Lopez Obrador accuses the Government of Peru of “opting for repression and not for democratic methods”

President Lopez Obrador has charged against the Peruvian government after the expulsion yesterday of the Mexican ambassador in that country. That Executive “is highly questioned about 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 escalated 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?” Lopez Obrador launched.

The president has repeated that it is some “elites” that have prevented Castillo from being able to govern, leading the country to the institutional crisis in which it is immersed. “It is groups of economic and political power and their personal ambitions that have led to arbitrary measures such as declaring the ambassador persona non grata,” he pointed out. In any case, the Mexican government has decided not to break relations with Peru because “the embassy needs to be maintained to give protection to the Mexicans who live there,” said Lopez Obrador. Most of the tourists were already able to leave and the departure of those who still want to do so is being processed. “They are not alone,” said the president.

Lopez Obrador has also had intemperate words regarding the United States, whose government he 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 endorsed all the truculent maneuver to remove him”. He has wondered why the Peruvian government has not taken on the US Mexican embassy.

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo gave a speech on television 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 him as immediately after a coup. Castillo was detained when he tried to reach the Mexican embassy and remains in jail today. Vice President Dina Boluarte assumed the governance of the country, as dictated by the Peruvian Constitution and since then relations with Mexico have been tense. Boluarte is dissatisfied with the president’s statements on the crisis. The malaise also spread to the leaders of Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia, who also supported the deposed Castillo.

Lopez 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 also censured the decision of that Government to delay the calling of elections until 2024 when it was scheduled to take place next year. Why don’t they call elections immediately to elect 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 dealt with. But the authorities wanting to impose themselves by force, using the Army, unfortunately what is going to generate is 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.

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