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The granting of political asylum to the Castillo family fuels diplomatic tension between Peru and Mexico.
In its historical tradition of offering protection to political refugees, the Mexican government granted asylum on Tuesday to the family of former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, who has been detained since December 7 after trying to dissolve Congress.
His wife Lilia Paredes Navarro and their two children are in Mexico after their procedures at the Mexican embassy in Lima.
After the Mexican offer, the Peruvian government declared persona non grata the Mexican ambassador, Pablo Monroy Conesa, giving him 72 hours to leave the country.
It is an infrequent measure that is usually applied in extreme cases and that now feeds the diplomatic tension between two of the largest economies in Latin America.
After the arrest of Castillo, investigated for the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy, among others, the Mexican government expressed its support for the former Peruvian leader, whom it continues to consider president, and attributed the trials against him and his dismissal to illegal maneuvers by the oligarchy. economy of Peru.
Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia have also ruled in favor of Castillo, something that has generated condemnation from the current Peruvian government of Dina Boluarte.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), considered the arrest of the former president “illegal” and assured this Monday his willingness to receive him along with his family and “all those who feel persecuted in Peru.”
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Castilllo’s family was sheltered in the Mexican embassy in Peru.
Castillo’s relatives are the latest in a list that includes Soviet ideologues, human rights activists, Spanish Republican exiles and former Latin American presidents.
For almost the entire last century, Mexico had an active asylum policy. The tradition, however, waned from the 90s, when the way of mediating in the affairs of the region changed.
But this custom seems to have been reactivated in the last two decades.
Just three years ago, in 2019, the North American country welcomed the former president of Bolivia, Evo Moralesafter he resigned from his position in 2019 after a deep social and political crisis.
These are some of the other characters who came to Mexico seeking asylum or political refuge.
image source, Government of Mexico
President López Obrador was criticized for granting Evo Morales asylum in 2019.
Jose Marti
Among the first to arrive were several Cubans who fought for the independence of their country in the 19th century.
The most notable of these, the poet and revolutionary José Martí spent two years in Mexico in 1875 during a long period of exile from his country.
Victor Raul Haya de la Torre
The Peruvian thinker and politician arrived in Mexico in 1923 invited by the writer and Minister of Education, José Vasconcelos. He arrived as a refugee after being imprisoned during the Augusto Leguía regime.
It was in Mexico where, inspired by the Revolution, Haya de la Torre founded the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), with which he initially sought to consolidate a project for all of Indo-America.
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Trotsky arrived in Mexico after a series of negotiations carried out by the painter Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo.
Leon Trotsky
In 1937, the government of Lázaro Cárdenas agreed to grant political asylum to the Russian revolutionary and ideologue Leon Trotsky, exiled from the Soviet Union by José Stalin.
Trotsky arrived in Mexico after a series of efforts made by the painter Diego Rivera, who received him together with his wife Frida Kahlo at their home in Mexico City.
The Mexican asylum did not end well for the revolutionary. After suffering two attacks at Rivera’s house, Trotsky was assassinated in 1940 by the Spanish Stalinist agent Ramón Mercader while working in his office.
Luis Bunuel and Luis Felipe
During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, several Republicans who fled their country were also received by the Mexican authorities.
Between 1939 and 1942, during the government of Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico gave asylum to more than 25,000 Spaniards. Among them were the poet Luis Felipe and the film director Luis Buñuel, who later became a Mexican citizen.
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The refuge in Mexico served Castro to prepare his revolutionary campaign.
Fidel Castro
In 1955, after being imprisoned for opposing the Fulgencio Batista regime, a young 28-year-old Fidel Castro left Cuba for Mexico.
The refuge in that country helped Castro to prepare his revolutionary campaign. After 18 months in Mexico, he returned home with several allies, including Ernesto “Che” Guevara, and eventually achieved his goal of heading the communist regime in Cuba.
Hector Jose Campora
Two decades later, in 1976, during the coup in Argentina, the former president of that country, Héctor José Cámpora, took refuge in the Mexican embassy in Buenos Aires.
The Peronist leader remained three years in the Mexican diplomatic representation until in 1979 the military authorities allowed him to leave for Mexico.
There he died a year later from laryngeal cancer.
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The Shah of Iran was granted a tourist visa by the Mexican government and he spent several months living in the city of Cuernavaca.
Shah of Iran
Also in 1979 another prominent figure arrived in Mexico: Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, who had been overthrown during the Islamic Revolution in his country.
The Mexican government granted him a tourist visa, and the shah spent several months living in the city of Cuernavaca. But Mexican hospitality apparently had a limit with the former Iranian president.
When he traveled to the United States to undergo medical treatment, the Mexican government decided to block his return.
The Allende family
During the 1970s the Mexican government received refugees from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay who were fleeing the military regimes in their countries.
Among the exiles was the family of Chilean President Salvador Allende, ousted by the 1973 coup, and several members of his cabinet.
Among those who arrived in Mexico was Allende’s widow, Hortenisa Bussi, and her daughters, Isabel and Beatriz.
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Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.
Rigoberta Menchu
In the 1980s, thousands of Guatemalan indigenous people who were fleeing the Civil War in their country received asylum in Mexico.
Among them was the human rights activist Rigoberta Menchú, who requested asylum in the country after her family was tortured and murdered in her country.
Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.
Manuel Zelaya
The tradition of granting asylum in Mexico was suspended for the next 24 years. Both the governments of Ernesto Zedillo and that of Vicente Fox and Enrique Peña Nieto found themselves embroiled in controversies with the leftist governments of the region.
It was not until 2009 when Mexico resumed its practice and granted asylum to Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran president deposed in a coup.
The then Mexican President Felipe Calderón received him with honors, but only two days later Zelaya left the country.
Evo Morales
image source, AFP
Morales landed at the Mexico City International Airport.
After disputed elections with accusations of fraud included, former Bolivian President Evo Morales resigned from his post in November 2019.
He did so after the Bolivian Armed Forces suggested that he step aside in a context of violent protests and a deep social and political crisis.
After his resignation, Morales requested political asylum from Mexico and the AMLO government granted it for humanitarian and security reasons.
The former Bolivian president landed in Mexico City on November 12, 2019, although a month later he moved to Argentina.
