(CNN Spanish) — The Foreign Relations Commission of the Peruvian Congress “rejected” this Tuesday the statements by the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, allegedly referring to the National Police of Peru, and declared it persona non grata. The decision of the commission, chaired by congresswoman Maricarmen Alva, former president of parliament, was made through the approval of a motion on the agenda.
What did the president of Colombia say?
“In Peru they march like Nazis against their own people, breaking the American Convention on Human Rights,” Gustavo Petro said during a speech last week during the inauguration of new ambassadors in Colombia. Petro did not mention the Peruvian police, but his statements occurred after images of thousands of policemen marching in the center of Lima were released this Thursday, when protests against the government of President Dina Boluarte were taking place, in the same place.
The president of Colombia has not reacted so far to the statements of the Peruvian parliament. The Secretary of Information and Press of the Colombian Presidency told CNN that it will not issue any comments and that any response is the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry. CNN contacted this agency but has so far received no response.
It’s not the first time
In January, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry sent a protest note to the Colombian ambassador in the country after Gustavo Petro’s statements about the events that occurred at the University of San Marcos, when the police stormed the place to evict a large group of demonstrators who had settled in the university center. The Boluarte government described as an “act of interference” the pronouncement of the president of Colombia.
What else does the motion approved in Congress point out?
The document expresses its rejection of the “unacceptable” statements by Gustavo Petro that “constitute an offense to our National Police of Peru, to the Republic of Peru and, by trivializing the Holocaust, it also constitutes an offense to all the Jewish people, many of them whose members are Peruvian nationals”. It also urges the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Relations to “take the necessary steps to guarantee that Mr. Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego, President of the Republic of Colombia, does not enter the national territory.” The document approved by votes in favour, none against and 3 abstentions, must be debated in plenary.