THE HAGUE, Netherlands, May 1, (AP): Ecuador on Wednesday defended its storming of the Mexican Embassy in Quito last month, telling judges at the United Nations' top court that it acted to take in "a common criminal” - Ecuador's former vice president - who was holed up inside the diplomatic post.
The statement by lawyers for Ecuador was part of hearings in a case filed by Mexico at the International Court of Justice that accuses Quito of blatantly violating international treaties by storming the embassy to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas.
The April 5 raid, hours after Mexico granted asylum to Glas, further fueled tensions that had been brewing between the two countries since the former vice president, a convicted criminal and fugitive, took refuge at the embassy in December.
Leaders across Latin America condemned the raid as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
"Mexico, for months misused its diplomatic premises in Quito to shelter a common criminal" who had been convicted twice of corruption and other offenses, the leader of Ecuador's legal team at the International Court of Justice, Andres Teran Parral, told judges on Tuesday.
In its case filed April 11, Mexico asked the court to award reparation and suspend Ecuador from the United Nations. It also asked judges to take "appropriate and immediate steps to provide full protection and security of diplomatic premises” and prevent any further intrusions.
"There are lines in international law which should not be crossed. Regrettably, the Republic of Ecuador has crossed them,” Alejandro Celorio Alcantara, legal adviser for Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, told the court Tuesday.
But Ecuador argued Wednesday that the ICJ doesn't need to act now because Quito has already complied with the measures sought by Mexico.