Peru announces withdrawal of its ambassador from Colombia

By Laura Gamba

BOGOTA, Colombia (AA) - Peru’s government ordered the “definitive withdrawal” of its ambassador to Colombia on Wednesday.

The decision to withdraw Felix Denegri Boza was due to the "interference" of Colombia’s president.

"This decision responds to the repeated interference and offensive expressions of President Gustavo Petro, who persists in distorting reality by not knowing that on Dec. 7, 2022, a coup d'état perpetrated by former President Pedro Castillo took place in Peru," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The move was made after Petro said Saturday during the Ibero-American Summit held in the Dominican Republic’s capital Santo Domingo that Castillo should have been at the meeting, not in jail.

“Today he should be here. They took him out (of the meeting). He is in prison,” he said before Peru’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ana Cecilia Gervasi.

Since Castillo's dismissal, Petro has said several times that the former president was the victim of a coup and criticized the government of Peru’s current President Dina Boluarte.

According to the Peruvian Foreign Ministry, Petro's behavior has damaged diplomatic relations between the countries.

"President Petro's attitude and his continuous interventionist expressions have seriously deteriorated the historic relationship of friendship, cooperation and mutual respect that has existed between Peru and Colombia," the statement said.

Peru "has reacted in a balanced, progressive and proportional manner, in accordance with diplomatic practice and taking into account the close relationship that unites it with Colombia for more than 200 years," it added. ​​​​​​​

Boluarte announced the definitive dismissal of the Peruvian ambassador to Mexico at the end of February due to similar statements made by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.