Mexico has suspended diplomatic relations with Ecuador after the South American country’s police stormed its embassy in Quito to arrest Ecuador’s former vice president, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said.
The development comes after Mexico granted political asylum on Friday to former Vice President Jorge David Glas Espinel, who had been convicted twice on corruption charges in his home country and has been staying in the embassy since late last year. Ecuador had asked Mexico’s permission to arrest the politician, but to no avail. Glas insists that he has been subjected to political persecution. While offering refuge to the former VP, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry urged Quito to grant safe passage to Glas so he could leave the country. Ecuador, however, ruled out the possibility, saying “it is not legal to grant asylum to people convicted or prosecuted for common crimes.” On Friday evening, Ecuadorian police stormed the embassy, with videos from the scene showing a heavy law enforcement presence in the area. The government of Ecuador claimed that the raid was conducted to defend its national sovereignty. “Every embassy has a single purpose: to serve as a diplomatic space with the objective of strengthening relations between countries,” it said, accusing Mexico of “abusing the immunities and privileges granted to its diplomatic mission.” In a statement on Saturday, Lopez Obrador said Glas is “a refugee” who is facing “persecution and harassment.” He denounced the raid as “a flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.” “I have instructed our chancellor to issue a statement regarding this authoritarian act, proceed legally and immediately declare the suspension of diplomatic relations with the government of… Ecuador,” he added. Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said the country’s diplomatic personnel would leave Ecuador immediately. She added that Mexico would appeal to the International Court of Justice to denounce Ecuador’s actions. The ministry also said that several Mexican diplomats were injured during the operation. Even before the embassy raid, relations between Mexico and Ecuador were marred by a series of controversies. Lopez Obrador called the South American country’s presidential election “very strange,” noting that the outcome was heavily influenced by violence, including the assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. In response, Ecuador declared Mexican Ambassador Raquel Serur Smeke persona non grata, demanding respect for its sovereignty and noting that the country was still mourning Villavicencio’s death.
0 Comments
Chinese migrants are flocking to the southern border of the USA and some have Chinese TikTok guides on how to enter the USA.
Over four days, journalists observed nearly 600 migrants, some of whom were Chinese, crossing the border through a gap at the end of a border fence near San Diego. Chinese migrants who spoke to 60 Minutes said they learned about the gap via the video application Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. The Chinesehad reviewed several Douyin posts, which gave detailed instructions on how migrants could hire smugglers to get to the border. And the journey is no walk in the park either. Chinese migrants hoping to start a new life in the US have to trek through multiple countries before they arrive stateside. Some have had to crisscross through Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama and then Mexico, per CNN. There has been a surge in the number of Chinese migrants entering the US through its borders. According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection, the number of encounters the agency has had with Chinese nationals at the Southwest land border has increased more than 50-fold, from 450 people in 2021 to 24,314 in 2023. Chinese social media platforms have been a boon for migrants hoping to enter the US. In April, Reuters interviewed more than two dozen Chinese migrants entering the US via southeastern Texas. All the migrants that Reuters spoke to said that social media had helped them to plan their journey. It's not just China. Content creators from Venezuela and India have been producing similar videos as well. "Migration sells. My public is a public that wants a dream," Venezuelan Manuel Monterrosa, 35, told The New York Times in a story published in December. A representative for the Department of Homeland Security told BI that the department was "experiencing historical global migration." "DHS is working with our partners throughout the hemisphere and around the world to disrupt the criminal networks who take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants," the representative said.
2023 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS
2023 Formula 1 World Championship Drivers' Standings
FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2023 - Race Results
FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2023 - Top 10 Qualifying Results
2022 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CONSTRUCTOR STANDINGS
2022 Formula 1 World Championship Drivers' Standings
FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 20222 - Race Results
FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2022 - Top 10 Qualifying Results
¹ Grid penalty
WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been treated “very unfairly” to the shame of the entire world, and Mexico has offered to take him in, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters on Tuesday. He said he would bring up Assange’s case with his US counterpart Joe Biden when they meet in July. The UK announced last week it would extradite the jailed journalist to the US, where he faces espionage charges and up to 175 years behind bars if convicted. The decision by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel was “very disappointing,” said Lopez, who also goes by his initials AMLO. He also said he intends to ask Biden to drop charges against Assange when they meet next month. Such an action would go counter to the “hardliners in the US” but “humanity must prevail,” AMLO added. “Julian Assange is the best journalist of our time in the world and he has been treated very unfairly, worse than a criminal,” AMLO said. “This is a shame for the world.” Mexico is willing to provide Assange sanctuary if and when he is released, the president added, reminding reporters that he had called on the previous US administration to drop charges against Assange as “a prisoner of conscience.”
