The Government of Ecuador announced this Thursday that it decided declare the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur, persona “non grata”in response to statements by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obradorabout the murder of the former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the apparent electoral consequences of that crime.
“Today I was talking about how, in a very strange way… There were elections in Ecuador, the candidate of the progressive forces was about 10 points ahead, 10 points. Like three, four, five more candidates. So, A candidate who speaks ill of the candidate at the top is suddenly assassinated, and the candidate who was at the top falls, and the candidate who was in second rises.. But The candidate who remains a suspect after this murder continues campaigning in circumstances“I think it’s very difficult because imagine all the media, but it goes on and on and on,” said the president of Mexico.
«And what they implement. What is the second stage? “They create a rarefied atmosphere of violence”, to the point that the candidates go to the debates with bulletproof vests, and this is spread by all the media… But all armed!he added.
The Foreign Ministry of Ecuador, in a statement, invoked the principle of “non-intervention” in the internal affairs of another country and the Vienna convention to take the diplomatic measure that implies the departure of the ambassador from the country.
In addition, he indicated that Ecuador is still experiencing “mourning” for the shooting of Villavicencio, which occurred in August of last year, when the then presidential candidate was leaving an electoral political rally in a busy neighborhood in northern Quito, in broad daylight. .
Correa’s thesis
The version given by López Obrador about the Villavicencio murder is a thesis spread by Rafael Correa himself to position the idea that he was murdered by his own party colleagues.
The Mexican president assured that there is social responsibility in the environment of situations of violence and said that the media does not escape from this either.
“In the context of the recent and very unfortunate statements by the President of Mexico,” the Ecuadorian Government “has decided to “declare the Mexican ambassador in Quito ‘persona non grata’,” by invoking “article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” stated the Foreign Ministry in Quito.
He assured that “Ecuador is still in mourning” for the murder of Villavicencioa crime that “caused shock in Ecuadorian society and attacked democracy, peace and security.”
“The country continues to face transnational organized crime that threatens the State, its democratic institutions and its population”he added.
Defense of dignity
Likewise, he emphasized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will maintain its “firm commitment to permanently ensure respect for the dignity and sovereignty of the Ecuadorian State and to the fundamental principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.
Villavicencio was shot dead on August 9, 2023at the exit of an electoral rally in Quito when there were eleven days left until the first round of the extraordinary general elections were held.
The murder of Villavicencio raised to unprecedented levels the wave of violence that has hit Ecuador for about three years, making the country one of the most violent in Latin America, with 45 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023.
On January 8, President Noboa decreed a state of emergency nationwide due to the high levels of insecurity, and declared a situation of “internal armed conflict”, for which he began to call 22 organized crime groups “terrorists”. .
The spiral of violence in Ecuador was unleashed just after Noboa announced his decision to implement a plan to regain control of the prisons, many of them internally dominated by criminal groups, whose rivalries have left more than 450 prisoners murdered since 2020 in a series of prison massacres. EFE
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