President López Obrador has charged against the Peruvian government after the expulsion yesterday of the Mexican ambassador in that country. That Executive “is highly questioned for its behavior, especially for opting for repression and not for seeking a way out of the conflict in Peru through dialogue and with the democratic method of calling elections as soon as possible to avoid political instability.” Tensions between the two countries have intensified in recent hours due to Mexico’s decision to grant asylum to the family of deposed Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. At seven in the morning this Wednesday, Castillo’s wife and children arrived in Mexico. The ambassador has not yet arrived, but he will return shortly “because they gave him 72 hours, they were decisive, like that, in the police style, because that has nothing to do with democracy, right?” Launched López Obrador.
The president has repeated that the “elites” are the ones that have prevented Castillo from being able to govern, leading the country to the institutional crisis in which it is immersed. “It is the groups of economic and political power and their personal ambitions, which have led to arbitrary measures such as declaring the ambassador persona non grata,” he said. In any case, the Mexican government has decided not to break relations with Peru because “the embassy must be maintained to give protection to the Mexicans who live there,” said López Obrador. Most of the tourists have already been able to leave and the return of those who still want to do so is being processed. “You are not alone,” the president said.
López Obrador has also had intemperate words regarding the United States, whose government has lamented “that it always talks about democracy and in this case, instead of asking that the will of the people and the democratically elected president be respected, they have all endorsed the truculent maneuver to get it out.” He has wondered why the Peruvian government has not made the same decision with the US embassy in Mexico.
The Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, gave a television speech on December 7 in which he dissolved Congress, where that same afternoon a new motion of censure against him was to be discussed, but his co-religionists did not support him, who described it as as immediately after a drink. Castillo was arrested when he was trying to get to the Mexican embassy and today he remains in jail. Vice President Dina Boluarte assumed the government of the country, as dictated by the Peruvian Constitution, and since then relations with Mexico have been tense, with Boluarte dissatisfied with the president’s statements on the crisis. The malaise spread to the presidents of Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia, who also supported the deposed Castillo.
López Obrador has always maintained the dictate of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, but on this occasion he has had harsh words against what happened in Peru. Today he has censured the decision of that Government to delay the calling of elections until 2024, when they were scheduled to take place next year. “Why don’t they immediately call elections to choose a new president and, as long as there is an interim president for that purpose? In such a way that people rationally and democratically expect the conflict to be addressed. But wanting to impose on the authorities by force, using the Army, that will unfortunately generate more suffering and instability,” he said. He was referring to the protests unleashed in the country since December 7, which have already caused more than 25 deaths.
The president has insisted that, on the Peruvian conflict, Mexico “has only made its position known.” “We will always defend the right of asylum, it is part of our foreign policy.” “It bothered them [al Gobierno peruano] that we do not recognize the president, but we never recognize foreign authorities, these matters correspond to the people. This recognition given to other governments that have arisen legally or through usurpation is not common and we have suffered it on other occasions, the fact that the United States had to recognize us.
And later, the president has announced his intention to amend article 33 of the Constitution so that no one can be expelled from Mexico using the National Migration Institute. The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, has been in charge of presenting this matter. He has said that the second paragraph of said article “has been used at its discretion to expel citizens, such as professors, ambassadors or researchers.” He has cited several cases in the Administration of Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón, among them some singers like Manu Chao or ETA terrorists. The Government will propose the reform of the article to guarantee foreigners a hearing prior to their expulsion.
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