ReportWire

Tag: persona non grata

  • Peru bans Mexico’s President Sheinbaum as diplomatic dispute grows

    [ad_1]

    Peru has declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a “persona non grata” who is unable to enter the country, days after severing ties with Mexico amid an escalating diplomatic dispute.

    Peru’s Congress voted 63 to 34 on Thursday in favour of symbolically barring Sheinbaum from the country after her government granted asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chavez, after she fled to the Mexican embassy in Peru’s capital Lima.

    The designation of “persona non grata” is typically reserved for foreign diplomats and compels them to leave a host country, and is seen as a rebuke to their government.

    President of Peru’s Congress Fernando Rospigliosi said the move was a show of support for the government and its decision to break off relations with Mexico, according to Mexico’s El Pais newspaper.

    During a debate on Thursday, Ernesto Bustamante, an MP who sits on Peru’s Congressional Foreign Relations Committee, also accused Sheinbaum of having ties to drug traffickers.

    “We cannot allow someone like that, who is in cahoots with drug traffickers and who distracts her people from the real problems they should be addressing, to get involved in Peruvian affairs,” Bustamante said, according to El Pais.

    Chavez, who is on trial for her participation in an alleged 2022 coup attempt, earlier this week fled to the Mexican embassy in Lima, where she was granted political asylum.

    Peru’s Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela called the decision by Mexico City an “unfriendly act” that “interfered in the internal affairs of Peru”.

    Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has maintained that it was acting in accordance with international law, and the move in “no way constitutes an intervention in Peru’s internal affairs”.

    Lima has yet to offer safe passage for Chavez to leave the embassy and travel to Mexico.

    Chavez, a former culture minister, briefly served as prime minister to President Pedro Castillo from late November to December 2022.

    Charges against the former minister stem from an attempt by President Castillo in December 2022 to dissolve the Peruvian Congress before he was quickly impeached and arrested.

    Chavez, who faces up to 25 years in prison if found guilty, has denied involvement in the scheme. She was detained from June 2023 until September of this year, and then released on bail while facing trial.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Burkina Faso junta declares UN coordinator persona non grata over child rights report

    [ad_1]

    DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The military junta in Burkina Faso on Monday declared the United Nations resident coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak as “persona non grata” over an official U.N. report that accused jihadi groups and government forces of abuses against children.

    In a statement, the government accused Flore-Smereczniak of participating in the preparation of the report — titled Children and Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso — which it says is “without evidence or supporting documentation” and that conveyed “serious and false information.”

    The U.N. has been approached for comment.

    The report was published in April and accused both jihadi groups and government forces of abuses against children, including their recruitment as soldiers, sexual abuses and attacks on hospitals and schools.

    Covering the period between July 2022 and June 2024, it said 2,483 grave violations against 2,255 children had been verified, including some children who were victims of multiple violations

    Flore-Smereczniak was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in July 2024 as the organization’s resident coordinator in Burkina Faso as well as the humanitarian coordinator.

    In a statement at the time, the U.N. said the appointment had been made “with the host Government’s approval.”

    Burkina Faso, along with its neighbors Niger and Mali, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by jihadi groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

    Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance.

    But the security situation in the Sahel has worsened since the juntas took power, analysts say, with a record number of attacks and civilians killed both by Islamic militants and government forces.

    In 2023, the head of the U.N.’s human rights office called for an investigation into the killings of at least 28 people, which local human rights groups blamed on volunteer militias supporting Burkina Faso’s army.

    [ad_2]

    Source link