The Ecuadorians wanted a man of action. President Noboa has fulfilled that role – including an embassy attack

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Although world leaders expressed shock and bewilderment at Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s decision to break into the Mexican embassy last Friday’s highly unusual move — and Noboa’s relative silence about it — is unlikely to hurt his constituents. In fact, this is exactly the kind of no-holds-barred crime-fighting that they expect and voted for.

Ecuadorians were looking for their man of action in the last election, fed up with widespread corruption and the robberies, kidnappings, extortions and murders fueled by the growing presence of international drug cartels. Noboa, often wearing bulletproof vests, sunglasses and leather jackets, as well as the occasional smart-style white T-shirt, seems to fill that role for now. If stopping lawbreakers means breaching an embassy, ​​then so be it, Ecuadorians interviewed over the weekend told The Associated Press.

“President Noboa sent a strong message to the nation,” said Carlos Galecio, a political communications consultant and coordinator of the communications program at Ecuador’s Casa Grande University. “(It’s) a very powerful image enhancement.”

Noboa, the 36-year-old heir to one of Ecuador’s greatest fortunes, was sworn in as president in November after unexpectedly profitable special election in August. He defeated protégé of left-wing former president Rafael Correa, who avoided serving a sentence related to a corruption conviction by moving to Belgium and securing asylum there.

Noboa inherited a country where people no longer leave home unless absolutely necessary, almost everyone knows a victim of crime, and many consider migrating. The statistics support these decisions and experiences: Last year was Ecuador’s bloodiest on record, with more than 7,600 murders, up from 4,600 the year before.

The reasons for the spike are complex, but largely revolve around cocaine. Cartel-assisted gangs fight for control of the streets, prisons and drug routes to the Pacific Ocean. Dwindling state coffers, mounting debt, political infighting, and corruption have created funding gaps for social and law enforcement programs. And the COVID-19 pandemic has turned hungry children and unemployed adults into easy recruits for criminal groups.

Noboa responded by promising more equipment for the police and armed forces and the construction of prisons similar to those President Nayib Bukele built in El Salvador, with high-security, maximum-security and super-maximum wards. He also issued a decree designating more than 20 criminal groups as terrorist organizations and scheduled a referendum in April to ask voters to extend the military’s powers to patrol streets and police prisons.

Recent polling results by Ecuador-based polling firm Cedatos showed that more than two-thirds of respondents approve of Noboa’s presidency and more than half support his decision to call voters to the polls.

Police entered the Mexican embassy in Quito, the capital, to arrest the former vice president Jorge Glass, a convicted felon and fugitive who had been living there since December. In his first comments on the operation, Noboa said on Monday that he had taken “exceptional decisions to protect national security, the rule of law and the dignity of the population, which rejects any kind of impunity for criminals, corrupt people or narco-terrorists”.

“My duty is to respect the decisions of the judicial system, and we could not allow convicted criminals involved in very serious crimes to be granted asylum,” which, Noboa argued, would violate the Vienna Convention and other international agreements. In a statement posted on social media platform X, Noboa did not mention Glass by name, but suggested he was at “imminent flight risk.”

Diplomatic premises are considered foreign territory and “inviolable” according to the Vienna Treaties and law enforcement agencies of the host country are not allowed to enter without authorization from the ambassador. Mexico plans to challenge the attack at the World Court in The Hague.

Still, a show of strength from Noboa quickly won him praise at home.

“I support the actions of President Noboa. I think it’s a bold move … and I think it’s going to strengthen it,” said college professor Gabriela Sandoval. “The priority is to clean, disinfect, continue with a process as important as President Noboa’s to put the house in order.”

Ecuadorians will vote for president in February. Noboa is eligible to run for re-election.

Confidence in Noboa is such that business groups believe global condemnation of the attack will not affect trade or the already thorny negotiations for a trade deal between Ecuador and Mexico, which are a key obstacle to Ecuador’s interest in joining the Pacific trade bloc. alliance of Latin America.

“These political and ongoing problems will somehow pass and then relations will normalize,” said Roberto Aspiazu, vice president of the Ecuador-Mexico Binational Chamber. “Sooner or later this trade agreement will also be a reality because the negotiations are there and have to be renewed at some point.”

Yet the time of the diplomatic collapse with Mexico it could be particularly unfortunate for Ecuador and counterproductive to Noboa’s crime-fighting ambitions, said Will Freeman, a fellow in Latin American studies at the New York-based think tank Council on International Relations.

Ecuador was one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America until about four years ago, when Mexican and Colombian cartels expanded their established operations in Ecuador, establishing themselves in coastal cities and operating world-class ports to transport hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru.

“Ecuadorian gangs are criminal forces in their own right, but they have formed alliances with the new generation Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels,” Freeman said. “In an ideal world, Noboa would seek the cooperation of the Mexican government to fight the gangs and their international partners, but obviously, with the breakdown of diplomatic relations, that is not happening.”

And while it remains unclear whether Noboa anticipated the global pushback his decision received, some of those criticisms may be more severe than others.

The US, which during the Noboa administration supplied Ecuador with crucial equipment and training to fight drug cartels, reiterated the importance of upholding international law after last week’s attack.

“The United States takes very seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect diplomatic missions,” said Brian Nichols, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. “We encourage Ecuador and Mexico to resolve their differences amicably.”

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Garcia Cano reported from Mexico City.