Peru: Deposed President Castillo intended to seek asylum in Mexico

The fallen chairman of Peru Pedro Castillo intended to ask asylum in the Mexicoto avoid arrest, after his party voted to oust him and he is now being held in a prison where a former convicted president of the country is.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador revealed today that ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo called him on Wednesday night and told him he would seek asylum from Mexican authorities.

Castillo however, he did not make it all the way to the Mexican embassy in Lima.

“He told me he was on his way to the embassy, ​​but they had definitely already tapped his phone,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, noting that he had informed Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard to open the embassy gates for Castillo.

It is noted that the parliament deposed Castillo shortly after he tried to dissolve Congress and Dina Bolluarte, the country’s vice president until recently, was sworn in as the new head of state in his place.

The “prisoner”

Castillo was arrested last night and is being held in a police prison in Lima, the same one where another former president, Alberto Fujimori, is being held, a police img told Reuters. Castillo was ousted after trying to dissolve Congress in an attempt to stay in power, but his action backfired after former allies and government ministers turned against him.

In the footage broadcast on television, Castillo can be seen arriving at night by helicopter, his hands tied and hidden under a blanket, at the headquarters of the Special Operations Service (Diroes), east of the capital. The Reuters img said the 53-year-old former president is being held there, along with Fujimori, who ruled Peru with an iron fist between 1990-2000 and is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights abuses and corruption.

Fujimori, 84, is the only condemned prisoner in a compound built especially for him in Diroes, before his extradition from Chile in 2007. According to the Institute of National Prisons (INRE), he has at his disposal a cell with a bedroom, a toilet , office and access to a courtyard, where he takes care of the garden. Fujimori was able to dissolve Congress in 1992, as he had the support of the armed forces and police, at a time when the country was battling Maoist rebels and facing a severe economic crisis. After the international outcry that erupted, he organized parliamentary elections and in 1993 promoted a new Constitution that favored a market economy.