Crisis between Ecuador and Mexico: retaliation, legality, and 21st century socialism

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Retaliation, as defined by International Public Law is “the measure of coercion adopted by an aggrieved State facing the author State of an internationally illicit act” a form of “war without combat.” This is the legal nature of the crisis between Ecuador and Mexico, with a dispute over its legality that reflects the clash between democracy and 21st Century Socialism, or Castrochavism.

In a situation of peace, arguments over the legality of the retaliation as a matter of law and its political fallout are very extense and diverse, but the principle indicating that “retaliations are only legal when they are undertaken against a State guilty of the violation of International Law and not against third parties” governs. It is considered that “an act of retaliation is illegal in and by itself but it is accepted as a valid measure, and exceptionally, as a response to an illegal act by another State.” Retaliation is legal when it confronts an illegal act.

Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations signed on 18 April of 1961 and in-force since 24 April of 1964 establishes that; “1. The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission. 2. The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity. 3. The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment, or execution.”

The Convention on Political Asylum signed in Havana on 20 February of 1928, modified in Montevideo, Uruguay on 26 December of 1933, substituted Article 1 with the following text: «It shall not be lawful for the States to grant asylum in legations, warships, military camps, or airships to those accused of common offenses who may have been duly prosecuted or who may have been sentenced by ordinary courts of justice, nor to deserters of land or sea forces. Persons referred to in the preceding paragraph who find refuge in some of the aforementioned places shall be surrendered as soon as requested by the local government.»

The controversy between Ecuador and Mexico stems from the situation of the former Ecuadorean Vice-President Jorge Glas “sentenced for crimes of illicit affiliation (2017) and aggravated bribery (2020) in connection with the Odebrecht plot, with duly prosecuted cases against him resulting in sentences of 6 and 8 years of prison, respectively. In November of 2022, after serving four and a half years of prison, Glas was released from jail following an Habeas Corpus appeal.” Ecuador’s Constitutional Court ratified the sentences against Glas thereby annulling his Habeas Corpus appeal because “it vulnerated the due-process, the legal security, the nature of the Habeas Corpus, and the jurisdiction of functions within the judicial system.”

Glas entered the embassy of Mexico in Quito, on 17 December of 2023. This recently past 1st of March, Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the Mexican Embassy’s authorization for its law enforcement personnel to enter the embassy in order to apprehend Glas, this request was denied. On 4 April, the government of Ecuador “decided to expel the Ambassador of Mexico for the statements made by president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador over the assassination of Ecuador’s presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio.” On 5 April “the government of Mexico granted political asylum to Jorge Glas” with a personal statement by Lopez Obrador, later that day Ecuadorean police stormed in to Mexico’s diplomatic mission and apprehended Glas because Ecuador considered the protection of Glas “clearly contravened the fundamental principle of not intervening in the internal affairs of other States” and for “the risk of flight by the convicted.” Mexico severed relations with Ecuador.

A preceding related fact -because Rafael Correa, as well as Jorge Glas have been convicted to 8 years of prison for the same crime- is that of Maria de los Angeles Duarte, former Minister of Transportation, Public Works, and Housing in Correa’s administration, who in August of 2020 “had sought refuge in the embassy of Argentina in Ecuador, to evade an 8-year prison sentence” who “on 14 March of 2023, appeared in Caracas, Venezuela,” unleashing a crisis in the Fernandez/Kirchner government of Argentina that had facilitated her flight.

It all has to do with the transnational nature of 21st Century Socialism under the command of Cuba’s dictatorship that now-a-days controls dictatorships/narco-States in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua that are backed by Para-Dictatorial governments from Mexico with Lopez Obrador, Colombia with Petro, Brazil with Lula da Silva, and Chile with Boric. Argentina’s government with Fernandez/Kirchner ended its participation. All of the above, excluding Argentina, are part of a sole foreign policy proclaimed to be antiimperialist, supporting; Russia in its invasion to Ukraine, China and Iran, accusations against Israel, protection to violations of human rights. These regimes have political prisoners, use torture, exile, and State-terrorism is perpetrated in Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia y Nicaragua, along with permanent violations of the order of international law.

Mexico with Lopez Obrador has subordinated to Castrochavism; has decorated Cuba’s dictator, has facilitated the escape to evade prosecution of Evo Morales from Bolivia in a Mexican military aircraft after he was caught committing electoral fraud in 2019 and resigned, has facilitated Morales’ return to Bolivia. Mexico hires from Cuba’s dictatorship enslaved physicians, has failed to comply with an outstanding international warrant to capture Nicolas Maduro with a $15 million dollar bounty for his role in the Cartel de los Soles, has disavowed the legitimate government of Venezuela, has sabotaged the Summit of the Americas, migration, the war on drugs, and more.

What happened in Ecuador, was it a provocation, or retaliation, aggression, or defense?

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translation from Spanish by Edgar L. Terrazas