Ecuador’s security forces recently conducted a raid on the Mexican embassy in the country’s capital city, Quito. The arrest and subsequent detention of fugitive former vice-president Jorge Glas has sparked a major diplomatic row between the two countries and ignited a heated debate over Ecuador’s commitment to international law and diplomacy. Against the backdrop of rampant narco-terrorism and escalating regional tensions, concerns have been raised about Ecuador’s respect for these fundamental principles.
The police raid on April 5 has drawn widespread criticism targeting Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa. Glas – who was Ecuador’s vice-president from 2013 until 2017 – faced 14 years in jail, after he was convicted in 2017 of taking bribes from a Brazilian construction company while in office.
Additionally, he faced further legal proceedings and imprisonment in relation to irregularities in facilitating the allocation of an oil field and alleged embezzlement in reconstruction projects after the 2016 earthquake. He was briefly hospitalised after refusing to eat, but is reported to be back in prison.
Mexico has released footage of the raid. The country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, condemned what it called the “despicable authoritarian” raid which is declared to be in violation of international law. Mexico has broken off diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
Relations between the two countries were already strained. During a routine briefing on April 3, Obrador questioned the result of Ecuador’s 2023 election in which Noboa gained power, referring to the assassination of rival presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Ecuador responded the next day by declaring Obrador persona non grata and expelling Mexico’s ambassador. Mexico in turn declared it had granted Glas asylum, prompting the raid.
The raid has been roundly condemned as a violation of international law, specifically the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum to which Ecuador is a party. It is worth noting that Ecuador granted Wikileaks founder Julian Assange asylum in its London embassy for seven years. Critics – including US national security adviser Jake Sullivan – say the raid and detention of Glas also breaks the Vienna Convention which holds that diplomatic premises are territories that enjoy immunity when carrying out the sovereign functions of the country where they are located.
The Organisation of American States convened an extraordinary meeting on April 10 in which all participants (except Ecuador) agreed that the break in into the Mexican Embassy was unwarranted and unjustified.
A political raid
To an extent the raid on the Mexican embassy is bound up with the Ecuadorian government’s aggressive approach to the country’s problems with drugs and gang violence.
Read more: Ecuador's crackdown on violent crime helped turn the country into a narco state
While the government’s decision to deploy extra military on the streets in January led initially to a fall in the murder rate, there was a surge in violence over the Easter weekend, with 80 killings reported in just three days.
Noboa’s initially high approval ratings have been falling thanks to the public perception that his hardline policies have done little to address the issue. Some observers believe that the force of his reaction to Mexico’s criticism could be partly designed to win back public support.
Ecuadorians will vote in a referendum later this month that could authorise the government to implement stricter security measures. These will include harsher prison sentences for gang-related crimes and will formally authorise the increased military presence.
But Noboa’s referendum appears to serve a dual political purpose. It aims to deepen the militarisation of public security but will also block public dissent. The proposed reform states the goal of fighting against “organised crime,” “terrorists,” or “narco-terrorism” – but its content is so ambiguous that it can allow for using this as a way to quell dissent with regards to other policies. It is feared the government could use it to suppress protest, for example, when it comes to opposition to the government’s extractive policy.
Sovereignty and security
So the raid on the Mexican embassy has raised doubts in many people’s minds as to whether a government with apparently scant regard for international law can be trusted not to abuse its new security laws.
Noboa’s approach has been compared to that of El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who was re-elected for a further term in February, largely as a result of public approval of his own government’s harsh crackdown on drugs and criminal violence. Noboa faces elections in May 2025.
Some voters approve of Noboa’s strongman approach – one political consultant told Associated Press that: “President Noboa has given a strong message to the nation … [It’s] a very powerful image boost.” But the incident, and what it might mean for relations between Mexico and Ecuador, has worrying implications for regional security.
The importance of Mexico’s relationship with Ecuador is central to addressing the mobility crisis in the region. Ecuador is a major throughpoint for migrants attempting to reach Mexico,and cross into North America.
To protect people’s security in the region, diplomatic collaboration between countries such as Ecuador and Mexico is vital. So provoking a spat such as this comes with serious risks in a region where illicit economies, violence and forced migration are spiralling out of control.