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Pedro Castillo — seen here at the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly on September 21, 2021, speaking as the president of Peru — is facing charges in connection to his attempt to dissolve the country’s congress in 2022 and rule by emergency order. The prime minister during his time in office, Betssy Chavez Chino, has sought diplomatic asylum from Mexico. Pool File Photo by Mary Altaffer/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 4 (UPI) — Peru is severing diplomatic relations with Mexico over its granting of diplomatic asylum to a former prime minister accused of being involved in a coup attempt in 2022.

The Peruvian Foreign Ministry announced it was ending diplomatic relations with Mexico in a Monday evening communication, accusing the North American nation of “interfering in an inadmissible and systematic manner in Peru’s internal affairs.”

According to the communication, Mexico informed Peru that former Prime Minister Betssy Chavez Chino had sought refuge at its embassy in Lima and was granted political asylum.

Peru’s Foreign Ministry said it was “an unfriendly act that adds to the series of unacceptable interferences by the Mexican government toward Peru” and demonstrates its “profound lack of interest in maintaining a relationship” with Lima.

“Consequently, the government of the Republic of Peru has decided to break diplomatic relations with the United Mexican States,” it said.

Chavez was prime minister under President Pedro Castillo, who was impeached after trying to dissolve Congress and impose an emergency government to rule by decree in December 2022. He has been held in preventive detention since then on corruption and rebellion-related charges.

The former prime minister had been jailed from June 2023 over her alleged role in the coup until September, when she was released by a judge who ruled her right “not to suffer arbitrary detentions” had been violated.

Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said Peru’s decision to sever diplomatic relations was “excessive and disproportionate.”

In defense of granting Chavez asylum, Mexico said it did so in adherence to international law, in particular the 1954 Convention on Diplomatic Asylum, which both countries are party to.

“Mrs. Chavez Chino has mentioned that she has been the subject of repeated violations of her human rights as part of a political persecution of the Peruvian state since the moment of her capture in 2023,” the ministry said in a statement.

Mexico said its decision followed a “thorough evaluation and in strict compliance with the procedure established for this purpose in the Law on Refugees, Complementary Protection and Political Asylum” as well as in accordance with Mexican law.

“Mexico reaffirms, as has been recognized by the General Assembly of the United Nations, that the granting of asylum cannot be considered an unfriendly act by another state.”

Former prime minister and the wife of ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol both indicted on separate charges on the same day.

South Korean prosecutors in separate cases have indicted former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo for aiding and abetting former President Yoon Suk-yeol’s short-lived imposition of martial law last year, and the ex-president’s wife, Kim Keon-hee, for bribery and other charges.

The charges were laid against Han, 76, on Friday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Additional charges include perjury and falsifying official documents.

Han had been under investigation by a team of special prosecutors for several weeks, according to media reports.

Former First Lady Kim was also indicted on charges stemming from her alleged participation in a stock manipulation scheme and acceptance of gifts from the controversial Unification Church, among other activities.

Lawyers for Kim have denied the allegations against her and said news reports about some of the gifts she allegedly received were groundless speculation.

Assistant special counsel Park Ji-young told a televised briefing that Han was the highest official who could have blocked Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law.

Park said Han still played an “active” role in Yoon’s martial law declaration by trying to get Yoon’s decree passed through a Cabinet Council meeting as a way to give “procedural legitimacy” to it.

Han has maintained that he conveyed to Yoon that he opposed his martial law plan.

Kim and her ex-president husband have been arrested and are in jail, with Yoon already undergoing trial on charges that include insurrection for his attempt to impose military rule.

His wife had been the subject of numerous high-profile scandals, some dating back more than 15 years, which overshadowed his turbulent presidency and inflicted political damage on him and his conservative People Power Party (PPP).

Yoon was formally impeached in April.

Former Prime Minister Han stepped in twice to serve as acting president during the post-martial law chaos between December and May, but he later resigned to participate in South Korea’s presidential election.

He failed, however, to secure the candidacy for the PPP.

The June 3 election was later won by the liberal Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung, who had livestreamed himself climbing over the walls of South Korea’s National Assembly to vote down the martial law declared by Yoon.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Retired politician and billionaire businessman was accused of violating Thailand’s strict laws on insults to Thai royalty.

A court in Thailand has dismissed a high-profile case against the country’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra over allegations he violated the country’s strict laws on royal insults, the Reuters news agency reports.

Thaksin’s lawyer told Reuters that the court dropped the case on Friday and cleared his client of violating Thailand’s lese-majeste laws that criminalise almost all criticism of the country’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The court has yet to publicly announce its decision.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow shortly.

