Peru Severs Ties with Mexico Over Asylum of Betssy Chávez

The Peruvian government announced Monday that it is severing diplomatic relations with Mexico after confirming that former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, who served under President Pedro Castillo, is being granted asylum at the Mexican Embassy in Lima. Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela made the announcement at a press conference in the Peruvian capital. 

“We have learned with surprise and deep regret that former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, a suspected co-author of the coup attempt led by former President Pedro Castillo, is in the Mexican Embassy,” said de Zela. He called the move an “unfriendly act,” one that he claimed follows a long line of repeated “interference” by both the current and former Mexican presidents in Peru’s internal affairs. As such, he declared Peru had no choice but to break diplomatic relations with Mexico. 

De Zela added that Peru “deeply laments the Mexican government's persistence in its mistaken and unacceptable position, which has forced us to break diplomatic relations with a country with which we previously maintained a fraternal relationship and multiple common interests.” Despite the diplomatic break, de Zela said that consular relations between the two countries remain intact. He added that the Peruvian government is awaiting formal communication from Mexico to begin the official process for Chávez’s potential asylum, which has not yet been submitted.

Chávez faces prosecution in Peru for her alleged role in the failed coup attempt of Dec. 7, 2022, when then-President Castillo tried to dissolve Congress and rule by decree following months of obstruction from legislators. Following the attempt, Chávez was arrested and later detained until June 2023, when she began a 12-day hunger strike while hospitalized in Lima. She was released in September 2024 after the Constitutional Court ruled that her detention was arbitrary because prosecutors had not filed a timely request to extend her pretrial detention.

The decision to break ties with Mexico comes despite the impeachment last month of previous President Dina Boluarte, who was charged with “permanent moral incapacity” by Peru’s congress due to endemic gang-related violence and personal corruption scandals. Boluarte was a fierce critic of President Claudia Sheinbaum and her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, over their repeated calls for Castillo’s release. Both Mexican leaders have maintained that Castillo was the victim of a right-wing coup, orchestrated by powerful political groups within the Peruvian Congress. 

As a result of her posture, Sheinbaum was declared persona non grata by the Peruvian Congress in September. During a Sept. 9 press conference, Sheinbaum said the declaration would not alter Mexico’s stance on Peru, emphasizing that her actions were consistent with established diplomatic policy. “I received here the lawyer of President Pedro Castillo, who from our point of view experienced a coup d’état, and I expressed solidarity with him. That is what I did.” According to Sheinbaum, “our actions cannot be considered an aggression.”

Although interim President José Jerí appears to be maintaining the hostile stance of both Boluarte and the Peruvian Congress, new elections — scheduled for April 2026 — may usher in a shift in Lima’s posture toward Mexico. Mexico is already contending with an adversarial administration in Ecuador, which in 2024 launched a police raid on the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted political asylum. As a result, then-president López Obrador severed relations with the Andean nation, a policy that the Sheinbaum administration has maintained.