Peru breaks diplomatic ties with Mexico following the escape of former Prime Minister to the Mexican embassy

The foreign minister of the Andean country announced Monday that Peru has chosen to sever diplomatic ties with Mexico, after the former prime minister’s asylum request while hiding at the Mexican embassy in the country.

President Pedro Castillo’s former prime minister Betssy Chavez fled to the embassy, according to information Peruvian officials received earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela told reporters.

An inquiry was not immediately answered by Mexico’s foreign ministry.

“In response to this unfriendly act, and taking into account the repeated occasions in which the current and former presidents of that country have interfered in the internal affairs of Peru, the Peruvian government has decided today to break diplomatic relations with Mexico,” stated de Zela.

Chavez was charged with a crime for her suspected involvement in Castillo’s late 2022 attempt to dissolve Congress. Castillo was fired and is still in custody.

While the trial was going on, a court in September released Chavez, who had been detained since June 2023.

Her attorney, Raul Noblecilla, told the local radio station RPP that he had not heard from his client in a number of days and did not know if she had made an asylum request.

Chavez’s driver had previously testified that while Castillo’s attempt to disband Congress was in progress, she asked him to take her to the Mexican consulate before heading back to her office.

She has denied knowing about Castillo’s intention to dissolve the legislature, and Chavez disputed that she tried to contact the embassy at that time. The prosecutors have asked for a sentence of 25 years.