The diplomatic conflict between Mexico and Peru is ignited by the dispute of the presidency of the Pacific Alliance

New chapter in the diplomatic conflict between Mexico and Peru. After months of a tense calm, friction between the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the Administration of Dina Boluarte has returned. At the center of the dispute is the refusal of the Mexican president to hand over the presidency of the Pacific Alliance, a regional mechanism that both countries share with Chile and Colombia, under the argument that Boluarte was "imposed" after the dismissal of Pedro Castillo by a failed attempt of self-coup last December. "She is usurping that position," Lopez Obrador charged this week. The condemnation of the Peruvian authorities came hours later, amid claims of "interference." "It is a manifestation of the level of negligence with which it guides its actions in the foreign sphere," said Peruvian Foreign Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi.

The pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance alternates each year in alphabetical order among the four member countries. Mexico assumed ownership in January last year and was scheduled to hand over the baton to Peru in late 2022 or early 2023, according to the official website of the trade initiative. Just in that period, Castillo's attempt to dissolve Congress and declare a state of emergency convulsed Peruvian politics, in a series of events that ended with the imprisonment of the then president.

"I can not give her anything because she is not legally or legitimately, for us, president of Peru," said López Obrador, who has led the rejection of the dismissal of Castillo in the regional scenario, along with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro. "The opinion of the president of Colombia is similar to mine and the president of Chile is not interested in giving Peru the presidency either. We can give it to Chile, Colombia and let them see what they do," added the Mexican president. The impasse leaves in the air the immediate future of the Alliance, which has established itself as the new diplomatic front between Mexico and the Andean country.

Dina Boluarte speaks with former Mexican President Felipe Calderón, during a commemoration of the 12 years of the Pacific Alliance, in Lima, on April 25. Presidency of Peru (EFE)

For Peruvian internationalist Francisco Belaunde, López Obrador seems to be "out of reality" by insisting on the narrative that Castillo did not try to break the constitutional regime, despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has accepted it in a recent report. "He is not interested in acknowledging receipt. More than being concerned about democracy, it gives the impression that he defends his ideological friends at all costs," he says.

Belaunde welcomes the fact that it was Foreign Minister Gervasi who responded this time to López Obrador instead of Boluarte. "Presidents must be prevented from going from peak to peak. The conflict can no longer escalate. We have recalled our ambassador in Mexico and in turn expelled his counterpart in Peru. It must be spun fine. It would be absurd to break relations," he says. Since Boluarte sat in the presidential chair five months ago, Peru has recalled its ambassadors from three countries in the region — Mexico, Colombia and Honduras — reducing the relationship to chargés d'affaires in an unprecedented move.

Gervasi's response at the beginning of the week has been joined by that of the head of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola, who left diplomacy aside when referring to López Obrador and Gustavo Petro, lighting the bonfire. "The country is being attacked by two presidents, who together, with Mr. Pedro Castillo are alligators from the same well. Messrs. López and Petro agree on Mr. Castillo's policies; They are mediocre and authoritarian efforts," he said.

In the midst of the whirlwind of reactions, attention has been drawn to the appearance of a squire from Boluarte who has no public office in the government: Keiko Fujimori. The leader of Fuerza Popular, who fought vote by vote with Castillo in the disputed 2021 elections, also spoke out against the statements that came from Mexico. "Here the only usurper is you, Mr. López Obrador, who is appropriating the Pacific Alliance and stealing that right from Peru," he wrote on his Twitter account. Fujimori also lashed out at the president of Colombia: "A coup is the one that his comrade Pedro Castillo tried to give, which, as we see, coincides too much with the subversive temperament of Petro."

The most surprising thing is that in defending Boluarte – Castillo's vice president and, therefore, a member of his staff – Fujimori has recognized for the first time, after almost two years, a government that questioned an alleged fraud that was never proven. "If I have to decide between supporting López Obrador and Petro or Dina Boluarte, I strongly support whoever has reached the presidency in legal and constitutional form. That is the role that touches all of us as Peruvians," he said.

"There is a distance," Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican foreign secretary, told the media on Tuesday. Apart from the recognition of Castillo as legitimate president, Ebrard justified the "departure" because his ambassador to Peru, Pablo Monroy, was declared persona non grata. Monroy was a key figure so that the wife and children of the former president could reach Mexico, where they have been in asylum since the deposition. In February, López Obrador claimed that passing the baton to Peru was "legitimizing the coup."

In late March, Castillo's lawyer, Argentine Guido Croxatto, was received by López Obrador at the National Palace, the seat of the Mexican government. "I thank you for your support for the just causes of Peru," reads a letter from the former president from prison that Croxatto delivered to López Obrador. "The support is total," said the legal representative in an interview with this newspaper after his lightning visit to Mexico. A few days earlier he had been with Petro and followed practically the same script: presidential meeting, letter and statements about the international support that Castillo's cause has found in governments, at least nominally, of the left. Since then, the diplomatic conflict was practically off the news agenda in Mexico.

"Here Peru will not happen, here in Colombia we are going with a determined step towards democracy, justice and peace," Petro wrote last weekend on his Twitter account, in response to rumors about an attempted coup against his government. The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, has had his own episode of tensions with the Boluarte administration, oiled by migratory tensions at the beginning of the year and criticism of the management of social protests in Peruvian territory. Still, Boric has been less vocal than his counterparts, Petro and Lopez Obrador. "Unfortunately in that country, racism and classism prevail, so they have unjustly imprisoned the president just because of his popular origin, and because he did not lend himself to the oligarchy of Peru and abroad looting Peru," said the Mexican dignitary, in statements that again triggered tensions with the Executive of Boluarte.

On April 25, an event was held at the Peruvian Government Palace in Lima, for the twelfth anniversary of the Pacific Alliance, established in 2011. As expected, it was not attended by representatives of the Mexican and Colombian State. However, Boluarte had his own guest of honor: former President Felipe Calderón, one of López Obrador's biggest political adversaries. Calderon exchanged praise with the lawyer, and also criticized the current tensions. "We used to all be friends. We recognized ourselves without haggling," said the former president, "that this brotherhood is not erased with prejudices, fears or ideologies."

Calderon, Mexico's president when the Alliance was created (2006-2012), said free trade could not be compromised because of members' ideological differences. "The partisan interests of the leaders of our countries remain a chronic disease," he said. Peruvian exports to the countries of the Pacific Alliance represent 43% of total shipments to Latin America and 6% of the amount of shipments to the rest of the world. For the South American country, it is not a symbolic agreement, but trade agreements that have a real impact on the economy.

"We will see what the Peruvian people resolve in the coming months," Ebrard said of Boluarte's political future. The exchange of accusations and slights has deepened the paralysis of the Alliance. Since November of last year, in a tense climate, Congress prevented Castillo from leaving the country to attend the annual summit of the trade initiative. The accession of Costa Rica and Ecuador as members has also slowed and has lost weight in the Latin American multilateral system. A longtime example of success in regional integration, the mechanism has been caught in the crossfire: used by López Obrador as a symbol of his support for Castillo and a key piece in Boluarte's discourse that he will not admit interference in Peru's internal politics. The diplomatic saga continues.

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