Peru cuts diplomatic ties with Mexico over asylum for Betssy Chávez

# Peru cuts diplomatic ties with Mexico over asylum for Betssy Chávez

*Event date: 2025-11-03*

Peru has severed diplomatic relations with Mexico after Mexican authorities granted asylum to former Peruvian prime minister Betssy Chávez, whom prosecutors accuse of involvement in the failed 2022 attempt by then-president Pedro Castillo to dissolve Congress.

Foreign minister Hugo de Zela announced the break on Monday, calling Mexico’s move an “unfriendly act” and accusing both current and former Mexican presidents of interfering in Peru’s domestic affairs. He said Peru had learned with “surprise and deep regret” that Chávez was being granted asylum at the Mexican embassy residence in Lima.

Chávez is facing criminal charges over the events that led to Castillo’s downfall. Castillo, elected on a leftist platform, was ousted by Congress and arrested in December 2022 after attempting to dissolve the legislature. Chávez has denied knowing about the plan to break up Congress and has also denied trying to flee to the Mexican embassy while the move was underway.

The dispute is the latest chapter in a long deterioration of ties between the two countries since Castillo’s removal. Peru previously expelled Mexico’s ambassador in Lima after Mexico granted asylum to Castillo’s family, and the government of Dina Boluarte temporarily recalled Peru’s ambassador from Mexico City, accusing then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador of meddling in Peruvian politics.

The article said Castillo was on his way to the Mexican embassy with his family when he was arrested, and that both he and Chávez later went on trial in March this year. Castillo remains in preventive custody, while Chávez was released on bail. Prosecutors have sought a 25-year sentence for Chávez and 34 years for Castillo.

The immediate diplomatic rupture does not appear to have been paired with any broader regional settlement. Instead, it extends a conflict that has mixed criminal proceedings, asylum disputes and competing claims of sovereignty. For Peru, the issue is not only whether Chávez should receive protection abroad, but whether Mexico’s intervention amounts to a pattern of political interference. For Mexico, the asylum decision continues a line of support for figures tied to the Castillo camp.

The DW report does not suggest that the legal cases are resolved. It shows instead that the political and diplomatic costs of the 2022 crisis are still unfolding, with the asylum decision reviving an argument over who bears responsibility for the constitutional crisis that followed Castillo’s failed dissolution of Congress.