- At the Extraordinary Meeting of Celac Foreign Ministers, Foreign Secretary Alicia Bárcena asked for support in the lawsuit that Mexico will bring to the International Court of Justice and in its presentation of the case to the UN General Assembly, following Ecuador's attack on the Mexican embassy.
- She supported the Celac proposal to convene an Extraordinary Meeting of Heads of State and Government.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, took part in the Extraordinary Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that was convened after the violent attack by the Ecuadorian police on the Mexican embassy and the aggression committed against diplomatic personnel on April 5.
At the meeting, Foreign Secretary Bárcena said, "We have witnessed a brutal and unjustified attack against our embassy by Special Forces from Ecuador, and also against our diplomat Roberto Canseco, against my country and against our regional integration [...] it is unprecedented in the history of the region, not even in the worst dictatorships [did this happen]."
"With its actions, the Government of Ecuador not only flagrantly violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but also contravened one of the most important and solid legal institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is asylum,” she said.
The assault on the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador was condemned by 19 of the 20 countries that spoke out at the meeting, as it constitutes a flagrant violation of Article 22 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specifically on the inviolability of representations. For this reason, the foreign secretary said, "These acts must be condemned internationally to safeguard the laws that govern countries."
"The behavior of the Government of Ecuador was disproportionate and must not set a precedent. This is why, under the leadership of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the committed legal team of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, my country has decided to file a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian government at the International Court of Justice," she said.
The foreign secretary asked for the support of the States in the case that Mexico will bring before the ICJ and the presentation of the case at the UN General Assembly. "Mexico urges the CELAC member States to back the lawsuit that we will bring to the International Court of Justice, as well as the letter that we will send to the UN Secretary-General condemning these appalling events," she said.
She welcomed the proposal of Honduras, as president pro tempore, to convene an Extraordinary Meeting of Heads of State and Government, "since this action requires a firm and united voice in defense of international law and the most basic rules of coexistence among our countries," she remarked.
Regarding the issue of asylum, Secretary Bárcena Ibarra said that Mexico has always adhered to international law, particularly to the 1954 Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, which establishes that it “shall rest with the State granting asylum to determine the motives for the persecution.” She said further that Mexico had maintained direct and constant communication with the Government of Ecuador on this issue at all times.
"They cannot question the country granting asylum about its reasons for granting it. We have done this in the past with great pride [...] We have been able to protect the lives of many people in Latin America and the Caribbean, and we will continue to do so," she said.
Finally, the foreign secretary thanked the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 20 European countries and more than 10 countries in the Middle East and Africa for their explicit support.
"It is time to see a united Celac, a Celac that defends international norms. Celac has the obligation to demonstrate to the international community that breaches of international law are unacceptable, but, above all, that they have consequences [...] it is up to us to ensure that this flagrant violation of Mexico's sovereignty never happens again in any other country,” she concluded.
