Lopez Obrador refuses to transfer the presidency of the Pacific Alliance to Peru: “I do not want to legitimize a coup”

The tension between Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the Peruvian government continues to escalate two months after the self-coup attempt by former president Pedro Castillo, this time, with the basic justification of the transfer of the presidency of the Pacific Alliance. The Mexican president has refused this Friday to carry out the official process after the end of his country’s mandate. “I do not want to hand over a government that I consider spurious. I don’t want to legitimize a coup,” he said during his morning press conference. Since leaving Castillo, currently imprisoned, Lopez Obrador has undertaken a firm diplomatic defense of the former Peruvian president that has led to a series of clashes with the new government. Two months later, Mexico has not even recognized the new president, Dina Boluarte.

Baluarte had already anticipated Lopez Obrador’s refusal to transfer the presidency of the Latin American multilateral organization, a process that should have been carried out in January. “For continuing to support the former president (Castillo) he does not want to hand over the presidency to us pro tempore of the Pacific Alliance”, he announced during this week. In addition to insisting on criticizing the new Peruvian government, the Mexican president has gone a step further by announcing that he is placing the final decision in the hands of the Rio Group, one of the most important international organizations for political consultation in Latin America. “I am going to instruct the Secretary of Foreign Relations to notify the members of the Rio Group what we are doing.”

The defense of the Mexican government focused from the beginning on the fact that Castillo had been a victim of harassment during his tenure and that his dismissal was due to the interests of the economic and political elites of the Andean country. “It was a coup from conservatism, from the bosses who, like the conservatives in Mexico, are classist, racist and very corrupt,” said Lopez Obrador, who months ago had offered his support to the Castillo government against, he said, “the conservative rage ”.

At the end of December, the Peruvian Congress approved a motion expressing “its rejection of the constant and unacceptable acts of interference in the internal affairs of Peru” by the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as his Colombian counterpart. , Gustavo Petro.

Since former President Castillo’s failed self-coup attempt, Peru has experienced one of the greatest political and social crises in its history. More than 50 people have died in the strong protests, 22 of them in clashes with the Police and the Armed Forces. Lopez Obrador has spoken on several occasions in this regard, charging again against the Executive Power: “He is highly questioned as a whole for his behavior, especially for opting for repression and not seeking a way out through dialogue or with the democratic method of call elections as soon as possible.