Peru escalates tensions with Mexico by withdrawing ambassador.
Dina Boluarte said that AMLO's "ideological affinities" harm bilateral relations.
247 - Peruvian President Dina Boluarte announced, in a message to the Nation on Friday (24), the withdrawal of the Peruvian ambassador to Mexico after statements by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) in favor of Pedro Castillo.
"I have ordered the definitive withdrawal of our ambassador to the United Mexican States, and thus, diplomatic relations between Peru and Mexico are formally at the chargé d'affaires level," the president said.
"Mr. López has decided to undermine the two-hundred-year-old relations of mutual respect, friendship, cooperation, and desire for integration that have historically united Peru and Mexico, favoring ideological affinities to the detriment of important integration processes that benefit our peoples, such as the Pacific Alliance," said Boluarte.
AMLO met with Castillo's wife, Lilia Paredes, at Mexico's National Palace on Thursday and Friday and called Boluarte a "spurious president," saying he had seen polls in which she had only a 15% approval rating.
On December 20th of last year, Boluarte declared the then-Mexican ambassador to Peru, Pablo Monroy, persona non grata, giving him only 72 hours to leave the country.
Peru has been gripped by a wave of protests since December, when former President Pedro Castillo was ousted after attempting to dissolve Parliament.
The protesters are demanding an end to the government of Dina Boluarte, who took office after Castillo was ousted by the right-wing Congress, new elections, the closure of Parliament and the convening of a Constituent Assembly, as well as the release of Castillo. More than 60 people have died in the protests.