Peruvian Congress rejects President Boluarte’s trip to the US for UN assembly

Peru’s Congress on Tuesday refused to grant President Dina Boluarte permission to travel to the United States and attend the U.N. General Assembly next week amid criticism of the government’s handling of deadly forest fires.

The president of the Andean country must obtain permission from Congress for any trips abroad. Some 55 legislators voted against the trip, while 50 voted in favor.

Boluarte planned to travel to New York to meet with officials and businessmen from various countries and participate in the High-Level Week of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly. His speech at the session was scheduled for September 24, according to his agenda.

The legislators who rejected the trip argued that the Peruvian president should prioritize the task of stopping The forest fires that are affecting several regions of the countrywhich are leaving 16 people dead and 377 dead animals, in addition to 2,260 hectares of crops destroyed, according to official data.

Forest fires are frequent in Peru between the months of August and November, mostly due to the burning of dry grasslands to expand the agricultural frontier by communities and in other cases caused by land traffickers, according to data from the Ministry of the Environment.

Several authorities in the country and opposition legislators have asked Boluarte to declare a state of emergency in the affected areas, which would allow for greater use of resources, but the government says the conditions for approving the measure have not yet been met.

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