Legal Norms and Political Reality

Abstract

The practice of diplomatic asylum in Latin America seems to have been more the result of that area’s own conditions and antecedents than the result of conscious application of European practices. We see repeated here much the same pattern of development that appeared in European practice. Churches first served as places of sanctuary and were replaced by foreign embassies, legations and even consulates with the coming of independence. There can be no doubt, of course, that the foreign diplomatic representatives were familiar with the practice which had existed in Europe at an earlier date and it is impossible to tell exactly what influence this might have had upon their decisions to grant asylum. The earliest cases which give us any idea of attitudes on the part of the governments involved appear about the middle of the nineteenth century. In these cases there is evidence that the diplomatic agents recognized that the practice was no longer sanctioned in Europe but justified their action in terms of Latin American experience. It is not known whether the practice referred to, which obviously took place in the first twenty-five years of the independence period, originated as an extension of European experience but in view of the antecedents of the colonial period it is more likely that it was a local development growing out of turbulent conditions, familiarity with the earlier practice of religious asylum and the fact that the newly established governments, anxious for recognition by the major powers, were not inclined to violate the immunity of diplomatic premises.