Ecuador has expelled Cuba’s entire diplomatic mission and given its ambassador and staff 48 hours to leave the country, triggering a sharp backlash from Havana and deepening political fault lines across Latin America.
Cuba’s embassy in Quito shut down operations on Friday after the deadline set by President Daniel Noboa’s government expired, with the Cuban flag lowered from the mission in the capital as diplomats departed. Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry declared Ambassador Basilio Antonio Gutiérrez García and 22 diplomatic, consular, and administrative staff persona non grata on March 4, invoking Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations without providing a public explanation. Noboa simultaneously withdrew the credentials of Ecuador’s ambassador to Havana, effectively freezing high-level diplomatic contact between the two countries.
Havana denounced the move “in the strongest terms,” calling it “arbitrary and unjustified” and branding it “an unfriendly and unprecedented act that significantly damages the historic relations of friendship and cooperation between both countries and peoples.” Cuba’s Foreign Ministry insisted its mission had strictly complied with Ecuadorian law and the Vienna Convention, rejecting any suggestion of interference in domestic politics. President Miguel Díaz-Canel went further, describing the expulsion as “hostile” and suggesting Ecuador acted under pressure from the United States, pointing to the timing ahead of a right-leaning regional summit in the U.S.
The rupture comes just days before the “Shield of the Americas” gathering in Florida, where U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to host conservative Latin American leaders, including Noboa, to promote a tougher regional stance against leftist governments such as Cuba’s. Cuban officials argue it is “no coincidence” the expulsion was ordered in a context of intensified U.S. sanctions and efforts to isolate Havana diplomatically across the hemisphere.
The episode highlights a widening ideological divide in Latin America between governments aligned with Washington and those led by the left, with Ecuador’s decision marking one of the sharpest breaks in relations with Cuba since the two countries first established diplomatic ties in 1960. Quito has not yet clarified whether the expulsions amount to a full severance of diplomatic relations, but with both embassies effectively dismantled, analysts warn that cooperation in areas ranging from health to migration is likely to suffer in the short term.
