MEXICO was set to take Ecuador to the top United Nations court today, accusing it of violating international law when police stormed the Mexican embassy in Quito to arrest a former vice-president who had just been given asylum by Mexico.

The April 5 raid, which took place hours after Mexico’s grant of asylum to former vice-president Jorge Glas, brought to a peak tensions that had been brewing between the two countries since Mr Glas took refuge at the embassy in December.

Leaders across Latin America condemned the raid as a blatant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

The former vice-president has claimed to be the victim of political persecution, but Ecuador said that Mr Glas had been found guilty of corruption and has insisted that Mexico granting asylum to a convicted criminal was itself a violation of the Vienna convention.

Two mornings of preliminary hearings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will be focused on Mexico’s request for provisional measures to be taken while the case progresses through the court, a process likely to take many months.

Among the measures Mexico is seeking is an order for Ecuador to take “appropriate and immediate steps to provide full protection and security of diplomatic premises” and prevent any further intrusions. 

Mexico also wants Ecuador to let it clear its diplomatic premises and the homes of its diplomats in the country.

In its case, filed on April 11, Mexico additionally asked the court to award reparation and suspend Ecuador from the United Nations.

On Monday, Ecuador also filed a case at the ICJ, accusing Mexico of using its embassy to “shield Mr Glas from enforcement by Ecuador of its criminal law” and claiming that the actions “constituted, amongst other things, a blatant misuse of the premises of a diplomatic mission.”

It asked the court to rule that Mexico’s actions had breached a number of international conventions. 

No date was immediately set for hearings in the case filed by Ecuador.