Succes Masra denies the charges against him, which relate to inter-communal clashes that left dozens dead in May.

Chad’s former prime minister and opposition leader Succes Masra has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for disseminating racist and xenophobic messages that incited violence.

Defence lawyer Kadjilembay Francis told reporters following Saturday’s ruling at a court in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, that Masra would appeal his sentence.

“He has just been subjected to ignominy and unworthy humiliation,” Francis said.

Masra, who was prime minister between January and May last year, is the head of the Transformers party and a sharp critic of Mahamat Deby, Chad’s current president.

He was accused alongside 67 co-defendants, mostly from the same Ngambaye ethnic group, of causing a clash between herders and farmers in May in Logone Occidental, in the southwest of the central African country. The fighting left 35 people dead and six others injured.

Masra has denied the charges against him, which include hate speech, xenophobia and having incited a massacre.

Before leaving the courtroom on Saturday, he gave a message to his supporters: “Stand firm.” Activists with his party said they would put out a “special message” later in the day.

The Ngambaye ethnic group enjoys wide popularity among the predominantly Christian and animist populations of the south, whose members feel marginalised by the largely Muslim-dominated authorities in N’Djamena.

Masra left Chad after a bloody crackdown on his followers in 2022, only returning under an amnesty agreed in 2024.

He faced off against Deby in that year’s presidential election, which Deby won with more than 61 percent support.

But Masra did not accept the results, claiming that the vote was rigged. He later agreed to serve as premier after signing a reconciliation deal with Deby.

Masra has strongly opposed the military rulers who came to power in Chad in April 2021, after the death of Deby’s father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had led the country for 30 years.

Deby took power in 2021 and legitimised his presidency with a parliamentary election earlier this year, which was opposed by Masra and his party.

Just two weeks earlier, his daughter Paetongtarn was suspended as prime minister by the country’s Constitutional Court.

Former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra has testified in court, seeking to defend himself against royal defamation charges that could land him 15 years in prison, just weeks after his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra was suspended as prime minister.

Thaksin stands accused of breaching strict lese-majeste laws shielding Thailand’s royal family from abuse and criticism in a closed-door trial in the capital, Bangkok, that began earlier this month and continued on Wednesday.

The prosecution’s case revolves around remarks Thaksin made to South Korean media a decade ago, with the defendant due to give at least three days of testimony. A verdict is not expected for several weeks.

Recent events for both father and daughter are a serious blow to the powerful Shinawatra political dynasty. For the past quarter-century, the 75-year-old telecoms magnate has been a defining figure of Thai politics, founding a movement which has competed with the traditional pro-royal, pro-military elite.

His prosecution, combined with Paetongtarn’s suspension two weeks ago, represents a dramatic waning of their family’s political fortune, analysts say.

Thaksin’s lawyer Winyat Chatmontri told the AFP news agency his client testified on Wednesday morning “and will continue throughout the rest of the day”.

About 50 Thaksin supporters gathered at the court, wearing red shirts, the colour of his political movement, emblazoned with a portrait of his face.

“He is a very talented guy,” 79-year-old retired accountant Vaew Wilailak told AFP. “But from past experience, bad people just want to get rid of him.”

Thaksin returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years in exile, following a military coup which removed him from the prime minister’s office that he won in two elections.

He returned the day his family’s Pheu Thai party took office, at the head of a coalition government backed by their conservative former enemies, prompting suspicions a backroom deal had been struck.

Thaksin was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison on corruption and abuse of power charges – later reduced to one year by a pardon from King Maha Vajiralongkorn in another apparent sign of reconciliation.

In recent interviews, Thaksin affirmed his loyalty to the monarchy and expressed gratitude for the king’s pardon.

Speaking to AFP outside the court on the trial’s opening day on July 1, Winyat said his client appeared “chill” despite the seriousness of the case.

On the same day, Paetongtarn was suspended by the Constitutional Court, pending an ethics probe into her conduct during a leaked diplomatic phone call discussing a deadly border clash between Thai and Cambodian troops on May 28, which resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier and reignited longstanding tensions in the region.

The scandal “became a full-blown crisis” after the leaked call suggested that Paetongtarn had “compromised her position by kowtowing” to former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor of political science and international relations at Chulalongkorn University, told the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

In the call, Paetongtarn referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and described a Thai military commander as an “opponent”.

Pheu Thai’s coalition has been abandoned by key conservative backers over the call, leaving it with a razor-thin parliamentary majority steered by a caretaker prime minister.