THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Judges at the UN’s top court were scheduled Thursday to hand down a decision on Mexico’s request for emergency measures over Quito’s embassy raid last month to snatch a former top Ecuadoran politician.
Ecuadoran security forces stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito in early April to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who is wanted on corruption charges and had been granted asylum by Mexico.
Mexico dragged Ecuador before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, asking judges to declare Quito in breach of international law and hand down “provisional measures” — court-speak for a set of urgent interventions — while its case was ongoing.
Judges will give a decision at 1300 GMT on Thursday at the opulent Peace Palace, home of the ICJ. The case proper, however, could still take months, if not years.
Quito’s rare incursion on diplomatic territory sparked an international outcry, and led Mexico to break ties with Ecuador and pull its diplomats out of the country.
Late last month, Mexico’s representative Alejandro Celorio Alcantara told judges Ecuador’s raid “crossed a line,” setting a dangerous precedent when it came to international relations.
“There are lines in international law which should not be crossed,” Celorio said.
The judges on Thursday will rule on Mexico’s immediate requests, including that Quito should “take appropriate and immediate steps to provide full security of diplomatic premises… and archives, preventing further intrusion against them”.
Mexico is also asking judges to order Ecuador to “refrain from any act or conduct likely to aggravate or widen the dispute of which the Court is seized”.
Judges will next ruminate over the case proper, in which Mexico accuses Ecuador of “breaking international law”.
Mexico is asking the ICJ to suspend Ecuador from the UN until it issues a public apology — and for the court to declare itself the “appropriate judicial body” to determine Quito’s responsibility in order to start a process to expel it from the world body.
Mexico based its application on the principles of the UN Charter as well as the 1948 Pact of Bogota — which obliges its signatories to solve disputes through peaceful means — and the 1961 Vienna Convention which guarantees protection for diplomatic staff.
But Ecuador’s diplomats hit back during the hearings, saying the embassy raid was “exceptional” and aimed “solely” to bring Glas — which Quito said was a wanted fugitive — to justice.
“Mexico for months misused its diplomatic premises in Quito to shelter a common criminal who had been duly convicted by the highest Ecuadoran courts of very serious corruption-related offences,” said Andres Teran Parral, Ecuador’s ambassador to the Netherlands.
Ecuador last month filed its own case against Mexico, making a similar argument that it “blatantly abused” its diplomatic mission to harbor Glas.
Glas, who served as vice president from 2013 to 2017, faces graft charges stemming from his time in office.