Ecuador Countersue Mexico in Hague Court

The Government of Ecuador countersued Mexico before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of The Hague on Monday when it considered that the Mexican State, with the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, contravened the agreement that regulates diplomatic asylum by granting it to Jorge Glas, kidnapped in Quito three weeks ago.

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Ecuador’s countersuit responds to an initial lawsuit filed by Mexico before The Hague in which it accused the Andean country of having transgressed the inviolable character of the diplomatic offices by invading its embassy in Quito on April 5 to kidnap Glas.

The Ecuadorian Chancellery, in a statement, explained that the countersuit also denounces alleged interference in internal affairs when in the days before López Obrador linked the assassination of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio with the electoral triumph of President Daniel Noboa over running mate Luisa González.

Quito requests the International Court to declare that Mexico "has failed in its obligations to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State, not to interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving State and not to use the premises of the mission in a manner incompatible with the functions of the diplomatic mission, in accordance with article 41 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations".

#URGENTE: Ecuador anuncia una demanda a México ante la Corte Internacional de Justicia, por el supuesto incumplimiento de normas de asilo político y diplomático. La demanda interpuesta también se refiere a las "injuriosas declaraciones efectuadas por el presidente de México… pic.twitter.com/OlzCWkhShI

— Elena Rodríguez Yánez (@ElenaDeQuito) April 29, 2024

 The text reads, 

Ecuador announces a lawsuit against Mexico before the International Court of Justice, for alleged non-compliance with political and diplomatic asylum regulations. The lawsuit filed also refers to the "injurious statements made by the president of Mexico

According to the government of Daniel Noboa, who defended the assault on the US legation, Mexico also "has failed, inter alia, to grant asylum to persons who are being tried or tried for ordinary offences or have been convicted by competent ordinary courts, and to hand them over to the competent local authorities", as contained in the 1954 and 1933 conventions on diplomatic asylum and political asylum, respectively.

The former vice president was in the Embassy of Mexico in Quito since December 17, 2023, where he requested asylum having always rejected the charges and accusations against him and declared himself a persecuted politician and victim of lawfare (use of the judicial apparatus against political opponents), like Correa, who has refugee status in Belgium.

However, for the Ecuadorian Executive, the administration of López Obrador "has violated the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS) and international common law".

Although the Mexican government has demanded that Ecuador hand over Glas, he is being held in La Roca, Ecuador’s maximum-security prison, in the city of Guayaquil, where in the first days of his imprisonment he suffered a decompensation that led him to be hospitalized for several hours.