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The government of Ecuador announced this Thursday that it has decided to declare the Mexican ambassador in Quito, Raquel Serur, persona “non grata”, in response to statements by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obradorabout the assassination of former Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio and the apparent electoral consequences of this crime.
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Itamaraty, 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 country’s ambassador. Furthermore, I point out that the South American nation is still experiencing “mourning” for the shooting crime in Villavicencio, which occurred in August of last year, when the presidential candidate then emerged from a political electoral campaign in a competitive neighborhood of northern Quito, in broad daylight of the day.
At a press conference in his country, the Mexican president commented on the consequences of Villavicencio’s murder in the context of last year’s presidential elections in Ecuador, which gave victory to the current president, the businessman Daniel Noboa.
López Obrador He said that, in his opinion, Villavicencio’s crime particularly harmed Luisa González, presidential candidate of the Citizen Revolution movement, led by progressive former governor Rafael Correa (2007-2017), an opinion that was also shared by several electoral analysts in Ecuador. .
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The Mexican president guaranteed that there is social responsibility in the environment of violent situations and said that the media cannot escape this either. “In the context of the recent and very unfortunate statements made by the President of Mexico”, the Ecuadorian Government “decided to “declare the Mexican ambassador ‘persona non grata’”. Mexico in Quito“, when invoking “article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations”, specified the Itamaraty in Quito.
He assured that “Ecuador is still in mourning” over the murder of Villavicencio, a 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.
Likewise, he emphasized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will maintain its “firm commitment to permanently guarantee respect for the dignity and sovereignty of the Ecuadorian state and the fundamental principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other States.” Villavicencio was shot dead on August 9, 2023, as he left an election rally in Quito, with eleven days remaining until the first round of extraordinary general elections.
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Villavicencio’s murder raised the wave of violence that hits Ecuador around three years ago, 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 Exception Status at national level due to high levels of insecurity, and declared a situation of “internal armed conflict”, which is why he started calling 22 organized crime groups “terrorists”.
The spiral of violence in Ecuador The crisis erupted shortly after Noboa announced its decision to launch a plan to regain control of 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.
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The government considered the Mexican president’s statements “very unfortunate”, in which he questioned the alleged manipulation of the media to “create a rarefied atmosphere of violence” which, according to him, ended up affecting the current president’s left-wing rival candidate. Daniel Noboa.
Itamaraty decided to “declare the Mexican Ambassador in Quito, Ms. Raquel Serur Semeke, ‘persona non grata’”, according to a statement, which implies that she leaves the country.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
