The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, confirmed on Tuesday the suspension of the Pacific Alliance summit -scheduled for this week in Mexico City- due to the absence of his Peruvian counterpart, Pedro Castillo, after the Andean Parliament denied him permission to travel.
«The meeting of the Pacific Alliance was suspended because they did not allow the president of Peru to attend, and he is in charge of the presidency. Here he was going to receive it and we are exploring the possibility of holding an event in Peru or making a decision in consultation with the members of the Pacific Alliance,» said López Obrador.
In fact, the Mexican president has not ruled out the possibility of going to Lima to hand over the Presidency of the Pacific Alliance to Castillo, a regional organization also formed by Chile and Colombia, and which other Latin American countries such as Ecuador or Costa Rica; and Oceania, such as Australia, New Zealand or South Korea, among others, aspire to join.
López Obrador has indicated that, although the summit has been suspended, the presidents of Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, Gabriel Boric, Guillermo Lasso and Gustavo Petro, respectively, will travel to Mexico City, where he will hold bilateral meetings with each of them, according to the Mexican newspaper ‘El Universal’.
PERU SETS FOR DECEMBER THE HANDING OVER OF THE PRESIDENCY For his part, Castillo has thanked the «solidarity» and «support» of his Mexican counterpart, whom he has described as a «brother», for «putting the common interest» of their respective peoples «above any political irresponsibility» of «a certain sector», in clear allusion to the opposition that seeks to remove him from office since he was elected president by the ballot box a little over a year ago.
In turn, Castillo has advanced that they are «prepared» to receive in Peruvian territory the members of the Pacific Alliance and thus the country can assume the Presidency ‘pro tempore’ of the organization.
«It is not only a challenge, but a commitment to promote the advancement of peoples, which will help the country in its growth for the benefit of all. To the members of this space, we are ready to receive you,» Castillo wrote on Twitter.
Later, the Peruvian Foreign Minister, César Landa, confirmed that the handover of the ‘pro tempore’ presidency «could be the first week of December», while joining Castillo’s statements to value the «gesture» of President López Obrador.
«We welcome the generous gesture of the Mexican president to eventually come to Peru with the presidents of the Pacific Alliance to hand over to President Pedro Castillo the ‘pro tempore’ presidency,» added Landa in statements to the Andina news agency.
The cancellation of the summit has also caused the president-elect of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his Argentinean counterpart, Alberto Fernández, to suspend their visit to Mexico, although it is true that López Obrador has assured that «later» both will visit the country as they are «good friends».
Last Friday, the Peruvian Congress denied President Castillo’s request to leave the country to travel to Mexico for the Pacific Alliance summit, although he was authorized to travel to Chile.
