(CNN) Peru ordered the Mexican ambassador to leave the country within 72 hours and has declared him “persona non grata,” according to a statement issued Tuesday by the Peruvian Foreign Ministry.
In the statement, the Secretariat said that the decision was made after the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, made some statements about the recent political situation in Peru, “which constitute an unacceptable interference in internal affairs, in clear violation of the principle of non-intervention,” the statement said.
The Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, described the decision as “unfounded and reprehensible.”
Pablo Monroy Ambassador in Lima informs me that the Government of Peru has given him 72 hours to leave the country. I find that decision unfounded and reprehensible. The conduct of our ambassador has adhered to the law and the principle of non-intervention. Mexico will not change his position.
— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) December 21, 2022
The Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations reported in a statement that “it has instructed Ambassador Pablo Monroy Conesa to return to Mexico in order to protect his safety and physical integrity.”
The Mexican authorities also indicated that the Embassy will be in charge of the first secretary Karla Tatiana Ornelas Loera, current head of the Mission’s Foreign Ministry.
Earlier on Tuesday, Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said he had offered Castillo’s family asylum, which is already at the Mexican embassy in Lima.
Castillo’s family, specifically his wife and children, will have safe conduct to leave the country, Peruvian Foreign Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi Díaz said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Peru has faced nationwide protests following the arrest and removal of its former president, Pedro Castillo, after he tried to dissolve Congress and install an emergency government, a tactic lawmakers dismissed as a coup attempt.