Mexico’s top diplomat leaves Peru amid row over asylum for former PM

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Mexico’s top diplomat in Peru has left the country, the South American country said, amid heightened tensions between the two nations over asylum for a former Peruvian prime minister.

“On this date, and as stipulated by the Government of Peru, the charge d’affaires of the United Mexican States carried out her exit immigration control and left the country,” Peru’s migration agency said in a post on X late on Saturday.

The departure of Mexican charge d’affaires Karla Ornelas comes after Peru severed diplomatic ties with Mexico for granting asylum to Betssy Chavez, the last prime minister for Peru’s ousted and now jailed former President Pedro Castillo.

Peru’s government said on Friday said it will not grant safe passage to Chavez, who has been holed up at the Mexican embassy in Lima, effectively blocking her departure from the country.

Peruvian lawmakers last week also said Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was unwelcome in the country.

A spokesman for Mexico’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Ornelas’ departure from Peru.

Chavez faces conspiracy charges linked to Castillo’s 2022 attempt to dissolve Congress, with prosecutors seeking a 25-year prison sentence. Chavez denies the allegations.

Mexico has cited the 1954 Caracas Convention in its decision to grant Chavez political asylum.

The Mexican foreign ministry has denied the country has intervened in Peru’s internal affairs, saying in a statement on Thursday that it acted “in strict accordance with applicable international law, which is binding on both Mexico and Peru.”

(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Noe Torres, editing by Deepa Babington)