Former Hispanic presidents condemn raid on the Mexican embassy in Ecuador

Mexico City. Former presidents of the Hispanic community of the world, grouped in the political organization Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA), condemned the raid on the Mexican embassy in Ecuador.

This after considering that the right to seek and receive asylum is a historical institution rooted in American international law, of a humanitarian, peaceful and social nature and that in no way can be considered an unfriendly act by any State.

Below is the full text of the declaration:

DECLARATION ON RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW, THE DETERIORATION OF THE RIGHT OF POLITICAL ASYLUM IN LATIN AMERICA AND ITS PROTECTION

The former heads of State and Government of the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas

(IDEA),

Noting that the right to seek and receive asylum is a historical institution rooted in

American international law, of a humanitarian, peaceful and social nature and that in

In no way can it be considered an unfriendly act by any State;

Keeping in mind that, due to the above, “the security derived from asylum cannot be interpreted

as a protection against the laws and jurisdiction of the courts legally

constituted”;

Noting, furthermore, that a former Ecuadorian minister convicted of corruption received asylum

in Quito from the Argentine embassy and left it, furtively, protected by Venezuela

and without waiting for safe conduct;

Verifying, at the same time that, successively, the government of Mexico intervenes in the affairs

Ecuadorian inmates when their president declared that the assassination of the presidential candidate

Fernando Villavicencio – who reported Jorge Glas to the State Attorney General’s Office –

harmed the presidential candidate of the Citizen Revolution movement;

Considering that the Mexican State, without assessing the legal situation of the former vice president

Glas convicted and imprisoned for acts of corruption linked to the operations of

Odebrecht granted him political asylum;

Aware that Ecuadorian police forces in order to arrest the former vice president

Jorge Glas, violated the headquarters of the Mexican embassy in the city of Quito and disrespected

the inviolability of all diplomatic headquarters according to the principles and norms of law

International;

WE DECLARE THAT

We reject the granting of political asylum to former Vice President Glas made by the

government of Mexico, given its open contradiction with what the Convention prescribes

Inter-American and the United Nations Convention against Corruption, namely, that “the

fact that an act of corruption is alleged to have been committed for motives or with

political purposes, will not be sufficient on their own to consider said act as a crime

political or as a common crime related to a political crime”, since what is appropriate is not

consider “none of the crimes classified as political in nature” in accordance with said

international instruments.

We reject the attack that occurred against the inviolability of the Mexican diplomatic headquarters

in Ecuador for contravening the principles of the Vienna Convention and the Law

general international;

We call on the governments of Ecuador and Mexico to resolve this

differing through a constructive dialogue that ensures the normality of their relations

of friendship and in accordance with the norms and principles of international law and those of the

Right to asylum, widely developed by the Inter-American Court of Rights

Humans, at the request of Ecuador itself.

We invite the international community and States to proceed with the review now

updating the regulations on the Right to Asylum, in such a way that they reflect the

provisions of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime

Organized.

April 9, 2024

Mario Abdo, Paraguay

Óscar Arias S., Costa Rica

José María Aznar, Spain

Nicolás Ardito Barletta, Panama

Felipe Calderon, Mexico

Rafael Ángel Calderón, Costa Rica

Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica

Alfredo Cristiani, El Salvador

José María Figueres, Costa Rica

Vicente Fox, Mexico

Federico Franco, Paraguay

Eduardo Frei, Chile

Lucio E. Gutiérrez B., Ecuador

Osvaldo Hurtado, Ecuador

Luis Alberto Lacalle H., Uruguay

Guillermo Lasso, Ecuador

Mauricio Macri, Argentina

Jamil Mahuad W., Ecuador

Carlos Mesa G., Bolivia

Lenin Moreno, Ecuador

Mireya Moscoso, Panama

Andrés Pastrana, Colombia

Ernesto Pérez Balladares, Panama

Jorge Tuto Quiroga, Bolivia

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez E., Costa Rica

John Carlos Wasmosy, Paraguay

Is real:

Asdrúbal Aguiar

General Secretary of the IDEA Group

www.idea-democratica.org