President of Mexico criticizes “ambiguous” reaction of the US and Canada to the embassy assault in Ecuador

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, described this Tuesday as “ambiguous” the reaction of the governments of the United States and Canada to the recent break into the Mexican embassy in Ecuador and directly questioned President Joe Biden for not having personally made statements about the incident.

The operation by Ecuadorian police and soldiers at the diplomatic headquarters in Quito to arrest the former vice president of the South American country Jorge Glas, to whom Mexico had granted asylum, led to a breakdown of diplomatic relations bilateral agreements and the condemnation of the action by the international community.

“A government does not do that if it does not feel that it has support from other governments or powers,” the president initially said in his daily press conference. “Mexico is an independent, free, sovereign country, we are not a colony of any foreign country,” he added.

When asked later about whether there are powers that support the Ecuadorian president, Daniel Noboa, said no, but questioned Washington and Ottawa for their position. “There were very ambiguous statements regarding this grievance in the case of the United States and Canada,” he said.

“We are economic and commercial partners, we are neighbors and their position until now was very indefinite,” he added, and once again highlighted the displays of solidarity from several Latin American leaders, including those of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Colombia.

In a statement issued on Saturday, hours after the raid on the embassy, ​​the United States Department of State condemned “any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” without directly referring to either Ecuador or Mexico.

He added that he “takes very seriously the obligation of host countries, under international law, to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.”

For its part, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was “deeply concerned by Ecuador's apparent violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations by breaking into the Mexican Embassy without authorization.”

López Obrador said, however, that if there is no more severe statement from Washington and Ottawa, “there is no problem,” and that relations with those nations will continue normally.

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