Tensions have flared between the governments of Peru and Mexico this week, after Peru’s congressional Foreign Affairs Committee voted for a motion that would declare the President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum, a persona non grata.
Twelve of the 18 members of the committee voted for the motion’s approval on Monday in response to recent comments made by the Mexican president and her persistent refusal to recognize the government of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.
The motion will now head to the country’s 130-member unicameral Congress of Peru in the coming weeks, where the political alignment of the congressional body is expected to approve the motion’s passing in a general vote.
Relations between the two Latin American nations have remained on ice for several years, when in July of 2021, ex-President of Peru, Pedro Castillo, was removed from office by the Peruvian Congress due to “moral incapacity” after the left-wing leader announced the dissolution of the congress to embark on an attempt to rule the nation by decree, according to the Associated Press.
Former President Castillo is currently detained, and has been since December 7, 2022, on charges of rebellion and conspiracy, among other crimes.
In December of 2022, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that relations between the two governments had been put “on hold”, and that the government of Mexico continued to recognize the Castillo government as the legitimate government of Peru.
Obrador also made the assertion that Castillo was the “victim of harassment and confrontation”, accusing Castillo’s successor and current President Dina Boluarte of “usurping” the presidency from Castillo.
President Sheinbaum of Mexico, who succeeded Obrador in October of 2024, has seemingly advanced the Obrador government’s position, refusing to acknowledge Boluarte as the legitimate president of Peru.
As recently as Tuesday, during a meeting with the ex-president, Pedro Castillo’s lawyers, Sheinbaum commented that “from our point-of-view, [the ex-president] was a victim of a coup.”
In a separate post on X, Sheibaum stated that “Castillo is unjustly imprisoned in Peru” and that “On behalf of Mexico, I express my deepest solidarity with him and his family, because we know that his situation is not only a personal case, but a serious precedent of political persecution and discrimination in our region.”
Peruvians in the Congress have responded by submitting the motion to declare Sheinbaum persona non grata, barring the leader of Mexico from entering Peru.
Proponents of the motion view President Sheinbaum’s stance towards the administration of President Dina Boluarte as “hostile” and “an unacceptable interference in Peru’s internal affairs and an insult to the national democratic system.”
Peruvian Congresswoman María del Carmen Alva Prieto said that the motion is not against the Mexican people, “with whom we share a history and friendship”, but rather represents “a legitimate defense of national dignity,” reported by Mexico News Daily.
