Mexico regrets Peru’s decision to withdraw its ambassador

MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Saturday it regretted Peruvian President Dina Boluarte’s decision to withdraw her country’s ambassador in response to criticism from Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Mexico’s foreign relations department said in a statement that Mexico “maintains diplomatic communication channels for the benefit of both societies and expresses the hope that a democratic agreement can soon be reached to resolve the differences in our Latin American country.”

At his usual morning press conference on Friday, Mexico’s president said he had seen polls “where the fake president (Boluarte) has 15% approval and 85% disapproval.”

He also said that members of the Peruvian parliament have even less approval. “They have 90% of rejection, and even then they rule with bayonets and oppression and violence.”

On Friday, Boluarte rejected López Obrador’s comments about “Peru’s internal affairs and the unacceptable questions he has repeatedly raised about the constitutional and democratic origins of my government.”

He accused López Obrador of damaging ties to “favor ideological affiliation.” Although the Mexican president’s domestic policies and relations with the United States are not particularly leftist, he has invested in supporting leftist regimes such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

While López Obrador has criticized the killing of Peruvian protesters, he has been criticized for saying little about the hundreds of Nicaraguans killed or exiled by President Daniel Ortega’s government.

With the withdrawal of the ambassador, the diplomatic relations between Peru and Mexico will “formally remain at the level of the chargé d’affaires,” the president said in a statement at the presidential palace in Lima.

Dina Boluarte took office on December 7 after then-President Pedro Castillo was ousted by parliament and jailed after trying to dissolve Congress to avoid a vote to remove him from office.

Since then, almost three months of protests have left 60 people dead, 48 of them due to direct clashes with the police. A police officer burned to death in a patrol car.

López Obrador has often expressed his support for Castillo.