Peru has withdrawn its ambassador from Mexico over a dispute

LIMA, Peru – Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Friday announced the withdrawal of her country’s ambassador to Mexico in response to criticism from Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, who accused her of damaging relations to “favor ideological affiliations.”

In his usual morning press conference, 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.”

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.