Andrés Manuel López Obrador during a conference at the National Palace. Sáshenka Gutiérrez (EFE)
President López Obrador has charged against the Peruvian government after the expulsion yesterday of the Mexican ambassador in that country.
That Executive "is highly questioned about its behavior, especially for opting for repression and not for seeking a way out of the conflict in Peru through dialogue and with the democratic method of calling elections as soon as possible to avoid political instability."
Tensions between the two countries have escalated in recent hours due to Mexico's decision to grant asylum to the family of deposed Peruvian President Pedro Castillo.
At seven in the morning this Wednesday, Castillo's wife and children arrived in Mexico.
The ambassador has not arrived yet, but he will return shortly "because they gave him 72 hours, they were decisive, like that, in the police style, because that has nothing to do with democracy,
The president has repeated that it is some "elites" that have prevented Castillo from being able to govern, leading the country to the institutional crisis in which it is immersed.
"It is groups of economic and political power and their personal ambitions that have led to arbitrary measures such as declaring the ambassador persona non grata," he pointed out.
In any case, the Mexican government has decided not to break relations with Peru because "the embassy needs to be maintained to give protection to the Mexicans who live there," said López Obrador.
Most of the tourists were already able to leave and the departure of those who still want to do so is being processed.
"They are not alone," said the president.
López Obrador has also had intemperate words regarding the United States, whose government he has lamented "that it always talks about democracy and in this case, instead of asking that the will of the people and the democratically elected president be respected, they have endorsed all the truculent maneuver to remove him”.
He has wondered why the Peruvian government has not taken on the US Mexican embassy.
Peruvian President Pedro Castillo gave a speech on television on December 7 in which he dissolved Congress, where that same afternoon a new motion of censure against him was to be discussed, but his co-religionists did not support him, who described him as immediately after a coup.
Castillo was detained when he tried to reach the Mexican embassy and remains in jail today.
Vice President Dina Boluarte assumed the governance of the country, as dictated by the Peruvian Constitution and since then relations with Mexico have been tense. Boluarte is dissatisfied with the president's statements on the crisis.
The malaise also spread to the leaders of Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia, who also supported the deposed Castillo.
López Obrador has always maintained the dictate of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, but on this occasion he has had harsh words against what happened in Peru.
Today he has also censured the decision of that Government to delay the call for elections until 2024, when it was scheduled to take place next year.
“Why don't they call elections immediately to choose a new president and as long as there is an interim president for that purpose?
In such a way that people rationally and democratically expect the conflict to be dealt with.
But the authorities wanting to impose themselves by force, using the Army, unfortunately what is going to generate is more suffering and instability”, he said.
He was referring to the protests unleashed in the country since December 7,
The president has insisted that, on the Peruvian conflict, Mexico "has only made its position known."
"We will always defend the right of asylum, it is part of our foreign policy."
“It has bothered [the Peruvian government] that we do not recognize the president, but we never recognize foreign authorities, these are matters that correspond to the people.
This recognition that they make of other governments that emerged legally or through usurpation is not something usual and we have suffered it on other occasions, the fact that the United States had to recognize us.
And later, the president has announced his intention to amend article 33 of the Constitution so that no one can be expelled from Mexico using the National Migration Institute for this purpose.
The Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, has been in charge of presenting this matter.
He has said that the second paragraph of said article "has been used with discretion to expel citizens, such as professors, ambassadors or researchers."
He has cited several cases in the Administration of Enrique Peña Nieto and Felipe Calderón, among them some singers like Manu Chao or ETA terrorists.
The Government will propose the reform of the article to guarantee foreigners a hearing prior to their expulsion.
subscribe here
to the EL PAÍS México
newsletter
and receive all the key information on current affairs in this country