Not Your Casual News Week 14: Mexico cuts ties with Ecuador after armed raid on embassy
Also about the 7.2 magnitude quake in Taiwan and a new threat to global supply chains: the Panana Canal drought
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Mexico has broken off diplomatic relations with Ecuador after police stormed into the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest a former Ecuadorian vice-president, an extraordinary move that left everyone speechless.
On Friday night, Ecuadorian officers broke down the doors of the Mexican embassy to arrest Jorge Glas, who had been living there since December. Glas had sought asylum in the embassy after being accused of corruption.
The raid prompted Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to announce the end of diplomatic relations with Ecuador on Friday evening. Mexico’s foreign minister said they will dispute the case at the International Court of Justice.
“This is not possible. It cannot be. This is crazy,” shouted Roberto Canseco to the cameras, apparently still in shock from the raid. The senior Mexican diplomat from the Quito embassy then said:
“I am very worried because they could kill him. There is no basis to do this. This is totally outside the norm.”
Video: Ecuadorian forces taking away Jorge Glas from the Mexican embassy on 5 April, Roberto Canseco can be seen in the second part © Unknown via The Guardian
On Saturday, authorities took Glas from the prosecutor’s office to a maximum security prison in the port city of Guayaquil. Some protesters outside the office yelled “strength” as Glas was driven away in police and military vehicles.
Sonia Vera, Glas’ lawyer, said the officers broke into his room and he resisted when they tried to restrain him, so they threw him to the floor and kicked him in the head, spine, legs and hands. When he “couldn't walk, they dragged him out.”
The defence team has not been allowed to speak to Glas and is now seeking a habeas corpus writ — a court order that requires a prisoner to be brought before a judge to determine whether their detention is lawful.
But Jorge Glas is no hero.
He has been convicted of bribery and corruption for alleged irregularities in his management of reconstruction efforts following a devastating earthquake in 2016. The investigation was led by the Ecuadorian authorities with the assistance of the US Department of Justice.
The 2016 earthquake, which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale, caused widespread damage and loss of life in Ecuador. The government launched a massive reconstruction effort, and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht ended up being one of the main contractors.
Jorge Glas was accused of taking bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for helping the company secure millions of dollars in government contracts.
The bribes were allegedly paid between 2012 and 2016, during Glas’ tenure as vice president and when he served as the country’s minister of public works.
Glas was found guilty of accepting $13.5 million in bribes and was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay a $1.3 million fine and return the $13.5 million in bribes he accepted.
However, Ecuador’s former leader Rafael Correa said about Jorge Glas that he “is an honest man, he is a political persecuted person and for this reason, Mexico granted him asylum.”
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Ecuador’s line of defence is that President Daniel Noboa took the decision to raid the Mexican embassy in Quito after considering Glas’ “imminent flight risk” and after exhausting all diplomatic options with Mexico.
The raid took place hours after Mexico had granted Glas asylum, with Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld justifying it by saying that “it is not legal to grant asylum to people convicted of common crimes and by competent courts.”
“Ecuador is a sovereign nation and we are not going to allow any criminal to stay free,” the presidency said in a statement.
Leaders across Latin America condemned Ecuador’s actions as a violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The VCDR sets out the rules and principles that govern the conduct of diplomatic relations between states, such as the protection of people seeking refuge in an embassy.
The White House was more vocal in its condemnation of Ecuador's actions.
“We condemn this violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, including the use of force against embassy officials,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said during Tuesday’s press briefing.
“The Ecuadorian government disregarded its obligations under international law as a host state to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions and jeopardized the foundation of basic diplomatic norms and relationships.”
Last year, Daniel Noboa assumed the presidency of Ecuador at a time when the country was facing serious criminal activity linked to drug trafficking. In January, Noboa declared the country to be in a state of "internal armed conflict" and designated 20 drug-trafficking organisations as terrorist groups. The military was authorised to "neutralise" these groups under international humanitarian law.
“In Ecuador going to jail is practically a death sentence,” said Glas’ lawyer Sonia Vera. “We consider that the international political and legal person responsible for the life of Jorge Glas is President Daniel Noboa Azín.”
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What Else Happened?
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On 3 April, Taiwan was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, the largest since the 1999 Jiji earthquake, which left 10 dead, 1,011 injured and 143 people trapped. The quake, centred in the Pacific Ocean near Hualien County (in the central east of the island, about 150km from Taipei), damaged buildings and trapped people in quarries and a national park. Rescue efforts were underway to locate and free those trapped, while aftershocks continued in the region. Damage to buildings and the evacuation of schools were also reported in Taipei. “I’ve grown accustomed to (earthquakes). But today was the first time I was scared to tears by an earthquake,” Taipei resident Hsien-hsuen Keng told AP. “I was awakened by the earthquake. I had never felt such intense shaking before.”
Bertha Gisela Gaytán, a candidate for mayor of the Mexican city of Celaya, was shot dead on 1 April. The attack took place in the middle of the street during a campaign rally for the candidate of the left-wing Morena, the party of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrado, which has governed Mexico since 2018 and to which Gisela Gaytán belonged. The attack is part of a wave of political violence in Mexico ahead of general elections scheduled for 2 June. Another candidate, Adrián Guerrero, was initially reported dead but is now missing. Criminal gangs are known to fund and intimidate politicians during election season, particularly at the municipal level.
The number of female mayors in Türkiye almost tripled to 11 out of 81 provinces after the recent local elections, including five women running major urban centres. This increase in female representation is significant as critics argue that women’s rights have regressed under Erdogan’s rule. The AKP, Erdogan’s party, suffered a major defeat in these elections, with opposition parties winning in major cities and provinces. “The election took place between two sharp lines. One was the mentality that saw women as second-class, and the other defended women’s freedom. The public chose the latter,” Gülistan Sönük, 31, told Reuters. Sönük is from the pro-Kurdish DEM party and is the newly elected mayor of Batman, a city of 450,000.
Climate News
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The Malagasy government declared a state of national emergency on 3 April following the devastating impact of Tropical Cyclone Gamane, which hit the north and north-east of Madagascar on 27 March. According to the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management, at least 18 people died as a result of the storm. Some 535,000 people living in the 33 flooded communes have been affected, including about 22,000 displaced people living in temporary shelters. The floods have also cut power supplies and blocked roads in several areas.
Winds equivalent to a category 1 hurricane battered southern China from 31 March onwards. A total of seven people have died and more than 313,000 people have been affected by the extreme weather, including 1,600 who have been evacuated. In Jiangxi province, three people died after being pulled out of their apartment windows by typhoon-like winds. The China Meteorological Administration issued an orange alert on 2 April, the highest in its three-level warning system.
The Panama Canal, a major trade route, has limited the number of daily crossings due to a severe drought. If the rains return in May as expected, the canal plans to increase daily slots to about 36 ships per day, the usual number of transits during the rainy season. For now, the canal has recently increased the number of daily crossings from 24 to 27, thanks to rising water levels in the Gatun Lake (an artificial lake that is part of the Panama Canal), but this is still far from the 2022 average of 34-40 per day. According to Clarksons Research, a provider of data on global shipping and trade, tonnage transiting the Panama Canal, which accounts for 2.5% of world trade, has fallen by a third as a result of the restrictions. The canal’s inability to absorb demand from shippers seeking alternative routes due to the blockade of the Suez Canal in the Red Sea by Houthi attackers is exacerbating the situation and could affect global supply chains at a time of high demand.
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