The US rules out creating a dialogue table for Peru, as requested by Colombia

USA will not promote a dialogue table to find a way out of the crisis in Peruas requested by the Colombian president Gustavo Petronor does it interfere in the affairs of the Andean country, the US ambassador said Thursday before the OAS.

Peru is the scene of massive demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Dina Boluarte, appointed after the removal and arrest of former leftist president Pedro Castillo on December 7 for trying to dissolve Parliament.

Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico supported Castillo and since then relations between Peru and these countries have remained under tension.

In a tweet, Petro invited the government of President Joe Biden to “Help open a political dialogue table to help Peruvian society to a democratic transition.”

The Organization of American States (OAS) “It continues to be in a position to support and help Peru and we, when I say we, the United States, are not going to have a role in creating a table for conservation, that table already exists within Peru,” tosigned by the ambassador to the OAS, Francisco Mora, in a telephone press conference.

At the end of 2022, the OAS sent a high-level group to the Andean country, but its recommendations remained a dead letter with the dismissal of Castillo.

The organization has met several times to address the crisis and on Wednesday Boluarte delivered a speech before the Permanent Council, its executive body, in which he asked for support for “the only possible way out”: holding elections.

Mora defended that “Every citizen has the right to protest (…) and the State has to defend it” but the protests must be “peaceful”.

The Boluarte government, which called for a national truce, “He is committed to dialogue, it is important to remain calm, seek a political solution to this crisis through dialogue”insisted the ambassador.

“The United States is committed to supporting the Peruvian government” in that dialogue but also wants the dozens of deaths during the protests to be investigated, one of Boluarte’s promises.

The demonstrations are concentrated in the cities of Juliaca and Puno, more than 1,350 km south of Lima, but there have also been protests in the capital, including in front of the US embassy, ​​where some protesters accused Washington of meddling in the crisis.

“Obviously there has not been any intervention by the United States in Peru, that is false, totally false,” Mora stated.

There will be cases of people -he said- that “They are going to want to use the United States as a weapon or a political tool, for political purposes, but in no way has the United States intervened in the way that some have said.” but “it accompanies other countries and the OAS by supporting the dialogue process”.

Source: AFP