Dina Boluarte evaluates Peru’s reaction to the possible presence of Evo Morales in the country

( Spanish) — The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, said on Wednesday that she is in dialogue with the immigration authorities to assess her government’s reaction to the alleged presence of the former president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, in Peru and recalled that no one, not even a former president, should intervene. in the internal affairs of his country. In an interview with the Peruvian channel PBO, Boluarte urged Morales to lead him in Bolivia.

After the statement, and without mentioning the Peruvian president, the Bolivian leader asked on Twitter “to stop the massacres, illegal detentions and persecution” against Peruvian indigenous people.

“There will be no peace without social justice. The deep Peru demands a fundamental transformation, ”she added.

Boluarte’s statements come almost a month after the impeachment and arrest of former President Pedro Castillo, who tried to unconstitutionally dissolve Congress. Boluarte, then vice president, assumed the vacant position according to the succession provided for in the Constitution of that country.

After Castillo’s departure, several Peruvian congressmen have accused Morales of being behind the protests against the Boluarte government in the south of the country.

tries to contact Morales’s press team to get their reaction to what the Peruvian president said and to see if he has visited or plans to visit Peru.

In November 2022, the former president of Bolivia was in Peru, where he attended a meeting with indigenous groups in Puno.

Morales, Castillo and Boluarte

Although Morales always supported Castillo, at the beginning of the political crisis he did not speak out against Boluarte.

In fact, on December 9, two days after Castillo’s departure, the former Bolivian president wrote on Twitter: “We hope that sister president Dina Boluarte’s request for spiritual unity and disarmament is accompanied by actions that allow us to recover the political stability and democratic continuity for the benefit of the brotherly Peruvian people”.

But as tensions grew and protests broke out across the country, Morales’s tone changed.

Three days later, on December 12, the former president repudiated “the police repression that caused deaths and injuries” in the mobilizations that demanded the celebration of a Constituent Assembly and the freedom of Castillo

Days later, on December 21, Morales lamented that “after the parliamentary coup, Peru is following in the footsteps of the last de facto government of Bolivia (…) Repression encourages rebellion.”

The protests in Peru have left 28 dead to date, according to the Ombudsman’s Office, 22 due to the mobilizations and 6 as a result of the road blockade.

The mobilizations called by different social organizations lowered their intensity at the end of December, but they have restarted after the end of the year holidays.

The demonstrators ask for the closure of Congress, the resignation of Boluarte, the call for a referendum on the possible installation of a Constituent Assembly and new elections.

The Ombudsman’s Office has repeatedly asked to avoid violence in these mobilizations.

Peruvian law

spoke with Roxana del Águila, former national migration superintendent, who said that all Peruvians and foreigners must comply with immigration regulations.

“If a foreigner performs a function other than the migratory status he or she has in the country, it will be up to the National Migration Superintendency to evaluate, within due process, the sanction of expulsion, which means not only leaving the country but avoiding entry for a period of time. of 15 years to Peruvian territory”.

There is a precedent. In 2017, through a resolution, the National Migration Superintendence prevented the entry of the Spanish citizen El Mohtar Sidahmed, who was then presenting herself as a diplomatic representative of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, “for having violated her migratory status as a tourist during her recent stay in our country”, according to the statement issued at that time by the institution.

Roxana del Aquila, who at that time was the general manager of the National Superintendency of Migrations, recalled that the Constitutional Court declared the habeas corpus petition filed by the citizen’s lawyer alleging the “violation of the right to freedom of transit”.

Ungrateful person”

In November 2021, the Foreign Relations Commission of the Peruvian Congress approved by majority a pronouncement that declared Evo Morales persona non grata for carrying out “proselytizing actions and meddling in the country’s internal politics.”

The document urged the authorities to prevent the former president from entering Peru.

“Promoting in the country issues that are really very sensitive, such as a new Constitution, illegal coca crops, the nationalization of natural resources, the alleged interference of the United States or the DEA leaving Peru are matters that he can discuss in Bolivia freely, but it cannot come to Peru to promote proselytizing actions”, affirmed the then president of the Commission, Ernesto Bustamante.

In a conversation with , Bustamante recalled that that decision “had an effect from a practical point of view” because Morales did not visit the country in December 2021, as he had announced.

Between the 20th and 21st of that month, the meeting of Runasur, a platform of social organizations promoted by Morales, would be held in Cusco, Peru, but the organization decided to cancel the event due to fears caused by the increase in covid-19 cases. for the omicron variant.

But in statements to the newspaper El Comercio, Rogelio Rivas, Runasur’s regional coordinator in Cusco, said at the time that they were fighting “so that former President Morales can enter Peru.”

Bustamante points out that during 2022 Evo Morales has “been entering and leaving Peru feeling free to do so because the Ministry of the Interior, through the General Directorate of Migrations, which is the competent entity to execute an entry impediment, did not has been pronounced.”