Former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, deposed and in pretrial detention, made an official request for asylum in Mexico, which is consulting the Peruvian government, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced Thursday.
Prosecuted for “rebellion” and “conspiracy”, Pedro Castillo transmitted his request to the Mexican embassy in Lima on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, Marcelo Ebrard said when reproducing the letter from the former president’s lawyer on Twitter.
Víctor Pérez affirms that the former president is the victim of “unfounded persecution by the justice system that has acquired a political nature.” Mexico then began “consultations with the Peruvian authorities,” according to Ebrard.
Seven days of pretrial detention
Earlier in the morning, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he had been called by Pedro Castillo to seek asylum in Mexico. The Mexican president believes that Pedro Castillo has been a victim of Peru’s “economic and political elites.”
Mexico will wait “a few days” before recognizing the new president Dina Boluarte, inauguration this Wednesday. The Peruvian justice ordered this Thursday seven days of preventive detention against Pedro Castillo.
He was dismissed on Wednesday by a vote in Parliament, whose dissolution he had just announced, a maneuver immediately described as an attempted “coup” by many personalities.
The trials for rebellion and conspiracy to commit a crime are added to the other six investigations for corruption or influence peddling against Pedro Castillo, crimes for which members of his family and his political environment are also accused.
Source: BFM TV
