Recommended
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Friday the restoration of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Peru, which had been severed since November 2025, following the new Peruvian government's granting of a safe-conduct to former Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, who is "about to land" on Mexican territory in an Air Force plane.
"With this, relations with Peru will be restored," the president affirmed during her morning press conference, in which she described the decision of Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori's government as an act of "goodwill" toward Mexico.
The Mexican leader explained that a Mexican Air Force plane traveled to Peru to transport Chávez, who served as President of the Council of Ministers during the administration of former President Pedro Castillo (2021-2022).
"The safe-conduct for Betssy was granted. An Air Force plane went for her. She is landing in our country in a few minutes," the president reported.
Chávez's departure comes after several weeks of talks between Mexico and the new Peruvian government.
Sheinbaum explained that the granting of the safe-conduct was a request from her government and considered it a gesture of rapprochement by the new Peruvian administration.
"This was a request we made and it is (...) an act of goodwill, let's put it that way, from President Fujimori's government toward Mexico," she asserted.
México mantendrá su respaldo a Castillo
Despite the diplomatic rapprochement, Sheinbaum warned that Mexico will not change its position regarding Castillo, who, like Chávez, was convicted for the failed coup attempt in December 2022.
"We, as always, as we have done, will continue to defend President Castillo for the reasons we have laid out. They know it. The new government of Peru knows it," she noted.
Chávez had remained since November 2025 at the residence of the Mexican Embassy in Lima after Mexico granted her diplomatic asylum, a decision that led the then-Peruvian government to sever diplomatic relations with Mexico.
The former Prime Minister was subsequently sentenced to eleven years and five months in prison as a co-conspirator for rebellion due to Castillo's failed attempt to dissolve Congress in December 2022.
Peru has now granted the safe-conduct in compliance with the Caracas Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, although it emphasized that the decision does not imply recognizing Chávez as a political refugee.
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry maintained that "there is no political persecution" in the country and announced it will continue to promote a review of international treaties on asylum before the Organization of American States (OAS).
Tensions between Mexico and Peru date back to December 2022, when then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned Castillo's imprisonment and questioned the legitimacy of his successor, Dina Boluarte.
Lima then expelled the Mexican ambassador and withdrew its own from Mexico, leaving relations in the hands of chargés d'affaires until the total rupture in November 2025.
[Publicidad]