Diplomatic clash between Mexico and Ecuador: Noboa fires the Mexican ambassador after AMLO’s controversial statements

THE diplomatic relations between Ecuador and Mexico are headed to their lowest level in years due to the subsequent expulsion of that country’s ambassador to Quito the controversial statements of the Mexican president on Ecuador’s recent presidential election, analysts warned Friday.

The Ecuadorian Chancellor Gabriela Sommerfeld He said Mexican Ambassador Raquel Serur Smeke has 72 hours to leave the country and argued that the Mexican president’s statements “offend the Ecuadorian state, the Ecuadorians.”

Andrés Manuel López Obrador argued on Wednesday that the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, a few days before the first round of elections in August 2023,influenced the voting process.

“There were elections in Ecuador; The candidate of the progressive forces was ahead by about 10 points” and “then, a candidate who speaks badly of the candidate who is in first place is assassinated and the candidate who was in first place falls and the candidate who was in second place rises”, – said the Mexican leader candidate.

López Obrador was referring to the presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez, of the Citizen Revolution party of former Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa (2007-2017). “You remain a suspect after this murder, you continue to campaign under circumstances, I believe, very difficult“said the Mexican president.

Daniel Noboa, who was initially not among those with the most options in the polls, was the winner of the October elections.

Effects

The expulsion of the Mexican ambassador “deteriorates diplomatic relations, because we demonstrate dissatisfaction with interference in internal politics“Daniel Crespo, a professor and international analyst at the University of San Francisco, told the Associated Press and warned that It is very likely that Mexico will do the same “out of reciprocity”. diplomatic”.

He added that “daily and commercial activities They won’t be much affected” but that political conversations, for example on the irregular immigration of Ecuadorians that pass from Mexico to the United States – “will certainly be interrupted.”

He added that the Ecuadorian reaction it was unnecessarily strong “because it took the hardest measure that are adopted in this type of situation”, without first sending a protest note.

Amanda Villavicencio, one of the daughters of the murdered Ecuadorian candidate, reacted with indignation on her X, formerly Twitter, account. “Wash your mouth López Obrador before talking about my father. To Fernando Villavicencio The gangsters he always investigated killed him. Some of those asylum in your embassies and in your country“, he has declared.

For the former diplomat and professor of the Ecotec Technological University, Carlos Estarellas, Ecuador’s decision was “right” because pays “respect to sovereignty” and the fundamental principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.

According to the expert, “Mexico had already demonstrated an irregular relationship with Ecuador“accepting as refugees” people from the Correa government who have committed common crimes.” The “most serious” case, he said, It is that of former vice president Jorge Glas, who has sentences in numerous cases of corruption.

On Friday, the Mexican embassy, ​​located in northern Quito, appeared relatively normal with regular police guards to prevent Glas, who has not been granted political asylum, from fleeing that mission.