Analysis of the diplomatic conflict between Ecuador and Mexico: the inviolability of Embassies and diplomatic asylum

Abstract

The raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito by the Armed Forces and National Police of Ecuador presents an important discussion regarding the principle of the inviolability of diplomatic missions. This is especially relevant when examining the limits of this inviolability, which is protected by both conventional and customary diplomatic law—particularly in a case involving an individual such as former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who has been convicted by the courts of the sending State (Ecuador in this case). For this reason, we will aim to uphold and argue the existence of a hierarchy among norms within international law, acknowledging that for the international community as a whole, certain norms carry greater political and legal weight than others. To this end, we will begin by briefly reviewing the main facts of the conflict between the two nations; then, we will examine jus cogens peremptory norms as fundamental rules of public international law; next, we will conceptualize the legal and political characteristics of both the inviolability of diplomatic missions and the right to diplomatic asylum; and finally, we will analyze the possible legal, economic, and political consequences of the incursion into the Mexican Embassy in Quito, carried out by the Republic of Ecuador itself.