Police attempt to break into the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador, on Friday, April 5, 2024, after Mexico granted asylum to former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, who had sought refuge there.
Dolores Ochoa/AP
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Dolores Ochoa/AP
Police attempt to storm the Mexican embassy in Quito, Ecuador, on Friday, April 5, 2024, after Mexico granted asylum to former Ecuadorian vice president Jorge Glas, who had sought refuge there.
Dolores Ochoa/AP
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Mexico will take Ecuador before the U.N.’s top court on Tuesday, accusing the nation of violating international law by storming the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest a former vice president whom Mexico had just awarded asylum.
The April 5 raid, hours after Mexico granted asylum to former Vice President Jorge Glas, heightened tensions that had been simmering between the two countries since Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge in the embassy in December.
Leaders across Latin America condemned the attack as a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Ecuador said Glas was wanted for corruption convictions and not for political reasons, and has argued that Mexico’s granting of asylum to a convicted criminal was itself a violation of the Vienna convention.
Two mornings of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice focus on Mexico’s request for interim orders known as provisional measures to be put into effect while the case moves through the court, a process that will likely take many months.
Among the measures Mexico seeks are for the world court to order Ecuador to take “appropriate and immediate measures to provide full protection and security to diplomatic facilities” and prevent further intrusions. He also wants Ecuador to allow Mexico to clear its diplomatic facilities and the homes of its diplomats in the country.
In its case filed on April 11, Mexico also asked the court to grant relief and suspend Ecuador from the United Nations.
On Monday, Ecuador also filed a case with the International Court of Justice, accusing Mexico of using its embassy to “protect Mr. Glas from Ecuador’s application of its criminal law” and arguing that the actions “constituted, among other things, a flagrant misuse of the premises of a diplomatic mission.”
He asked the court to rule that Mexico’s actions violated a series of international conventions. A date for hearings in the case brought by Ecuador was not immediately set.