Mexico is asking the United Nations to suspend Ecuador’s membership in the international body until the Ecuadorian government publicly apologizes for raiding the Mexican Embassy in Quito, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said on Thursday.
The demand is part of a case Mexico is presenting Thursday to the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s top court, over the raid.
On April 5, Ecuadorian authorities raided Mexico’s embassy in Quito in order to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum in Mexico. Diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico have been suspended since the incident.
"Mexico is accusing [Ecuador] of violating the diplomatic immunity of its embassy," Barcena said. She referred to the raid as “a violation that is not justified anywhere.”
The Ecuadorian government, meanwhile, has argued that corruption charges facing Glas mean the asylum protection was actually illegal. A convicted criminal, Glas took refuge in Mexico’s embassy in December.
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld said Ecuador stood by its actions and that an apology to Mexico "is not something that is under discussion at this moment."
Speaking at the U.N. Security Council, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador urged the court to approve the expulsion.
"The court, in accordance with the United Nations charter, should approve the expulsion, and there should be no veto" from the U.N. Security Council, Lopez Obrador said.
Luis Almagro, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, said it was important to not allow Ecuador’s raid on the Mexican embassy to set a precedent.
“The use of force, the illegal incursion into a diplomatic mission, nor the detention of an asylee are the peaceful ways toward resolution of this situation,” he said.
Some information in this report came from the Associated Press.
