This Thursday, the United Nations International Court of Justice (TIJ) did not consider it necessary to issue precautionary measures in the lawsuit filed by Mexico against Ecuador for violation of international laws by raiding its embassy in Quito. On April 5, the Ecuadorian police forcibly removed the former vice president of the Andean country, Jorge Glas. The Mexican Government had asked the judges to protect its diplomatic headquarters and the private residences of its representatives, and the TIJ considers the guarantees offered in this regard by the Ecuadorian Executive sufficient but refuses to go further for the moment. However, the court has stressed the inviolability of diplomatic legations and that its decision does not prejudge the jurisdiction to address the merits of the case. Both countries have severed diplomatic relations.
The TIJ decision, read by its president, Nawaf Salam, indicates that Ecuador has committed to “guarantee the protection and security of the facilities, properties and archives of the Mexican embassy.” It will also allow “the diplomatic headquarters to be cleared, and will refrain from any action that could aggravate the dispute and seek a peaceful solution” to it. Given that “there is no real and imminent risk of irreparable harm to the rights of Mexico”, precautionary measures do not apply.
A “disconcerting” precedent
At the end of April, Mexico filed its claim with the ICJ arguing that “States cannot invoke internal measures to breach international standards,” in the words of Alejandro Celorio Alcántara, legal consultant for the Mexican Foreign Service. He also said that the assault had set a “disconcerting precedent that has repercussions throughout the international community.” The demand included that Ecuador be suspended as a member of the United Nations until it presents a formal apology for what happened. And that the court set a precedent declaring that a State can be expelled from the UN for cases like this.
The ICJ ruling emphasizes the need to resolve diplomatic disputes by peaceful means, and reaffirms that “embassies and consulates, and their personnel, are inviolable as a fundamental principle of international relations.” The raid by the Ecuadorian police on the Mexican embassy can be described as extraordinary because the 1961 Vienna Convention – the text invoked by Mexico and reviewed by the judges – not only regulates diplomatic relations. It guarantees peaceful interstate exchange. This is what the president of the TIJ, Nawaf Salam, recalled.
The Ecuadorian police broke into the Mexican diplomatic headquarters in Quito on April 5 to prevent the escape of former vice president Jorge Glas, according to the Government of Daniel Noboa. Accused of embezzlement, he spent five years in prison for various corruption cases during the era of President Rafael Correa. He was released in November 2022 for health reasons, and Ecuador has justified the police operation due to the alleged risk of flight due to the Mexican refusal to allow his detention. He had also obtained political asylum status.
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In its response to Mexico’s demand, Ecuador argued that its representatives could without problems remove the goods and documents they want from its embassy in Quito because they are not unprotected. And that the circumstances that led to the arrest of Jorge Glas no longer exist. “There is, therefore, no case that should be taken into account by the court,” according to Andrés Terán Parral, Ecuadorian ambassador to the Netherlands, stated last May. For the Government of the Andean country, Mexico obstructed its judicial system and interfered in its internal affairs by hosting Glas.
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