On Monday, April 15, an interview with Noboa given to the Australian channel was broadcast. SBS, where the Ecuadorian president stated: “I have no regrets,” referring to the assault on the Mexican Embassy on Friday, April 5. This is the first interaction of the president of Ecuador since the beginning of the crisis with Mexico.
Faced with the almost unanimous condemnation of the international community for breaking the inviolability of a diplomatic headquarters, Noboa admitted that “it was a very difficult decision to make,” but that he did it because his Government considers that Mexico was the first to violate international conventions.
“It is first a violation of the Mexican Government, which is then followed by another violation, but we had to act, we had to make a decision, because there was a plan to escape that we were aware of,” declared Noboa.
“We condemn the fact that some governments use their embassies under the façade of a political refuge that in reality is impunity, it is saving criminals from their sentences,” he added.
The Ecuadorian president recalled that the Caracas Asylum Convention states that asylum cannot be given to a person prosecuted in ordinary courts for common crimes.
🔴 Daniel Noboa on the break-in at the Mexican Embassy in Quito: “I don’t regret it… There was a plan for (Jorge Glas) to escape.”
The president of Ecuador condemned that “some governments use political asylum as a façade to save criminals from their sentence.” pic.twitter.com/3OFPmsBdys
— Yalilé Loaiza (@yali_loaiza) April 15, 2024
The former vice president was under an arrest warrant and placed in preventive detention in the case of the reconstruction works of the strong earthquake that occurred in 2016, where he is accused of alleged embezzlement (embezzlement of public funds).
Also, he had to return to prison to finish serving an eight-year prison sentence for two convictions of bribery and illicit association, of which he already served nearly five years when at the end of 2022 he was released thanks to a controversial judicial resolution of measures precautionary.
“In this case Jorge Glas had a sentence, and he had to be in jail,” reiterated Noboa, for whom Glas “had a fair trial.”
However, the former vice president, who held the position during the presidential term of Rafael Correa and at the beginning of the administration of Lenín Moreno (2017-2021), has always rejected the accusations against him and has declared himself a victim of ‘lawfare’ (use of judicial apparatus against political adversaries).
Glas’s detention inside the Mexican Embassy in Quito was declared illegal and arbitrary by an Ecuadorian court on Friday, April 12, but he was imprisoned as he was still serving his sentence for the Bribery case, in which Correa was also sentenced. , and for illicit association in the Odebrecht case.
“I want to be seen as someone who is fair”
Noboa was questioned if the assault on the Mexican Embassy was to project a heavy-handed image, since he has called for a referendum on April 21 on reforms in security, investments, justice and employment. Noboa responded that he wants to be seen as “someone who is fair, not necessarily a tough guy.”
“If Glas had escaped using Embassy vehicles and Mexican Government planes, I would have seemed very weak to everyone. Now that I’ve done it, they see me as very tough. It is difficult to please everyone, but the majority of people in the country are happy with this decision,” said Noboa.
Regarding the way he plans to solve the crisis with Mexico, the Ecuadorian president said that he will seek to have lunch with López Obrador.
“I will invite López Obrador to eat ceviche, and we can probably also eat some tacos and talk, when he is ready,” he said.
▶️ The world witnessed the violence, abuse and subjugation of our Mexican personnel at the hands of the Ecuadorian police, as well as the violation of the immunity of our embassy in Ecuador.
Mexico will go to international courts and tribunals with the support of countries… pic.twitter.com/rhU5I2PQsR
— Foreign Affairs (@SRE_mx) April 9, 2024
The irruption of state forces into the Mexican Embassy led the López Obrador Government to break relations with Ecuador and denounce it before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, considering that its sovereignty and also international law were violated.
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