Ecuador spat: Trotsky to the shah, Mexico’s long history as home to exiles

Mexico has a long tradition of granting asylum, but experts see political motives behind offers made under President Lopez Obrador

With rifles, riot shields and helmets, the Ecuadorian police scaled the white concrete gate, burst through the embassy doors and arrested Jorge Glas, a former vice president accused of corruption.

The April 5 raid on Mexico’s embassy in Quito sparked a diplomatic firestorm. Experts warned the police raid was a clear violation of international laws protecting embassies

But in the lead-up to the raid, Mexico tried to invoke another safeguard enshrined in international law: the right to asylum.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, known by the initials AMLO, had announced on the same day that Glas would be granted political asylum in his country after more than three months of sheltering in its embassy.

But Glas was hardly the first politician Lopez Obrador had offered asylum to. In fact, experts say Mexico has a long and cherished history of granting asylum to figures fleeing persecution – from communist leaders to embattled presidents.

Why did Lopez Obrador offer Glas asylum?

Throughout his tenure as Mexico’s president, Lopez Obrador has championed that tradition, offering asylum to fellow left-leaning politicians who face prosecution or turmoil at home.

In most cases, he portrays them as victims of political persecution and Mexico as a safe haven.

Experts and historians say Lopez Obrador uses asylum as a tool to express affinity for politicians who share a similar worldview – and to bolster his credentials as a standard-bearer for Latin America’s political left.

“Lopez Obrador has a very simple framework for understanding the political divide in Latin America with conservatives on one side and then those who are closer to what he sees as the historical mission of his government on the other,” Pablo Piccato, a professor of Mexican history at Columbia University in New York, tells Al Jazeera.
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“He sees things in this way with the conservative forces of reaction against the progressive forces of the people.”