Assange, an Australian citizen, sought asylum in Ecuador in 2012, suspecting that Washington wanted him arrested and extradited over WikiLeaks publishing the documents about US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. He spent the next seven years trapped at Ecuador’s embassy in London – as the UK refused him safe passage – until his asylum was revoked by a new US-friendly government in Quito. British police dragged Assange out of the embassy in April 2019 and put him in the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in south London, where he remains to this day. Within a month of his arrest, the US unsealed an indictment charging him of offenses under the Espionage Act, for which he could face 175 years in prison. Assange has denied all allegations, and a key witness in Washington’s case against him admitted he lied in his testimony. Canberra has not spoken up for Assange’s release, even though the recently elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had opposed the charges against the journalist during the election campaign. Albanese said Monday that he still believed Assange should go free, but that his government would not publicly intervene with the US on his behalf, because it “engages diplomatically and appropriately with our partners.” Lora Smith WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The US Supreme Court on Friday (July 26) handed President Donald Trump a victory by letting his administration redirect US$2.5 billion (S$3.4 billion) in money approved by Congress for the Pentagon to help build his promised wall along the US-Mexico border even though lawmakers refused to provide funding. The conservative-majority court voted 5-4 - with the court's liberals in dissent - and blocked in full a ruling by a federal judge in California barring the Republican president from spending the money. The basis was that Congress did not specifically authorize the funds to be spent on the wall project fiercely opposed by Democrats and Mexico's government. "Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!" Trump tweeted just minutes after the court acted. A brief order explaining the court's decision said the government "made a sufficient showing" that the groups challenging the decision did not have grounds to bring a lawsuit. In a highly unusual move, Trump on Feb 15 declared a national emergency in a bid to fund the wall without congressional approval, an action Democrats said exceeded his powers under the US Constitution and usurped the authority of Congress. The administration has said it plans to redirect US$6.7 billion from the Departments of Defense and Treasury towards wall construction under the emergency declaration after failing to convince Congress to provide the money, including the US$2.5 billion in Pentagon funding. Congress earlier failed to provide US$5.7 billion in wall funding demanded by Trump in a showdown in which the president triggered a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government that ended in January. The case arose from a challenge to Trump's action brought by Sierra Club, a leading environmental group, and the Southern Border Communities Coalition, a group advocating for people living in border areas. The challengers have said the wall would be disruptive to the environment in part because it could worsen flooding problems and have a negative impact on wildlife. US District Judge Haywood Gilliam ruled on May 30 in Oakland, California, that the administration's proposal to build parts of the border wall in California, New Mexico and Arizona with money appropriated for the Defense Department to use in the fight against illegal drugs was unlawful. The judge issued an injunction barring use of the Pentagon funds for a border wall. The administration asked that the injunction barring use of the reprogrammed funds be put on hold pending an appeal but the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to do so. WASHINGTON, February 15 -- Donald Trump is signing a federal funding bill to avoid another government shutdown and announcing a series of executive actions along the US-Mexico border. It includes the declaration of a national emergency — setting the stage for a major legal showdown. The border security compromise was approved by the US Congress on Thursday afternoon as the president threatened to declare a national emergency if the billions of dollars he requested to go towards building a wall was not included in the bill. The measure reportedly includes just $1.4bn (£1bn) for “border barriers,” much less than what the president had previously demanded, and less than previous bipartisan measures had approved for barrier funding. WASHINGTON, February 15 -- The Senate of the US Congress on Thursday approved a spending bill until September in a bid to avert the second government shutdown. The legislation envisages the allocation of $1.37 billion for wall construction and other security measures along the border with Mexico, although US President Donald Trump initially insisted on $5.7 billion. The legislation is yet to be approved by the lower chamber of the US Congress. After that, the document will be submitted to the president for signing. It is to be signed into law by Friday night. The White House press service said about an hour before the congressional vote that the president was ready to sign the document to avert another government shutdown, but will also announce the state of emergency on the Mexican border, in order to obtain the necessary funds without congressional approval. "President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action - including a national emergency - to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border," White House Spokesperson Sarah Sanders said. "The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country." US government shutdown started on December 22 when Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on ways to finance the wall on the border with Mexico. The record 35-day closure ended on January 25, when the US president signed a bill to finance the government’s work until February 15. |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|