MEXICO CITY — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered the closure of his nation’s embassy and consulates in Ecuador on Tuesday in solidarity with Mexico in its protest over a raid by Ecuadorian authorities on the Mexican Embassy in Quito.
Maduro and different presidents taking part in a digital assembly of the Neighborhood of Latin American and Caribbean States expressed their assist for Mexico’s request to have the United Nations droop Ecuador from the world physique over the April 5 raid. However Maduro was the one one to announce the closure of diplomatic outposts and recall of personnel.
“The condemnation has been unanimous, whole, absolute,” Maduro mentioned, referring to the excoriation Ecuador’s transfer has drawn. “Nobody at this time on this world comes out to defend this barbaric act.”
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa ordered authorities to raid the Mexican Embassy to arrest the nation’s former Vice President Jorge Glas, a convicted legal and fugitive who had been residing there since December. Mexico granted him asylum hours earlier than police discovered Glas in a bed room and dragged him out.
The terribly uncommon use of power drew rapid condemnation from governments world wide as a result of diplomatic premises are thought-about overseas soil and “inviolable” underneath the Vienna treaties.
Noboa, who didn’t take part in Tuesday’s assembly, mentioned final week that he licensed the raid “to guard nationwide safety.” His authorities has argued that Glas was wished for his legal convictions for corruption and never political causes and has accused Mexico of violating the Vienna treaties by granting him asylum.
Mexico severed diplomatic relations with Ecuador instantly after the raid and recalled its diplomatic mission. It hoped to make use of the CELAC assembly to rally a unified entrance for its case each on the U.N. and earlier than the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.
Honduras President Xiomara Castro, who presently leads CELAC, opened Tuesday’s assembly by studying a proposed assertion condemning Ecuador’s actions. She then offered a video of Ecuadorian authorities breaking into Mexico’s Embassy, together with dramatic music.
Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador adopted, repeating his demand that Ecuador be suspended from the United Nations till it apologizes and guarantees to by no means do it once more.
“If we don’t do that, we’re not going to have the ability to reside in a world dominated by norms, by legal guidelines,” López Obrador mentioned. “We might be residing on the earth of the gorillas.”
The Mexican president cited Augusto Pinochet, who dominated Chile from 1973 to 1990, and mentioned even Pinochet didn’t raid Mexico’s embassy when Chilean dissidents sought refuge there. “Pinochet didn’t dare to invade our embassy, that fearsome dictator,” López Obrador mentioned.
Maduro mentioned he has ordered all diplomatic personnel again to Venezuela “till worldwide regulation is expressly restored in Ecuador.”
Maduro mentioned Glas, who’s now being held at a maximum-security jail within the port metropolis of Guayaquil, “should be returned to the Mexican embassy and have his political asylum acknowledged.”
Noboa drew further criticism for not showing at CELAC’s digital gathering. Whereas leaders questioned his determination, he posted an Instagram video selling enhancements to regulation enforcement infrastructure and one other one asserting an emergency declaration protecting the nation’s electrical energy sector amid hours-long energy outages in Quito.
“He ought to have proven up and assumed accountability for himself in entrance of Ecuador, in entrance of Latin America, in entrance of the Caribbean, in entrance of the world and he has not proven his face,” Maduro mentioned. “I can say from Venezuela that he has gone into hiding and the individuals of Ecuador ought to comprehend it.”
Venezuela’s Embassy in Quito appeared closed Tuesday. Individuals attempting to maintain paperwork remained exterior, together with reporters, unable to get solutions from embassy workers.
Mexico’s Overseas Affairs Ministry didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Venezuela’s announcement.
Underneath Maduro’s 11-year presidency, greater than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their residence nation, and most have settled elsewhere in Latin America and within the Caribbean. Ecuador has the sixth-largest focus of Venezuelan migrants.
Ecuadorian officers and nongovernmental organizations that help migrants estimate that 475,000 Venezuelans reside in Ecuador. Of these greater than 231,000 reside completely and legally there, in response to Ecuador’s 2023 census.
