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LIMA: Peru’s Congress voted to declare Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum persona non grata on Thursday, after her country granted asylum to a former Peruvian prime minister on trial for allegedly aiding a 2022 coup attempt.
The two Latin American countries have had strained diplomatic relations for years, but tensions rose on Monday when Mexico granted asylum to ex-PM Betssy Chavez, prompting Peru to break off formal ties.
Chavez was Peru’s prime minister in December 2022 when then-president Pedro Castillo was ousted for trying to dissolve Congress following a months-long standoff.
The declaration against Sheinbaum was passed on Thursday in a 63-33 vote by Peru’s Congress, which also recently removed Castillo’s highly unpopular successor, Dina Boluarte.
Fernando Rospigliosi, the right-wing acting Congress president, said “it has been clearly established” that Sheinbaum interfered in Peru’s affair, “not only in words” but also by granting Chavez asylum.
Socialist lawmaker Jaime Quito meanwhile criticized the measure, saying “once again, they are making an international embarrassment by breaking relations with our sister country Mexico.”
Following the breakdown in diplomatic relations, interim president Jose Jeri announced on Monday night that Mexico’s top diplomat in Peru had been given a “strict deadline to leave.”
Relations between Lima and Mexico deteriorated sharply over the ouster of Castillo, a former rural schoolteacher and trade unionist dubbed Peru’s “first poor president.”
Back in December 2022 Castillo was on his way to the Mexican embassy in Lima to request asylum together with his family when he was arrested and charged with rebellion and abuse of authority.
Chavez was charged alongside him, and the pair went on trial in March.
While Castillo has been in preventive custody since his impeachment, Chavez was released on bail.
She has taken up asylum at the Mexican ambassador’s residence as Peru’s Foreign Ministry evaluates a request for safe passage to Mexico.
Prosecutors had sought a 25-year term for Chavez for allegedly participating in Castillo’s plan.
They have sought a 34-year sentence for Castillo.