The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ruled this Sunday on the recent decision of the Legislature of the neighboring country against the president of Colombia.
The Peruvian Congress declared the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, persona non grata in that country for various statements that have been understood as direct interference in the internal affairs of the neighboring country. Among them, for example, that the Peruvian police officers look like Nazis when they do their job of controlling public order during the protests.
But not only the Peruvian Legislature ruled. This Sunday, the president of that nation, Dina Boluarte, asked Petro to “dedicate himself to governing Colombia. According to the president, the streets of Colombia “are also filling up with protests.” For this reason, she demanded from Petro: “Let us Peruvians solve our problems.” [problemas]”.
Among the most acidic statements against the Colombian president are that of the former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, who told him: I am going to ask him publicly not to put his red nose in Peru. Peru has defeated terrorism and we are not going to accept foreign terrorism to get involved in our country”.
But beyond Fujimori’s fiery declarations that, although she is one more citizen, recognized for her political career, or those of President Boluarte herself, who came to power after the arrest of the president of Peru Pedro Castillo (which unleashed the crisis in which Peru is), is the decision of the Peruvian Congress, elected, as in all representative democracies, by the people in free elections.
In other words, as in Colombia, the Congress of Peru is a direct representation of the people who elected their representatives to integrate, debate and decide for their constituents. In the case of Colombia, the people are represented in the Senate of the Republic and the House of Representatives.
For this reason, the position of the Colombian Foreign Ministry is striking, which this Sunday responded to the decision of the Peruvian congress to declare Petro persona non grata.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that it “takes note of the motion of the Congress of the Republic of Peru”, but, immediately afterwards, warns that it “interprets that this is an act of a political nature by the legislative body of Peru, which does not commit the people and, therefore, does not affect the historic relationship with the sister nation.
In other words, for the Colombian Foreign Ministry there is no relationship between the Peruvian people and the congress they elected. The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Relations does not recognize the representativeness granted by the voters to legislators in Peru. He “takes note” of the institution, but disdains its character of representation of the people.
For this reason, he continues to reiterate his “confidence that democracy and the rule of law will prevail in Peru to find solutions to the current situation.” For this, the Colombian Foreign Ministry invokes “broad and inclusive social dialogue, always in concurrence with the framework of the Inter-American Human Rights System, particularly what is mandated by the American Convention of 1969, Pact of San José, of which both countries are part ”.
In another part of its response, the Foreign Ministry says that it “trusts that, within the framework of the historic relations of brotherhood and good neighborliness between Colombia and Peru, joint work will continue to promote common interests.”
Finally, the Foreign Ministry says that it “takes advantage of the opportunity”, together with the entire Colombian Government, “to deplore the recent acts of violence that have occurred in Peru, which have affected the integrity of its citizens, both civilians and members of the public force and expresses their solidarity with their people and their condolences to the relatives of the deceased”.