The Latin American Report # 217: México breaks diplomatic relations with Ecuador

Daniel Noboa "riddles" Mexican sovereignty

Yesterday I pointed out that Andrés Manuel López Obrador had made a gross mistake when he echoed a conspiracy theory about the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last year. And so he offered Daniel Noboa the opportunity to invent an international conflict that strategically changes the subject and the sense of the discussion in (and about) Ecuador. Several experts expressed that the Ecuadorian president overestimated AMLO's obvious blunder by expelling the Aztec ambassador from the South American nation. Then, in a domino effect, although "in principle" it was not a diplomatic measure directly related to the expulsion, Mexico granted diplomatic asylum to Jorge Glas, the former vice-president of Rafael Correa accused and convicted of corruption. Glas had been released from prison on parole, but a new case investigated by the Public Prosecutor's Office led him to seek refuge in Quito's December 6th Avenue. Since the end of last year, the police surrounded the Mexican embassy to avoid a potential escape of the correísta politician, and after the diplomatic break of the last hours reinforced its presence there.

In a rather rare act in regional diplomatic relations, the government of Daniel Noboa has taken the clumsy and controversial decision to forcibly break into Mexican sovereign territory in the Ecuadorian capital to extract Glas, which has been questioned by a good part of the Latin American governments—I have not seen reactions from Peru, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Paraguay so far—. A communiqué from the Ecuadorian presidency informed early Saturday morning that Glas, who had "a warrant for his arrest issued by [national] competent authorities", had been detained. The Carondelet Palace presented the action as necessary to mitigate the erosion of democracy and citizen peace caused by the so-called "internal armed conflict"—Noboa's way of referring to the violent and drug trafficking activities of criminal gangs. "No criminal can be considered a politically persecuted person... Having been abused the immunities and privileges granted to the diplomatic mission that hosted Jorge Glas, and after [the latter] granting a diplomatic asylum contrary to the conventional legal framework, he has been captured. Ecuador is a sovereign country and we will not allow any criminal to go unpunished".

Of course, the Ecuadorian government has many corrupt people in the tranquility of their homes—maybe even the former president Guillermo Lasso—to get into a conflict of this magnitude, which other nations, faced with the same dilemma, have avoided—see the case of Ricardo Martinelli in Panamá or the case of six Maduro's opponents sheltered in the Argentinean embassy in Caracas. AMLO ordered the rupture of relations with Quito, according to a communiqué from the Foreign Ministry, alleging acts of violence against the deputy chief of the embassy as well. All diplomatic personnel will return immediately to Mexican soil, demanding all security guarantees from Ecuador to comply with this provision. "What Noboa's government has done is unprecedented in Latin American history. Not even in the worst dictatorships has a country's embassy been violated. We do not live a State of law, but a State of barbarism, with an improvised man who confuses the Homeland with one of his banana plantations", denounced Correa from his exile in Brussels, claiming guarantees for the life of Jorge Glas, who was transferred to a "maximum-security" prison in the violent and indomitable penitentiary complex of Guayaquil—why there?—, where the potential precautionary measures of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights do not apply. The OAS has called for calm and has also convened a meeting of its permanent council. The situation is in full development, while closing our edition we know that Nicaragua—always frontal in defense of its allies—has also broken diplomatic relations with Quito.

Texas reinforces its barbed wire fence

In recent days migrants trying to cross the Rio Grande to "touch" the "American dream" have denounced that the Texas state authorities have reinforced physical barriers to prevent them from doing so, and also a "harsher" treatment by the agents. "They shouldn't because we are also people, like everyone else, being run over and more run over and they run over us on one side, on the other they beat us. They hit women, and last night they hit my daughter and that is unfair. We are people too and we deserve a chance", a Colombian migrant denounces. "We have been waiting six or seven months for an appointment [via a CBP mobile app] that never comes and will never come. What do we have to do? Assume the consequences, we can't but try to cross, exposing our children, exposing our own lives", he explains.

The Texas National Guard installed a new network of razor wire that would reach the river bank, which precedes a fence with which Greg Abbott intends to reduce illegal crossings. Migrants in Juárez are thus stranded and exposed to the fierce violence that is experienced in all the Mexican states bordering the United States. "I don't know what I'm going to do, but I know God will open the way. God is the only one who [can] open the way for us, nobody else," says with faith a Panamanian migrant who travels with her two children aged 7 and 8, and a nephew aged 12. "In [the United States] they should put their hand on their heart and support the immigrant, [who arrives] to seek a better quality of life," says another fellow countryman, and I find it interesting in this sense that the two testimonies included in this EFE report are from Panamanian migrants.

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.