Dr. Yasmin Calmet

In the current diplomatic state of affairs, any incident that unsettles Latin America can become a critical moment for relations between countries throughout the region. In April, diplomatic tensions between Mexico and Ecuador escalated due to a violation of diplomatic territory. This highlighted the fragility of bilateral relations as well as challenges in building dialogue to resolve political differences between leaders.Ecuador and Mexico have a long history of cordial relations but frictions recently erupted between the two nations after Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s controversial comments on the 2023 Ecuadorian presidential elections. López Obrador had compared the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Villavicencio to violence in Mexico’s current election season, in which several local candidates have been killed. López Obrador also harshly criticized the Ecuadorian press. He blamed the media for election manipulation and claimed that media distortions were responsible for unfairly linking then-candidate Luiza González to Villavicencio’s murder.Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa took López Obrador’s statements as an insult to his country’s sovereignty and declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata. Noboa demanded the Mexican ambassador’s immediate departure and said that her presence would be seen as a threat to order and democracy in Ecuador.Tensions between the two countries escalated further when Noboa ordered the police to remove former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas from the Mexican embassy, where he had taken refuge since December 2023. Ecuador had issued an arrest warrant against Glas for alleged financial misappropriations. Noboa justified the action against Glas, who was on parole, as a an "exceptional" measure to "protect national security, the rule of law, and the dignity of a people who condemn any type of impunity for criminals."In understanding what is at stake in the region, it is important to note that the Ecuadorian president could not, under international law, invoke Ecuadorian law to violate Mexican territory. This is because both countries are signatories to the Vienna Convention, a cornerstone of international law that establishes rules for peaceful coexistence among states. One of these rules concerns the inviolability of diplomatic territories and bodies located in foreign countries. There is also an earlier regional precedent, the 1954 Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, which provided that "asylum granted in legations,&nbsp;war vessels, and military camps or aircraft, to persons being sought for political reasons or for political offenses shall be respected by the territorial State."President Noboa’s actions undermined this important international principle of political asylum. The UN’s 1967 Declaration of Territorial Asylum states that granting asylum is a "peaceful and humanitarian act and that, as such, it cannot be regarded as unfriendly by any other State." Asylum aims to protect individuals facing political persecution. Furthermore, the 1954 Caracas Conventions produced instruments for two separate types of asylum: territorial asylum, which can be granted when the applicant is in the destination state, and diplomatic asylum, which can be granted either in a foreign country or in the applicant’s country of origin if asylum is requested at an embassy.Diplomatic asylum emerged in Latin America in the nineteenth century and is a principle that is not regularly applied across all regions of the world. In Latin American countries, a state can grant asylum outside its own territory, that is, in the territory of another state where an individual is being persecuted, as long as the asylum is sought in a place with immunity within the local jurisdiction, such as an embassy or diplomatic mission. This reflects the unique historical legacy of Latin American legal and diplomatic practice regarding the protections afforded to political refugees.Noboa saw Glas’s petition for political asylum as a pretext for fleeing the country to avoid charges of corruption and embezzlement of public funds. However, under international law, Noboa cannot determine whether Glas’s request is justified. Since Mexico determined that Glas was being politically persecuted in Ecuador, it granted him political asylum to ensure his physical safety.The breach of the Mexican embassy was seen by the government of López Obrador and the international community as a serious violation of both international law and Mexican sovereignty. From the Mexican standpoint, Noboa severely violated the aforementioned treaties and conventions. López Obrador announced that he would take the case to the UN’s International Court of Justice, not only to resolve this specific incident but also to reaffirm the importance of adhering to international laws that protect diplomatic missions.The situation grew from bilateral tensions to a regional concern when the Organization of American States (OAS) intervened and issued a resolution condemning Ecuador’s actions. The OAS called on all member states to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions, and the resolution was approved with 29 votes in favor (only 1 against—Ecuador—and 1 abstention—El Salvador). There is evidently a regional commitment to preserving international norms and ensuring that member countries respect the inviolability of diplomatic premises without exception.Furthermore, this incident could have broader international implications. First, it set a dangerous precedent, potentially encouraging other countries to challenge the legality of political asylum and to justify violations of and interventions in diplomatic spaces in the name of national security. Second, it could affect diplomatic and economic relations between Latin America and other global powers, such as the United States and China.Finally, the incident between Mexico and Ecuador underlines the urgent need for dialogue and cooperation within the international community. It will be important to reinforce respect for diplomatic conventions to maintain international order and security. This episode serves as a critical reminder of the complexity of modern diplomacy: An incident at a single embassy can send aftershocks throughout the international system and therefore requires a careful and considered response. The incident has drawn attention to the challenges that political leaders face in building dialogue, which has ramifications for regional political and economic relations. As this situation unfolds, it will be crucial to observe how different countries respond and what measures they take to strengthen diplomatic protection mechanisms and to ensure that such violations of international law do not reoccur.

How the Mexico-Ecuador Dispute Highlights Fragility of Latin American Relations