International leaders condemn Ecuador after police raid on Mexico embassy
- Ecuador’s raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito on Friday has unleashed a storm of international criticism
- Security forces forced their way into the embassy to arrest a top politician who had sought asylum there
The global condemnation of Ecuador’s government for its decision to break into the Mexican embassy snowballed with more presidents and other leaders expressing disapproval, shock and dismay.
The criticism came as Mexico’s ambassador and other personnel arrived in Mexico City on Sunday afternoon after departing Ecuador’s capital, Quito, on a commercial flight.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador severed diplomatic ties with Ecuador immediately after Friday’s raid, which international law experts, presidents and diplomats have deemed a violation of long-established international accords.
Alicia Bercena, Mexico’s secretary of foreign relations, thanked the returning diplomats “for defending our embassy in Quito even at the risk of their own physical well-being”.
“Not even the dictator Pinochet had dared to enter the Mexican embassy in Chile,” she said Sunday, referring to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. “They entered violently and without authorisation, physically assaulting (diplomats). We energetically condemn it.”
