Colombia Suspends Bilateral Cabinet With Ecuador

On Monday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country has suspended the bilateral cabinet with Ecuador in response to the assault on the Mexican embassy in Quito.

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"The bilateral cabinet with Ecuador is suspended... Rebuilding international law is fundamental if we want world peace," said Petro, who referred to what happened at the Mexican embassy as a "very serious incident."

The bilateral cabinets were established in 2021 by then-presidents Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador) and Ivan Duque (Colombia). They aim to address strategic issues such as border cooperation and the facilitation of bilateral trade.

On April 2, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld and her Colombian counterpart Luis Murillo met in Bogota to agree on the holding of the 12th bilateral cabinet.

Also present at the Bogota meeting were Colombian Justice Minister Nestor Osuna and Arturo Felix, Chief of Staff to Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa.

On April 5th, Ecuadorian security forces forcibly entered the Mexican embassy to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, whom Mexico had granted political asylum.

This unauthorized incursion sparked an unprecedented diplomatic crisis in the Latin American region, leading to the convening of a meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) to condemn what happened.