MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

AMLO not handing over Andean presidency to “undemocratic” Peru

The Mexican President will let the Rio Group decide

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced he would not be handing over the pro-tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance to Peru on the grounds that Pedro Castillo Terrones' impeachment has been “undemocratic,” it was reported Friday.

AMLO said he would not deal with the “spurious government” that has been ruling in Lima since Dec. 7 when then-Vice President was promoted after Castillo's dismissal and arrest for trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

”I am going to instruct the Secretary of Foreign Affairs to notify the members of the Rio Group what we do because I do not want to hand over (the presidency of the Pacific Alliance) to a government that I consider spurious. Let the members of the Rio Group decide,“ AMLO said during his usual morning press conference.

The Rio Group is one of the permanent regional mechanisms for consultation and political agreement which, in addition to Mexico and Peru, includes Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Panama, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

”We are going to notify him, to inform him, to see what their opinion is. If they say: hand over the presidency, we will do it, but I am going to make the consultation because I do not want to legitimize a coup d'état“, added the president.

The Mexican leader, who skipped the recent Celac Summit in Buenos Aires, also announced that he planned to travel to South America in September, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Chilean President Salvador Allende.

Boluarte replied that AMLO was ”harming the peoples that comprise the Pacific Alliance, by simply continuing to support the former president who carried out the coup.”

In this scenario, Amnesty International (AI) published a report on the Peruvian crisis of violence under Boluarte. “The Peruvian Army and National Police have illegitimately fired lethal weapons and used other less lethal weapons indiscriminately against the population, especially against indigenous people and peasants,” the AI document read. It reported on events in the regions of Ayacucho, Andahuaylas, Chincheros, and Lima between Jan. 29 and Feb. 11 “The Peruvian authorities have allowed that, for more than two months, the excessive and lethal use of force has been the government's only response to the social outcry,” the document also noted.

Also Friday, Peru's Congress approved by 59 votes in favor, 23 against, and 3 abstentions, a constitutional complaint filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office against former Castillo and two of his former ministers, for alleged corruption during his administration. Now the complaint will return to the Prosecutor's Office to file a formal accusation before the Judiciary. In the meantime, Castillo is serving 18 months of pre-trial detention.

The complaint also recommends prosecuting former Ministers Juan Silva (Transportation and Communications) and Geiner Alvarado (Housing, Construction, and Sanitation).

To add to Peru's plight, sanitary authorities are to decree a health emergency following an outbreak of dengue in 13 of the 25 country's regions “due to the significant increase in cases and deaths from dengue,” which is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, in Amazonas, Ayacucho, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huanuco, Ica, Junin, Lambayeque, Loreto, Madre de Dios, Piura, San Martin, and Ucayali.