MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador expels Mexican ambassador over AMLO remarks

López Obrador hinted that Villavicencio's murder catapulted Daniel Noboa to Ecuador's presidency

The Government of Ecuador Thursday declared Mexican Ambassador to Quito Raquel Serur Smeke “persona non grata” after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO)'s “very unfortunate” remarks regarding the murder of presidential candidate Francisco Villavicencio. The diplomat must now leave the South American country.

In announcing its decision, Ecuador's Foreign Ministry invoked the principle of “non-intervention” in the internal affairs of another country and the Vienna Convention. The Ministry also pointed out that Ecuador was still “mourning” Villavicencio's killing in August last year while leaving a campaign rally in northern Quito.

”In a very strange way... there were elections in Ecuador. The candidate of the progressive forces was about 10 points ahead (...) Then, a candidate who speaks ill of the candidate is suddenly murdered and the candidate who was ahead falls behind,“ AMLO said at a press conference in his country on April 3, hinting that Villavicencio's murder was key to businessman Daniel Noboa's victory due to the damage caused to candidate Luisa González of Former President Rafael Correa's Citizen Revolution. AMLO said González was unjustly linked to Villavicencio's murder and blamed the media for it, after describing them as corrupt.

”In the context of the recent and very unfortunate declarations of the president of Mexico“, the Ecuadorian government ”has decided to “declare 'persona non grata' the ambassador of Mexico in Quito”, invoking “article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Ecuador's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The country continues to confront transnational organized crime that threatens the State, its democratic institutions, and its population,” the document went on while assuring that Ecuador's Foreign Ministry would maintain its “firm commitment to permanently ensure respect for the dignity and sovereignty of the Ecuadorean state and the fundamental principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states.”

In this scenario, a similar response is expected from AMLO's government regarding Ecuador's ambassador in Mexico City.

López Obrador's words were also resented by Villavicencio's widow Verónica Sarauz, who claimed that the Mexican leader lacked any “moral authority to talk about democracies when in his country he maintains links with organized crime groups.”