Colombian President Gustavo Petro (left) and Peruvian President Pedro Castillo (right) before a meeting at the Government Palace in Lima, on August 29, 2022. Photo: AFP/Ernesto Benevides.
This Thursday, December 8, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, spoke about the situation in Perú, where President Pedro Castillo was removed from office the day before, hours after he announced the dissolution of Congress.
“The anxiety for coup d’états has been unleashed in our Latin American extreme right. They don’t give a damn about the popular will,” the Colombian president wrote on his social media accounts.
Peru: President Castillo Ousted and Arrested Amid Profound Political Crisis
Petro has responded to the Colombian senator María Fernanda Cabal, who previously stated that “armies with a vocation are anti-communists” and that is “a reality that the communists do not have.”
The Colombian dignitary explained that the armed forces of a country “do not have to be either fascist or communist, the armies belong to the nation,” he said.
Pedro Castillo was removed from the presidency of Perú on Wednesday by the Congress, and was even detained by the police, after his decision to dissolve Parliament. The Perúvian Congress ignored Castillo’s decision to dissolve it and voted for a motion of presidential vacancy, removing the president, while they swore in Dina Boluarte, his vice president, as the first woman to take office as head of state in the South American country, in a controversial decision that is still being debated.
Perú: Attempts to Remove Castillo Continued Until Abrupt End
Petro has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to apply the American Convention on Human Rights and to issue “precautionary measures in favor of President Pedro Castillo,” stating that the right “to elect and be elected and to have an independent trial court” has been violated in the Castillo case.
Cuando conocí a Pedro Castillo intentaban allanar el palacio de gobierno para detener a su esposa y a su hija. Atribulado me recibió. Ya se desarrollaba un golpe parlamentario en su contra
Me sorprendii que se quedaran encerrados en el Palacio, aislados del pueblo que los eligio
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) December 8, 2022
He confirmed that a parliamentary coup had indeed been carried out against Castillo and regretted that the Perúvian head of state was unable to achieve “the mobilization of the people who elected him.”
Castillo was facing a vacancy (dismissal) motion on December 7 promoted by deputies of the opposition, the third such motion to remove him from his seat since he assumed power in July 2021.
The request for a motion of censure appealed to the constitutional cause of “permanent moral incapacity to exercise the presidency”, since the president has six open tax investigations, most of which are based on weak testimonies from former officials or close businessmen, obtained under bargaining deals.
(HispanTV)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
