The foreign affairs commission of the Congress of Peru moved to declare Colombian far-left President Gustavo Petro persona non grata on Tuesday after Petro compared the actions of Peru’s National Police in response to the ongoing wave of violent leftist riots there to those of Nazi Germany.
The commission informed via a statement that the resolution to declare Petro persona non grata would be elevated to a full congressional vote.
Persona non grata, or “unwelcome person” in Latin, is a designation that a country can impose upon a foreign citizen or diplomat that prohibits their stay or entry in the territory of said country. Article 9 of the 1961 Vienna Convention for Diplomatic Relations grants its signatory countries the ability to declare any member of a diplomatic staff persona non grata “at any time and without having to explain its decision.”
Petro’s designation as persona non grata, if approved, would follow that of Bolivian former far-left President Evo Morales, declared persona non grata in January for “incitements in national politics, which seek to unbalance the internal order of our country, especially in the southern part of Peru.”
Similarly, the Peruvian Congress declared the Mexican ambassador to Peru, Pablo Monroy Conesa, persona non grata in December 2022 — one week after the Peruvian Congress passed a motion in December rejecting Gustavo Petro’s and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s “constant acts of interference.”
Like most of Latin America presently, Peru and Colombia are currently led by leftist governments. In spite of the current “pink tide” growing in most regional nations, their leaders have struggled to act as a united front. Tensions between the leftist government of Peru and Colombia follow those between Chilean far-left President Gabriel Boric and Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. On several occasions, Maduro has accused Boric of being part of a “cowardly” and “failed left.” The socialist dictator had espoused similar accusations against Peru’s communist former President Pedro Castillo in February 2022 — jumping to his defense after Castillo’s impeachment in December.
The Peruvian Congress is composed of 130 lawmakers and currently led by right-wing or center-right parties, with only 49 out of 130 congressmen representing leftist or centrist parties.
The radical leftist party Peru Libre (Free Peru), which had obtained 37 of the 160 seats in the 2021 election, lost 21 seats after a group of Congressmen decided to break from the party in 2022. Peru’s current president, Dina Boluarte, was expelled from the Peru Libre party in 2022 after Boluarte claimed that she never “embraced” the party’s ideology.
On Friday, during an official event to inaugurate a group of new Colombian ambassadors, Gustavo Petro stated, “in Peru, they march like Nazis, against their own people, breaking the American Convention on Human Rights.”
Although he did not directly name the Peruvian National Police, the far-left president expressed his comments one day after authorities deployed 10,000 officers to the historical center of the capital city of Lima after the country’s main workers’ union called for a new rally to demand the resignation of leftist President Dina Boluarte and new elections for 2023. Presidential elections are currently scheduled for 2026, four years after the 2022 elections that made Boluarte vice president. The victor of that election, former President Pedro Castillo, is currently in jail on charges of attempting to stage a coup.
Lima’s historical center, considered by UNESCO a World Heritage Site, was declared untouchable by Lima’s Metropolitan Council, a technical declaration that bans protests and assemblies that jeopardize public health and safety within a 10.32 square kilometer radius. Peru’s Government Palace, the National Congress, and Lima’s Municipal palace are located within the Historical Center.
Petro’s statements sparked a debate in Peru’s foreign affairs commission that culminated with the motion overwhelmingly approved to ban him from the country, with 13 votes in favor, none against, and three abstentions.
The approved motion rejects Petro’s “unacceptable expressions,” which, according to the congressional commission, constitute an offense to Peru and its National Police while trivializing the Holocaust and offending the entire Jewish people.
The commission also urged the Peruvian Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs to “take the necessary steps” to ensure that Gustavo Petro does not enter Peruvian national territory.
Petro’s recent statements are not the first time the Colombian far-left president has been criticized by Peruvian authorities for addressing the pro-Castillo riots that erupted in December. In January, Peru’s foreign affairs ministry issued a note to the Colombian embassy in Peru in which it objected to Petro’s comments regarding an operation conducted by Peruvian police authorities at Lima’s National University of San Marcos (UNMSM) that resulted in nearly 200 arrests, including individuals reportedly tied to the Marxist terrorist organization Shining Path.
“His [Petro’s] acts of interference are inconsistent with the conduct that every Head of State must observe in compliance with International Law,” Peru’s foreign affairs ministry said via twitter on January 23.
The note of protest followed a similar one issued in December in which the Peruvian government described statements given by Petro at the time as “unacceptable interference” after Petro described Castillo as a “victim.” Castillo was arrested after unconstitutionally calling for the dissolution of Congress hours before it was set to impeach him.
“I believe him [Castillo] to be a victim, what is happening is something that is killing people, a popularly elected president that no judge has condemned, and who is captured by his own escort, the police, and they put him in jail,” Petro said during an interview.
Pedro Castillo was arrested after he attempted to dissolve the nation’s Congress and rule by decree before Congress could vote to impeach him, a strategy known in Peru as a “self-coup.” Castillo was apprehended by his security escort before he could arrive at the Mexican embassy in Lima, where he intended to request political asylum from the socialist Mexican government.
Castillo’s arrest sparked an ongoing wave of violent leftist riots across several regions of Peru that have so far left a reported 60 people dead and over a thousand injured. The rioters are demanding the immediate liberation of the former communist president, Boluarte’s resignation, the dissolution of Congress, new elections in 2023, and a constitutional reform.
Petro – alongside the leftist presidents of Mexico, Argentina, and Bolivia – released a joint statement in December expressing his support for Castillo, indicating his “deep concern” over Castillo’s removal from power and his detention.
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