The police invasion of the Mexican embassy in Quito is an extremely serious event in a region that finds it
difficult to understand where the limits are that should never be crossed.
The event is as complicated as the precedent it issues.
The action ordered by the government of Daniel Noboa, who usually affirms himself in the recovery of legality, institutions and law, had as its purpose the arrest of Jorge Glas, the former vice president of the populist Rafael Correa. This individual trails
a chain of corruption cases
, part of them linked to the regional bribery scandal of the Odebrecht case.
These miseries fully involve the former president who lives in asylum in Brussels to escape an
eight-year prison sentence also for verified corruption.
They say they are politically persecuted with the alibi of lawfare
Glas had taken refuge in the Mexican embassy in December and the controversial and outgoing government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador had granted him asylum hours ago in the midst of a
mix of mistreatment between the two countries.
The provision of safe conduct was missing from Ecuador, which instead sent a team of commandos who arrested the politician and attacked the Mexican diplomats with impunity.
Noboa, in a statement that does not seem to notice the seriousness of the episode and titled
"We defend national sovereignty, zero impunity,"
indicated that
"no criminal can be considered politically persecuted"
and added that
"since the immunities and privileges of the diplomatic mission that housed Glas and granting diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional framework, his capture has been carried out
. ”
Jorge Glas before taking refuge in the Mexican embassy Reuters
But that condition could not be defined by Quito, Glas was taking refuge in a foreign embassy whose government had established armored protection
by international agreements.
It may be unfair or reprehensible, but institutional buildings should not be demolished with the dubious argument of law.
When, for example, the British police entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London, in April 2019, to arrest Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks who published crucial and essential
secret documents
that revealed serious secret American operations, they did so because
Quito He lifted the asylum
that Correa had granted him during his government. Since there was no diplomatic shield, the police action was legal.
Argentina and Venezuela
This is not what just happened with the Mexican embassy. The precedent it leaves is so serious that the region should unite in its repudiation. Just note that
Argentina has half a dozen political refugees in its embassy in Caracas
, persecuted by the regime of Nicolás Maduro, which accuses them of terrorism for their opposition activity. If Chavismo accepts Ecuador's procedure as a rule, these people have entered a
high danger zone
.
The background of the episode is Ecuador's increasingly harsh confrontation with the Mexican president, a retreating leader who
constantly breaks his supposed rule of non-interference
. He has ignored her with Peru defending former president Pedro Castillo, arrested for the attempted coup, who also tried to escape to Mexico after the failure of the uprising.
A woman cries while former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas is being transferred, this Saturday in Quito (Ecuador). The Government of Ecuador entered the Mexican Embassy in Quito on Friday night and detained Jorge Glas, former vice president of Rafael Correa EFE/
Now the confrontation with Ecuador has escalated in the run-up to the presidential elections on June 2 in Mexico that will define the president's successor. The ruling party Claudia Sheinbaum has a strong lead according to the polls. However,
she draws attention to the strategy.
Before granting asylum to Glas, López Obrador made a risky statement, knowing its consequences, implying that Noboa's victory in August 2023 was achieved
by taking advantage of the murder
of the Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio at the hands of a drug trafficking hitman. .
“There were elections in Ecuador; the candidate of the progressive forces was about 10 points ahead" and "then, a candidate who speaks badly of the candidate who is at the top
is murdered
and the candidate who was at the top (correista Luisa González) falls and the candidate who was at the bottom second it goes up
,” AMLO asserted.
Quito repudiated the comment and cooled relations, but the Mexican indicated that episode as something that could be repeated in his country to ruin Sheinbaum's career. We do not know if he was referring to the fact that
the headquarters of the drug mafias that control the business in Ecuador are in Mexico
.
There is a paradox in this entire episode that the Mexican leader may prefer to ignore. Recently, in the investigation of the “Metastasis” case about the involvement of organized crime in Ecuadorian institutions, it was learned that
Correa had contacts with an imprisoned drug lord
, Leandro Norero, alias 'El Patrón', to help him free Glas. Noboa has now, unfortunately, provided lyrics to those who claim that these individuals are politically persecuted.