Peru Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Mexico over Asylum for Former Prime Minister

Darwin, 04 November-

Peru has severed diplomatic relations with Mexico after the North American nation granted asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betsy Chávez, the government in Lima announced on Monday.

Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela told a press conference that Peru made the decision “with astonishment and regret” upon learning that Chávez — accused of conspiracy alongside former President Pedro Castillo — had been given refuge at the Mexican ambassador’s residence in Lima.

> “Due to this unfriendly act, and in light of the repeated interference by both current and former Mexican presidents in our internal affairs, the Peruvian government has decided to break diplomatic relations with Mexico,” de Zela declared.

The Mexican government has yet to issue an official response.

Chávez’s lawyer, Raúl Noblecilla, told local radio station RPP that he had been unable to contact his client for several days and could not confirm whether she had formally sought asylum.

Chávez, who served as Peru’s Minister of Culture before being promoted to Prime Minister in November 2022, was a close ally of then-President Pedro Castillo. At the time, tensions were mounting between the presidency and Congress.

Castillo — a former rural schoolteacher and trade union leader widely known as “Peru’s first poor president” — was impeached and arrested in December 2022 after attempting to dissolve Congress in what was widely seen as an attempted coup. He was later charged with rebellion and abuse of power.

Since then, relations between Peru and Mexico have deteriorated sharply. In December 2022, after Mexico granted asylum to Castillo’s wife and children, Peru expelled the Mexican ambassador from Lima.

Analysts believe this latest diplomatic rupture marks a new low in bilateral ties between the two nations, already strained since Castillo’s ouster.

Source: Al Jazeera