The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hugo de Zela Martínez, reported that the Peruvian Government is analyzing the granting of a safe conduct permit that allows the former premier to leave the country. Betssy Chavezwho received diplomatic asylum from Mexico the day before.
“It is an issue that we are just beginning to analyze to proceed. That treaty (the Convention on Diplomatic Asylum) places specific obligations on the country and Peru is a country that respects international law and, consequently, will continue to be so, consequently, what that treaty says will apply,” he indicated.
Along these lines, De Zela said that he has requested the legal area of the Foreign Ministry “to analyze in depth the application of that treaty to the specific case (of Betssy Chávez).” “I have not yet received that report and when I receive it we will be able to make a definition,” he stressed.
Asked about the possibility of Peru denying safe passage to Chávez, the chancellor explained that it is up to the State that grants asylum to determine whether it is a common crime or a political crime, and in that context, he maintained, “Mexico is the country that makes that decision and has already made it.”
“Mexico has communicated that they have decided to grant political asylum to Betssy Chávez, that right cannot be discussed; the second thing that is regulated in the treaty is the issue of safe conduct in which case there are two stages: the first, that the country that grants asylum, that is, Mexico, requests the country, Peru, to grant safe conduct for the asylum seeker to leave the country, and it is up to Peru to make the decision on that request, that is what we are doing. In The communication that Mexico has sent us tells us two things: that it has granted asylum and requests safe passage; that is what we are analyzing,” he noted.
“There is no persecution”
At another time, De Zela Martínez commented that with this decision Mexico “has adopted a political position” that has been going on for some time, from the year 2022, when – he recalled – Pedro Castillo’s coup d’état occurred.
“They have adopted a political position that obviously responds to ideological considerations and they have not accepted what the reality of our country is. They have created a parallel reality in which they have been maintaining that we still have Pedro Castillo as president, who is imprisoned, and from that they have constructed an entire story with which they intend to maintain that there are no adequate guarantees to continue this process. Now what they have done is extend that point of view to Betssy Chávez, we consider that this story is simply not true. What has happened in Peru As all Peruvians know, Mr. Castillo is currently being tried and all his rights are being respected, which has been verified even by international observers. “There is no political persecution in either of the two (cases),” he pointed out.
Likewise, he stated that “without a doubt” these events constitute “political interference” by Mexico in internal issues in Peru. “It is (an interference), indeed, because in Peru what is being done is to comply with the law and what the legal norms mandate and respecting due process at all times,” he said.
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