Why does Peru want to declare Sheinbaum a persona non grata?

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Congress of Peru approved connected Monday a question that seeks to state President Claudia Sheinbaum a persona non grata owed to her refusal to admit Dina Boluarte arsenic the morganatic president of Peru and her enactment for ex-president Pedro Castillo.

The question — supported by 12 members of the Foreign Affairs Committee and opposed by six — volition beryllium considered by the 130-seat unicameral Congress of Peru successful the coming weeks and is apt to beryllium approved fixed the constitution of the legislature.

A persona non grata designation would forestall Sheinbaum from visiting Peru — though she would beryllium improbable to bash truthful portion Boluarte is successful bureau — and would further sour the narration betwixt Mexico and Latin America’s 5th astir populous country, some of which beryllium to the four-member Pacific Alliance commercialized bloc.

The authoritative quality portal of the Peruvian Congress reported that the proponents of the persona non grata question judge that Sheinbaum has demonstrated a “hostile” cognition toward Peru since she took bureau successful October 2024 owed to her nonaccomplishment to admit “the law succession” successful the state aft Castillo was removed from bureau successful 2022, and by referring to the ex-president arsenic the “legitimate president of Peru.”

On Tuesday, Sheinbaum described the ousting of Castillo arsenic a “coup.”

Ernesto Bustamante, a congressman with the right-wing Popular Force party, said that the question seeks to punish Sheinbaum for her “high-flown and offensive” statements against Peru.

Congresswoman María del Carmen Alva Prieto said that the question is not against the Mexican people, “with whom we stock a past and friendship.”

Instead, it represents “a morganatic defence of nationalist dignity,” she said.

“Peru demands respect for its sovereignty and its institutions,” Alva said.

The substance of the question refers to remarks made by Sheinbaum arsenic “an unacceptable interference successful Peru’s interior affairs and an insult to the nationalist antiauthoritarian system.”

Congresswoman María del Carmen Alva Prieto said the question to state Mexico’s president a persona non grata represents a “legitimate defence of nationalist dignity.” (@PeruEnGinebra/X)

The hostility betwixt Peru and Mexico dates backmost to precocious 2022, erstwhile Castillo was ousted from bureau by the Peruvian Congress owed to “moral incapacity.”

Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, assumed the presidency.

Castillo, a erstwhile teacher and national person who was sworn successful arsenic president successful July 2021, was arrested aft his removal arsenic president and has been detained since Dec. 7, 2022, connected charges of rebellion and conspiracy, among different crimes. On that day, “he gave a televised code successful which helium declared the dissolution of Congress and his intent to regularisation by decree,” the Associated Press reported.

Later successful December 2022, then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared that Mexico’s diplomatic relations with Peru were “on hold,” and said that his authorities inactive considered Castillo to beryllium the person of the South American nation.

He said that Castillo had faced “an ambiance of confrontation and hostility” from the opening of his “legitimate presidency” owed to “the interests of the economical and governmental elite.”

López Obrador besides said that Castillo was a “victim of harassment and confrontation” and considered an uncultured “mountain-dweller” by the governmental and economical elite successful Peru.

“… He was ever harassed and they weakened him until they managed to region him,” said AMLO, who accused Boluarte of “usurping” the presidency.

Sheinbaum unconcerned astir imaginable persona non grata designation

At her Tuesday greeting property conference, Sheinbaum said that her remarks astir the governmental happenings and concern successful Peru didn’t magnitude to an enactment of “aggression” against the South American nation.

The Peruvian Foreign Affairs Committee’s support of the question seeking to designate the president arsenic a persona non grata came 10 days aft Sheinbaum welcomed Castillo’s lawyer, Guido Croxatto, to the National Palace successful Mexico City.

In a societal media station astatine the time, Sheinbaum said that Castillo is “unjustly imprisoned successful Peru.”

“On behalf of Mexico, I explicit my deepest solidarity with him and his family, due to the fact that we cognize that his concern is not lone a idiosyncratic case, but a superior precedent of governmental persecution and favoritism successful our region,” she wrote.

“The United Nations indispensable enactment decisively to warrant respect for quality rights and justice. The state of Pedro Castillo is besides the defence of ideology and the dignity of our peoples,” Sheinbaum wrote.

On Tuesday, she erstwhile again noted that she met with Castillo’s lawyer, and stated that “from our constituent of view,” the ex-president was a unfortunate of “a coup.”

“I showed solidarity with him, that’s what I did. It’s a argumentation that comes from the authorities of president López Obrador,” Sheinbaum said.

She noted that Mexico besides broke disconnected diplomatic relations with Ecuador owed to “the invasion” successful 2024 of the Mexican Embassy successful Quito, wherever an ex-vice president of Ecuador was holed up for months until his apprehension during the raid carried retired by Ecuadorian authorities.

With Peru, “we support the aforesaid criteria,” Sheinbaum said, adding that the connection to state her a persona non grata “doesn’t matter.”

“We’re going to support our position,” she said.

Mexico has a constitutionally-enshrined overseas argumentation of non-intervention successful the interior affairs of overseas countries. But that hasn’t stopped Sheinbaum — and didn’t halt López Obrador — from denouncing what she sees arsenic an injustice successful Peru.

With reports from La Jornada and El País