident in 2022, when Nicaraguan authorities “illegally occupied” their own offices in Managua. The OAS also requested a meeting to discuss the incident in Ecuador.

Although embassies have also been attacked and raided in countries including Lebanon, Argentina, Libya, Indonesia and Thailand, these raids have been carried out largely by insurgent groups.

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

However, some defended Ecuador.

Former Ecuadorian Ambassador Jorge Icaza told The Associated Press that while he acknowledged entering the embassy was illegal, he added that it was inappropriate to protect “a criminal who has been punished by the courts.” Ecuadorian (the system) in two very obvious cases, which is also negative.” from the point of view of international standards.

The Ecuadorian presidency also affirmed Friday evening that the Mexican government had “abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission” and granted “diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework.”