Sheinbaum Reveals Direct Contact With Fujimori

President Sheinbaum disclosed the first direct government-to-government contact with Peru since the November 2025 diplomatic rupture, revealing Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco spoke personally with newly inaugurated President Keiko Fujimori. The nine-month freeze originated from Mexico's asylum grant to former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, tied to Pedro Castillo's failed 2022 coup attempt, prompting Peru to declare Sheinbaum persona non grata and transfer diplomatic operations to Brazil. Normalization prospects now hinge on two unresolved issues: safe passage for Chávez and Mexico's continued advocacy for Castillo's release, positions Peru has treated as the original interference triggering the break.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco spoke "personally" with Peru's new president, Keiko Fujimori, marking the first disclosed direct contact between the two governments since Peru severed diplomatic relations with Mexico in November 2025. "The foreign minister spoke personally with the president of Peru, and we are moving forward," Sheinbaum said, without elaborating on what the conversation covered.

The disclosure came a day after Fujimori was sworn in as Peru's president for a five-year term running through 2031, becoming the country's ninth head of state in a decade. Numerous Latin American heads of state attended her inauguration at the Peruvian Congress in Lima, but Sheinbaum's absence stood out among the delegations. Sheinbaum did not directly address why she skipped the ceremony, saying instead that her government is in dialogue with Fujimori's incoming administration and reiterating that "we do not want a rupture in relations."

A Break Rooted in Asylum for an Ousted Prime Minister

The diplomatic freeze traces back to November 2025, when Peru cut all diplomatic ties with Mexico after Mexico's government granted political asylum to Betssy Chávez, Peru's former prime minister under ousted president Pedro Castillo. Peruvian Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela called the asylum grant an "unfriendly act" and accused Mexico of a pattern of interference in Peru's internal affairs. 

Chávez faces prosecution for her alleged role in Castillo's failed December 2022 attempt to dissolve Congress and rule by decree; she was later convicted and sentenced to 11 years for conspiracy to commit rebellion, and has remained inside the Mexican ambassador's residence in Lima since the asylum grant.

Peru's Congress subsequently declared Sheinbaum persona non grata over what it called "unacceptable interference," and the rupture forced Mexico to hand its day-to-day diplomatic operations in Peru to Brazil, which has represented Mexican interests in Lima ever since, Mexico Business News reported. 

Tensions peaked further in late November 2025, when then-interim President José Jerí said he would not rule out entering the Mexican embassy to detain Chávez,  a move Sheinbaum warned would breach international law. Jerí was himself removed from office by Congress earlier this year, becoming the seventh Peruvian president ousted before completing a term in the past decade, clearing the way for June's runoff election that Fujimori narrowly won.

Sheinbaum still pushing for Castillo's release

Addressing the roots of the crisis, Sheinbaum said her government continues to seek a safe-conduct pass that would allow Chávez to leave the Mexican embassy and travel to Mexico. Sheinbaum also reaffirmed her government's stance on Castillo himself, who remains jailed alongside Chávez following a March 2026 rebellion trial. 

"We are going to see how this develops. And the president of Peru also knows that we have a position related to President Castillo. It's a position we have established, but beyond that, we obviously do not want a rupture in relations," Sheinbaum said, adding she hoped to share "more news soon" about the bilateral talks.

A cautious opening under a new, more conservative government

Fujimori's rise to Peru's presidency represents a rightward shift for a country that has cycled through nine presidents in ten years, and her platform centers on an "iron fist" approach to crime rather than foreign policy realignment. Still, her administration inherits a diplomatic relationship frozen for nearly nine months, one that has continued only through shared participation in regional blocs like the Pacific Alliance even as embassy-level ties remain suspended. 

Sheinbaum's confirmation that Velasco has already opened a direct channel with Fujimori suggests both governments see value in resetting relations even before the asylum dispute itself is resolved.

Whether that opening translates into a formal restoration of ties will likely hinge on two unresolved questions that have anchored the crisis since its start: whether Chávez is eventually granted safe passage out of the Mexican embassy, and whether Fujimori's government is willing to engage with Mexico's continued advocacy for Castillo, a position Lima has consistently treated as the interference that triggered the break in the first place. 

For now, Sheinbaum's comments mark the clearest signal yet that both sides are testing whether normalization is possible without either government reversing its core position on the case that divided them.