They will provide services only until May 15, announces the government of Daniel Noboa
Quito. Ecuador will close all its consulates in Mexico, the Foreign Ministry of the Andean country announced on Saturday, just over a month after the rupture of bilateral relations following the police raid on its diplomatic headquarters in Quito.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry reported in a statement that the Ecuadorian consulates in Mexico City and Monterrey will provide their services until May 15. Starting on the 16th, the procedures of Ecuadorians residing in that country will be handled from the offices in Guatemala, Houston and Phoenix.
The Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry did not provide more details about the diplomatic personnel who will work in those offices until the middle of the month.
For William Murillo, president of the legal advisory organization 1800 Migrante, based in the United States, the measure “directly affects tens of thousands of Ecuadorians who are in Mexico, many of whom are being victims of kidnapping and crime.” organized,” he told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Murillo considered that the situation for migrants is of “very great concern” because “there is no one to defend them in Mexico” and it is not the same to request help in third countries. This “enormously benefits illegal migrant smuggling networks,” he lamented.
Mexico had announced the closure of its consular services in Ecuador as of April 7, which are carried out from the embassies of Colombia, Peru and Chile.
The measure comes after Mexico announced the breaking of diplomatic relations with Ecuador, in response to the raid, on April 5, of the Ecuadorian police at the Mexican embassy in Quito, from where they took former vice president Jorge Glas, to arrest him. , despite the fact that Mexico had granted him political asylum hours before.
Ecuador described the granting of asylum as an “illicit act” alleging that Glas was sentenced for common crimes, but the break-in at the embassy earned Ecuador a condemnation within international organizations and Mexico filed a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice. Is.
The tension began days before the raid on the diplomatic headquarters due to statements made by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador about the last elections in Ecuador, held in October and in which President Daniel Noboa won.
Following López Obrador’s comments, the Noboa government declared the Mexican ambassador persona non grata.
Source: eluniversal
