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Mexico has broken diplomatic ties with Ecuador.
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Ecuador special forces broke into the Mexican embassy in Quito which is
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the capital of Ecuador on Friday to arrest their former Vice President
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Jorge Glass. This is tricky because Mexico granted glass asylum
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amid corruption charges to help us understand what going on.
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We have Professor Michael Paarlberg,
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assistant Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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Hello, Professor. Hi,
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Thanks for having me.
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Thank you for coming on.
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So professor, why is this embassy break in so bad?
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Well, it's a violation of international diplomatic protocols,
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contrary to popular belief,
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embassies are not actually foreign territory.
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A lot of people think that for example,
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in Ecuador, the Mexican embassy is Mexican territory.
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That's not true. However,
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under a pair of diplomatic conventions called the Vienna Conventions or past
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the 19 sixties, that pretty much all countries agree to
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there is a principle of in viability under which the embassy
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the chief of mission of an embassy has to permit
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the police or any other forces from the host country to enter
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the grounds. And if they do not,
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then this is a violation of the sovereignty of that country.
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So this is something that creates a lot of anxiety for countries
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all over the world who worry about the safety of their diplomatic
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personnel. And in some extreme cases,
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this has been violated in the past most famously for the United
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States in the Iranian hostage crisis.
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In 1979. More recently,
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there was there have been outright attacks on embassies such as
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the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi Libya.
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But these were carried out by insurgent groups,
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not by the actual government.
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So this is something that is extremely worrying for Mexico but also
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for other countries in the region and really the world if they
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believe that their embassies can be simply invaded by the security
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forces of another country.
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What happens next after all this?
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Well, Mexico has a broken diplomatic relations with Ecuador at least
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for now. And they have said they're going to bring
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this case to court under the International Court of Justice.
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Other countries have complained about this.
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Nicaragua is so far is the only other country to have
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also broken ties with Ecuador over this but mostly left leaning governments
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in Latin America have partially criticized this this raid.
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So this is creating bigger rifts within the region in which governments
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that are aligned with Mexico,
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mostly on the left are being very critical of the NOVO government
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which has until recently been relatively popular.
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And enjoyed a fair amount of legitimacy almost across the
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ideological spectrum. And where is Jorge Glass now?
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Well, he is under arrest and he is going to be
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He was already in prison for for a long time
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on these two corruption charges.
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And so it's presumed that he will will serve out
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his sentence. And why did this happen?
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Exactly. Well, Glass is a former vice president under the
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former presidency of Rafael Correa.
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He is currently in exile himself and has been sentenced in
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absentia for bribery. Glass was his vice president and more importantly
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served as the head of something called fo de so de which
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was a fund that was funded by petroleum proceeds.
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Ecuador is an oil producing country.
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and some of these proceeds were meant to provide earthquake
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relief from an earthquake.
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In 2016, Glass has been accused of misusing or embezzling those
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funds. Now, he has claimed that that is not true
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There is a big divide between the left and
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right in Ecuador. So people on the right who generally
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support President Novoa believe that he is guilty.
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People on the left believe that this is politically persecuted.
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And currently the government is on the right.
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And so they are they are putting him back in jail
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That's right. Thank you,
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Professor for breaking it down for us.
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where can we find you?
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Oh, well, I'm on Twitter at MP A ARLB,
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er G as well as linkedin.
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Same thing. Thank you.
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Thank you professor. We appreciate your time.
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Thanks for having me.
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Thank you. Have a nice day.
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I learned so much when they break it down like that.
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