Cuban regime receives diplomats expelled from Ecuador

The Cuban regime received the ambassador and staff of its diplomatic mission in Ecuador in Havana, recently expelled by the decision of President Daniel Noboa's government, in a new episode of tension between the two countries.

The chancellor Bruno Rodríguez announced on the social media platform X that workers from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the officials who returned to the island after being declared persona non grata by the Ecuadorian authorities.

"The workers of CubaMINREX welcomed the ambassador and the staff of the Cuban Embassy in Ecuador, unjustly expelled from that nation, who are now honorably back in the Homeland," wrote the head of Cuban diplomacy.

The meeting was also confirmed by the official account of the Cuban government on X, which noted that the reception was chaired by Rodríguez and Emilio Losada García, head of the International Relations Department of the Communist Party of Cuba.

During the event, Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal described the expulsion as a hostile decision and stated that the Ecuadorian government acted "without any justification," while also accusing Quito of acting under supposed subordination to the United States.

The diplomatic crisis began when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility of Ecuador declared the Cuban ambassador in Quito, Basilio Antonio Gutiérrez García, and all diplomatic, consular, and administrative staff of the mission persona non grata.

The measure, communicated through a diplomatic note on March 4, granted a 48-hour deadline for officials to leave the country, in accordance with Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

Later, the Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa justified the decision by stating that there was "significant interference" from Cuban officials in political and violent activities within the country.

According to Noboa, after receiving the notification of expulsion, Cuban diplomats began destroying documents on the roof of the embassy before leaving Ecuadorian territory.

The departure of the Cuban mission was accompanied by a security deployment around the diplomatic compound in Quito, while the Ecuadorian government also announced the end of its ambassador's functions in Havana, deepening the rift between the two countries.