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Ecuador was once famous for sheltering a man on the lam: For seven years it allowed the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to hole up in its embassy in London, invoking an international treaty that makes diplomatic premises places of refuge.<\/p>\n
Then, last week, the South American nation appeared to tear that treaty to shreds, sending the police into the Mexican Embassy in Quito<\/a> \u2014 over Mexico\u2019s protests \u2014 where they arrested a former vice president accused of corruption.<\/p>\n President Daniel Noboa of Ecuador defended the decision<\/a> to detain the former vice president, Jorge Glas, calling him a criminal and citing the country\u2019s growing security crisis to justify the move.<\/p>\n But his critics said it was one of the most egregious violations of the treaty since its creation in 1961. They saw a more personal motive: Mr. Noboa\u2019s political agenda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ecuador has been engulfed in record levels of violence, and Mr. Noboa, a young center-right leader, is eager to look tough on crime. He is just days away from a national referendum that, if approved, would give him sweeping new powers to tackle insecurity \u2014 and potentially help him be re-elected next year.<\/p>\n Mr. Noboa characterized<\/a> the embassy raid and arrest of Mr. Glas as a way to show Ecuador that he was working hard to go after those accused of crime.<\/p>\n But, several analysts say, his government\u2019s decision to forcibly enter the embassy is among the most flagrant examples of a dynamic that has become all too familiar around the world, with Latin America being no exception: foreign policy driven less by lofty principles or national interest and more by the personal aims of leaders hoping to preserve their own political future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cForeign policy has never been pure; it\u2019s often been motivated by domestic or individual political interests,\u201d said Dan Restrepo, who served as President Barack Obama\u2019s top adviser on Latin America. \u201cBut in the Americas there certainly has been an intensification of the personal in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Across the region, the diplomatic rhetoric has deteriorated, with presidents lashing out at one another with a barrage of insults that may appear petty on the world stage but have the potential to play well at home, particularly with their ideological bases.<\/p>\n President Gustavo Petro, Colombia\u2019s left-wing leader, has clashed since last year with El Salvador\u2019s right-wing president, Nayib Bukele. Mr. Petro accused Mr. Bukele of running prisons as \u201cconcentration camps,\u201d and Mr. Bukele spotlighted corruption allegations against Mr. Petro\u2019s son.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything ok at home?\u201d Mr. Bukele wrote<\/a> tauntingly on the platform X.<\/p>\n Argentina\u2019s right-wing president, Javier Milei, has sparred with Mr. Petro, whom he recently called a \u201cmurderous terrorist,\u201d leading Mr. Petro to expel Argentine diplomats. (He later reinstated them.)<\/p>\n Mr. Milei has also tussled with President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador of Mexico, calling him an \u201cignoramus\u201d and once referring to his supporters as members of the \u201csmall-penis club.\u201d Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador in turn has labeled Mr. Milei an \u201cultraconservative fascist.\u201d<\/p>\n The dispute between Mexico and Ecuador first emerged in December, when the Mexican Embassy in Ecuador allowed Mr. Glas to stay there after being welcomed \u201cas a guest,\u2019\u2019 Mexico\u2019s Foreign Ministry said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador then incurred Ecuador\u2019s wrath when he publicly questioned the legitimacy of its presidential election, leading Mr. Noboa\u2019s government to expel the Mexican ambassador. It was the third time a Latin American country had expelled a Mexican ambassador since Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador took office in 2018.<\/p>\n The spat continued to escalate, until finally the police raided the embassy and arrested Mr. Glas last week.<\/p>\n At his daily news conference on Tuesday, Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador called the embassy arrest in Ecuador \u201ca violation not just of the sovereignty of our country, but of international law.\u201d (Ecuador\u2019s action has been broadly condemned, including by the United States, the Organization of American States and countries across Latin America.)<\/p>\n Mexico has a long history of offering dissidents<\/a> refuge. But the government did not offer much clarity on why it eventually granted Mr. Glas asylum, prompting critics to question whether Mexico\u2019s president, a longtime standard-bearer of the country\u2019s left, was simply trying to protect an ideological ally. Mr. Glas served in a leftist administration.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is the national interest being served here in terms of Ecuador\u2019s or Mexico\u2019s position in the world? That\u2019s a question no one has an answer for, because there is none,\u201d said Carlos Bravo Regidor, a political analyst based in Mexico City. \u201cThere\u2019s the personal or ideological reasons of the leaders, and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ecuador\u2019s arrest of Mr. Glas seemed a stark departure from its own willingness to harbor Mr. Assange in its embassy in London for so long.<\/p>\n Mr. Assange is accused of violating the U.S. Espionage Act with WikiLeaks\u2019 publication of classified military and diplomatic documents.<\/p>\n He was allowed into Ecuador\u2019s Embassy by its president at the time, Rafael Correa, a leftist who had an antagonistic relationship with the United States.<\/p>\n But then President Lenin Moreno took office in Ecuador, and he sought to distance himself from Mr. Correa and build warmer relations with the United States. It was Mr. Moreno\u2019s government that permitted Mr. Assange\u2019s eventual arrest.<\/p>\n The WikiLeaks founder remains in British custody and is fighting extradition to the United States.<\/p>\n Mr. Glas served as vice president under Mr. Correa, who in 2020 was convicted on corruption charges and has escaped prison by living abroad. Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador recently praised Mr. Correa for his \u201cvery good government.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n (After Mr. Glas\u2019s transfer to a detention center, the authorities in Ecuador said on Monday that they found him in a coma. On Tuesday, the prison authority announced that his condition had improved and he was returned to jail.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador has generally prioritized domestic politics, traveling abroad infrequently and focusing instead on big infrastructure projects<\/a> and social programs at home.<\/p>\n Much of Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s outward attention has been consumed by his relationship with the United States, in which he has gained significant leverage because of his role in managing the migration crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador has also been a vocal defender of governments associated with the left across the region. In 2022, he snubbed the Biden administration by refusing to attend a summit hosted by the United States because it excluded Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a dramatic episode, Mr. L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s government sent a military plane<\/a> to bring the former Bolivian president Evo Morales to Mexico City in 2019.<\/p>\n Mexico also gave refuge to allies of Mr. Morales in its diplomatic premises in Bolivia\u2019s capital \u2014 prompting the country to expel<\/a> Mexico\u2019s ambassador.<\/p>\n Then in late 2022, Mexico granted asylum to the family of Peru\u2019s ousted leftist president, Pedro Castillo, who was in jail after an attempt to dissolve congress. Peru responded by kicking out the Mexican ambassador<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n