▲ For me, the episode of the assault on the Mexican embassy was very unpleasant, says Victoria Abad, vice president of Ecuador, suspended from her duties since last November. The image is archival.Photo Ap

Orlando Perez

Special for La Jornada

La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, December 5, 2024, p. 27

Quito. He doesn’t hesitate for a moment. On the verge of a judge determining whether the suspension of her position was illegal, Ecuadorian Vice President Verónica Abad expresses her decision to reestablish diplomatic relations with Mexico and speak in person with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

On January 1, the presidential election campaign begins in Ecuador, which will last until February 9, and Daniel Noboa will seek re-election, for which he must ask for leave and entrust the position to his vice president. However, through a controversial administrative decision on November 8, the Ministry of Labor suspended Abad from his duties for 150 days for unjustified abandonment of work for three or more work days.

With this, Noboa avoided leaving the presidency in the hands of Abad and that same day he placed a person he trusted in the position of temporary vice president. This is Sariha Moya, who until that date was head of the National Secretariat of Planning and Development (Senplades). All this, because there has been a political rupture between the two leaders since August of last year, before winning the second electoral round and also before taking office on November 23, 2024.

Today is the hearing of the protection action, with which Abad’s defense hopes to annul the sanction imposed by the Ministry of Labor. If the decision is reversed, Abad could assume presidential duties when Noboa begins his electoral campaign for 2025.

To the question of The Day On whether by exercising the presidency he would reestablish diplomatic relations with Mexico and thereby open that space again to resolve a situation as serious as what it meant to invade an embassy, ​​Abad expressed:

“Of course. The moment that one is in the field of international diplomacy and at the same time it is appropriate to assume that we are the international shame… When I had to look at ambassadors in Israel, the one from Mexico exactly, who was the president of Grulac (Latin American Group and the Caribbean), it was embarrassing, we are the ridicule and talk among the entire diplomatic corps for having attacked the embassy of another country. Imagine that when I saw it I couldn’t believe what was happening. I said: it’s like they’re breaking into my embassy in Israel. I don’t know if we would like them to do that to us. That is, we are invading a territory.”

–Why didn’t you say it before?

–Because at the time the chancellor (Gabriela Sommerfeld) covered my mouth, she put a gag on me so that I would not talk about any international issue, much less that of Mexico.

What’s more, we had an order not to approach Mexico anywhere at all. But this happens when there are thousands of Ecuadorians who are suffering from this situation. We must understand that in that country, in transit, there are thousands of migrants who are helpless and orphaned because diplomatic, consular, and commercial relations no longer exist. We have lost the exchange that we had with Mexico on academic matters, which for Ecuador are very important.

–If so, could you call the president of Mexico immediately upon resuming office?

-Of course.

-What would you say?

–President: please, let’s dialogue, let’s talk, let’s coordinate, let’s get back to having the relationships we had, the ones we have always had with the Mexican people. Since I was a child I remember that my father taught me to love everything that came from Mexico. I grew up in a world of artists. That is, films and songs from Mexico were promoted in Latin America and Ecuador. That’s why I say there are things that can’t be broken. For me it was really a very unpleasant surprise.

–And compared to that there is an added extra element, obviously, and that is the safe conduct for Jorge Glas. To what extent would the Ecuadorian government, if you preside over it, in January, facilitate safe passage to those who were already considered and continue to be claimed as political asylum by Mexico?

–I don’t have to provide anything to anyone. What I believe is that this is already in a judicial process, there is a justice system that is taking care of the issue. Unfortunately, Mexico sued us. Ecuador has to defend itself. Given what is already there, I have to know closely how the process is going, without a doubt.