(CNN Spanish) — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador reported this Monday that they presented a lawsuit against Mexico before the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, accusing it of violations of conventions, agreements and international obligations after having received it as a guest in its embassy. in Quito last December to former vice president Jorge Glas, to whom he later granted political asylum.
Glas, who has two final convictions for corruption crimes and a process for embezzlement with a preventive detention order, was arrested by the Ecuadorian Police on April 5 in a raid on the diplomatic headquarters of Mexico, which for this reason broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador. Glas is being held in the maximum security prison of La Roca in Guayaquil.
In the lawsuit, Ecuador refers to the statements that the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, made two days before Glas’s arrest, which in Ecuador’s opinion questioned the legitimacy of its 2023 presidential elections and “trivialized” the murder of former candidate Fernando Villavicencio in the middle of the campaign.
The International Court of Justice reported that it received Ecuador’s request to initiate proceedings against Mexico for alleged violations arising from Mexico’s conduct in relation to Glas.
“Ecuador also accuses Mexico of illegally granting Mr. Glas political asylum and of interference in its internal affairs,” states the International Court in The Hague.
CNN has asked the Mexican government for comment on the lawsuit and is awaiting a response. The Foreign Minister of Mexico, Alicia Bárcena, has “strongly” rejected the accusations of illegal action by Mexico in the Glas case, insisting that they adhered to international law on diplomatic asylum.
What does Ecuador request from the International Court of Justice?
According to the statement from the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, the lawsuit seeks to declare that Mexico failed to comply with laws and regulations that request the non-intervention of States in internal affairs and not to use the diplomatic legation for functions incomparable with its functions, such as granting asylum to people prosecuted for corruption.
“It has failed to comply, among others, with its obligations not to grant asylum to people who are being prosecuted or on trial for common crimes or who have been convicted by competent ordinary courts, and to hand them over to local authorities,” Ecuador maintains in its argument.
Ecuador also considers that Mexico violated principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-intervention in the affairs of other States, as well as cooperating in anti-corruption matters.
Ecuador considers that Mexico has violated article 41 of the Caracas Convention on diplomatic relations of 1961; Article 3 of the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum; Article 1 of the 1933 Political Asylum Convention; the Charter of the United Nations; the Charter of the Organization of American States; Article 14 of the 1966 Inter-American Convention against Corruption, and Articles 43, 46 and 48 of the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption, among other international instruments and customary law.
Mexico’s lawsuit against Ecuador will begin to be analyzed this Tuesday in The Hague
The lawsuit that Mexico filed against Ecuador on April 11 for entering the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest Glas will begin to be analyzed in the International Court of Justice this April 30 in The Hague.
Mexico’s lawsuit against Ecuador refers to the “inviolability of a diplomatic mission,” after the police raid that managed to arrest Glas.
Mexico requested that provisional measures be taken against Ecuador until a final ruling is issued, including that the Ecuadorian Government refrain from carrying out any act or conduct that could aggravate or expand this controversy.
On April 12, an Ecuadorian court determined that Glas’ detention was “arbitrary and illegal,” but also ordered that the former vice president remain detained to serve the two pending sentences.
