QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador declared Cuba’s ambassador, Basilio Antonio Gutiérrez, and his diplomatic staff “persona non grata” on Wednesday and gave them 48 hours to leave the South American country.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the measure was adopted within the framework of international diplomatic law, but didn’t say why they were forcing the diplomats to leave. The Vienna Convention allows countries to declare diplomatic personnel a persona non grata without explanation.
The Associated Press contacted Cuba’s embassy in Quito but did not immediately receive a response.
The decision follows an executive order signed Tuesday by Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa in which he canceled Ecuadorian ambassador to Cuba José María Borja’s diplomatic duties, also without explanation.
The same day, the United States and Ecuador announced they have begun joint military operations against organized crime groups in the Andean nation. Noboa has sought to position himself as a tough-on-crime leader in the wake of a surge of armed group violence in recent years.
The measure comes amid mounting pressure by U.S. President Donald Trump on Cuba, which intensified after a U.S. military operation deposed former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Since, Trump has placed restrictions of oil sales to Cuba and said the government was “ready to fall.” Ecuador is one of the Trump administration’s allies and collaborators in the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime in the region.
Ecuador and Cuba have maintained bilateral relations since 1960, which have ebbed and flowed with shifts in Ecuadorian politics.
The Wednesday decision has an “ideological component,” said Andrea Endara, coordinator of Political Science and International Relations at Casa Grande University. She said that Noboa “has aligned himself with the interests of the United States.”
The effective expulsion of the Cuban officials follows a number of diplomatic dramas between Ecuador and other Latin American nations in recent years. In 2024, Ecuadorian officials raided the Mexican embassy to arrest the former vice president taking shelter there. Experts said this was a blatant violation of international law, causing Mexico to cut off relations.
More recently, a trade war has broken out between Ecuador and neighboring Colombia, which Noboa’s government accused of not doing enough to crack down on crime on their shared border.
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