By Deutsche Welle
Apr 16, 2024, 09:27 AM EDT
“I have no regrets,” said Noboa in an interview last week with the Australian channel SBS. and released this Monday, the first interaction of the head of state with the press since the beginning of this crisis with Mexico.
Jorge Glas, former vice president of Rafael Correa (2007-2017), had obtained asylum hours before from the Mexican Government, headed by Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Teachers protest against “militarization” of Ecuador
While Noboa explains his decision to attack the Mexican diplomatic headquarters, a group of teachers gathered this Monday, April 15, in front of the Ministry of Education, in Quito, to protest against what they consider a “militarization” process in Ecuadorafter Noboa declared the “internal armed conflict” against organized crime gangs, which he calls “terrorists.”
These are more than 150 teachers from 21 universities in Quito, Cuenca, Esmeraldas and Guayaquil and other teachers from Latin America, the United States and Europe who reject the “militarization, repression and racism” that, in their opinion, has caused the declaration of “internal armed conflict”, after which Noboa described 22 criminal gangs as “terrorists”.
“The militarization process that would seek to counteract criminal violence renamed ‘terrorist’, “It is generating more violence than it intends to combat,” according to the protesters.
The teachers maintain that the solution to the country’s insecurity problems “is not to arm oneself, generate more violence, succumb to arbitrariness and disrespect for human rights.”
“The complex solutions we need involve demanding other policies and other approaches that allow us to rebuild ties, also through education,” they say in a statement.
Police raid on April 5, “example of militarization”
The protesters point out that the April 5 police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito, to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, demonstrates “that the Government has taken the policy of militarization and repressive force as the only way out“.
Finally, they believe that the popular consultation next Sunday on security, justice and employment, “seeks to radicalize this situation by raising questions that further reinforce the militarization of society and that make the lives of the workers of this country precarious. ”.
Keep reading:
– Government of Mexico accuses Ecuador of espionage in its embassy in Quito; prepares criminal complaint
– The four petitions of Mexico against Ecuador before the International Court of Justice
– The US insists that Mexico and Ecuador must dialogue to resolve their diplomatic crisis