The government of Peru on Monday announced the breaking of its diplomatic ties with Mexico in response to the Mexican embassy granting asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, who faces criminal charges for her participation in a failed 2022 coup attempt.
Interim President José Jerí said that Mexican ambassador Karla Ornela has a “strict deadline” to leave the country.
Chávez, a 36-year-old former lawmaker, served as Minister of Labor and then as Minister of Culture throughout 2022 during the administration of communist former President Pedro Castillo. In late November, Castillo appointed Chávez as Prime Minister, a position she only held for roughly two weeks until Castillo’s December 7, 2022 failed coup attempt.
On that day, the communist former president, hours before Congress was scheduled to carry out an impeachment vote against him, attempted to dissolve Congress and stay in power via a failed autogolpe (“self-coup”). Castillo was arrested while en route to the Mexican embassy and stripped of his presidency. Castillo potentially faces up to 34 years in prison on rebellion charges in a still presently ongoing trial.
Castillo was succeeded by then-Vice President Dina Boluarte. Boluarte was impeached in mid-October and succeeded by Head of Congress José Jerí, who presently serves as interim president until Peru holds a new election in April 2026.
Peruvian courts originally ordered Chávez be placed under preventive detention in June 2023 facing accusations from prosecutors, who alleged that she played a key role in Castillo’s failed coup plot. At the time, Chávez reportedly hosted a live broadcast on the Chinese social media platform TikTok “daring” the police to arrest her at her residence.
In September 2025, the Peruvian Constitutional Court ordered Chávez’s release on grounds that the Public Prosecutor’s Office “did not submit the request for extension of preventive detention sufficiently in advance.” The Prosecutor’s Office reportedly filed a request to extend the preventive detention eight days after its expiration on December 19, 2024, which the court described as a “lack of diligence on the part of the operators of the justice administration system.” Although Chávez was released, the court instructed her to attend any fiscal or judicial proceedings in which her presence was required.
After her September release, Chávez reportedly failed to show up to three October oral trials hearings at the Peruvian Supreme court, leading to the court warning in late October that failure to appear for a fourth time would result in Chávez being held in contempt of court and being the target of an arrest warrant. Chávez briefly showed up to court for a virtual October 24 hearing, during which her lawyer presented a purported medical certificate from a clinic claiming that she had a “delicate” health status. After the judges found inconsistencies in the certificate, the clinic that the certificate allegedly came from denied having ever issued it.
On Monday, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry denounced in an official statement that Mexico had granted asylum to Chávez at the Mexican embassy in Lima and announced the immediate rupture of its diplomatic ties to Mexico in response. The Ministry accused the Mexican government of “interfering in an unacceptable and systematic manner in Peru’s internal affairs” since Castillo’s failed December 2022 coup attempt.
“The unacceptable position taken by Mexico since December 2022 remained unchanged, despite repeated demands by the Peruvian government for respect for its sovereignty and the principle of non-intervention in internal affairs,” the statement read.
“In an unfriendly act that adds to the series of unacceptable acts of interference by the Mexican government toward Peru, the Mexican Embassy in Lima has reported today that its government has granted diplomatic asylum to Ms. Betssy Chávez Chino. This fact demonstrates the Mexican government’s profound lack of interest in maintaining a relationship with Peru,” the statement continued.
The Mexican Foreign Ministry immediately responded to its Peruvian counterpart with a statement lamenting and rejecting Peru’s decision to break ties with Mexico in response to Betssy Chávez’s asylum. The Mexican government deemed Peru’s rupture of diplomatic ties “excessive and disproportionate,” and claimed that the granted asylum did not constitute an intervention in Peru’s internal affairs.
In a six bullet-point list, the Mexican government justified its decision to grant asylum to Chávez citing its own constitution and international treaties while asserting that the former prime minister has been “subject to repeated human rights violations as part of political persecution by the Peruvian state since his capture in 2023.”
“I deeply regret that the Mexican government persists in its misguided and unacceptable position, which has reached the point of forcing us to break diplomatic relations with a country with which, until these events, we had a fraternal relationship and many points of agreement,” Peruvian Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela told reporters on Monday.
According to Infobae, investigations from the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office backed by witness testimonies and vehicular geolocation records suggest that Chávez had originally attempted to seek asylum at the Mexican embassy immediately after the failed December 2022 coup attempt. Prosecutors reportedly hypothesized that Chávez and other members of Castillo’s inner circle sought Mexican diplomatic protection on that day to avoid being arrested by the authorities.
From the outset of the investigation, the Second Supreme Prosecutor’s Office Specializing in Crimes Committed by Public Officials included among its hypotheses that Chávez and other members of Castillo’s inner circle sought Mexican diplomatic protection on that tumultuous day to avoid being arrested by the authorities. Chávez reportedly denied the allegations in the past.
Foreign Minister de Zela spoke with Radio Programas del Perú (RPP) on Monday morning and informed that he requested the Ministry’s legal department to “thoroughly analyze” the application of safe passage treaties for Betssy Chávez.
“That is an issue we are just beginning to analyze. We received that request yesterday afternoon, and therefore we need to conduct the necessary legal studies before responding,” de Zela said.
Mexico, during the administration of far-left President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, granted asylum to Pedro Castillo’s wife Lilia Paredes and his children on December 2022. Peru responded at the time by declaring Mexican ambassador Pablo Monroy Conesa persona non gratta.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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