The World Today
Peru's Congress unanimously called on Thursday to reiterate the declaration of Colombian President Gustavo Petro as persona non grata, alleging that he "attacks the country's territorial sovereignty" over a border island that Lima has elevated to municipal status, a move Bogotá has deemed an annexation of territory.
The organization has approved a motion "for its actions that disregard and violate territorial sovereignty" and in which it has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to convey this decision in a diplomatic note to the Colombian government and the international community.
Petro was declared persona non grata in 2023 due to his critical statements about his Peruvian counterpart, Dina Boluarte, and her cabinet over the repression of anti-government protests.
The motion comes despite a meeting between Colombian Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio and her Peruvian counterpart, Elmer Schialer, this Thursday in the Colombian capital, which hosted the summit of Amazonian countries. During this meeting, they confirmed the holding of the permanent joint commission for the inspection of the Colombian-Peruvian border on September 11 and 12 in Lima.
In a joint statement, the two representatives defended their willingness to "work together to ensure the navigability of the Amazon River and comprehensively address the needs of the populations along our shared border" and affirmed their intention to "always maintain dialogue, in harmony with the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation existing between the two countries."
In early August, President Petro accused Peru of "taking over territory that belongs to Colombia." The neighboring country's Foreign Ministry expressed its "strongest and most energetic protest" in response to the declaration, defending the creation, in mid-June, of "a new district of Santa Rosa, exercising the powers and authority conferred upon it by the Constitution."
