Mexico Grants Asylum to Family of Peru’s Jailed Former President

“This is an independent, sovereign decision by Mexico,” Mr. Ebrard said in a news conference in Mexico City. 

Mr. Ebrard didn’t say which family members of Mr. Castillo, a 53-year-old father of two, have received asylum. Mr. Castillo’s wife, Lilia Paredes, as well as his sister-in-law and two nephews, have all been targeted by prosecutors in corruption investigations. They have denied wrongdoing. 

The granting of asylum deepens tensions between the two nations after Mr. López Obrador threw his support behind Mr. Castillo following his failed Dec. 7 attempt to shut down Congress, which constitutional experts in Peru and many of Mr. Castillo’s former allies described as an attempted coup. 

After his move against the legislature failed, Mr. Castillo tried to flee to the Mexican Embassy. Instead, his own bodyguards turned him over to the police. He was later charged with rebellion and conspiracy. His vice president, Dina Boluarte, took over as head of state.

Mr. Castillo’s supporters launched protests across the country, torching government buildings and forcing airports to close as at least 26 people died, the Health Ministry said Tuesday, mostly in the southern Andes where Mr. Castillo had his strongest support. 

Mr. López Obrador and the leftist presidents of Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia have continued to recognize Mr. Castillo as Peru’s rightful president, saying he was the victim of antidemocratic harassment as Congress tried to impeach Mr. Castillo amid corruption scandals. The U.S., Canada, and several European nations have recognized Ms. Boluarte as Peru’s rightful leader. 

The U.S. State Department declined to comment on Mexico’s move.

It isn’t the first time Mr. López Obrador has helped fellow leftists. In 2019, Mexico granted asylum to former Bolivian President

Evo Morales

after he resigned in the wake of a disputed election. Mr. Morales flew to Mexico from Bolivia on a Mexican Air Force jet. He lived in a Mexican military base for a month before settling in Argentina. He eventually returned to Bolivia after his ally, President

Luis Arce,

took office in 2020. 

President López Obrador, a populist-nationalist who took office in 2018, considers the right for asylum a pillar of his foreign policy. He has said he is inspired by former President Lázaro Cárdenas, a socialist who in the 1930s gave asylum to tens of thousands of Spanish Republican exiles who fled during the Spanish Civil War.

“The right of asylum is sacred for all Mexicans, we have to guarantee it,” Mr. López Obrador said in a 2019 speech.

Mexico granted asylum to some 27,000 people in 2021, the most since record-keeping began in modern Mexican history. Most of them are migrants from Central America, Venezuela and Haiti who have wound up settling in Mexico after having been expelled from the U.S.

In Lima, influential Peruvian politicians are urging the government to deny any request for safe passage to Mr. Castillo’s relatives.

“The former president’s family aren’t being politically persecuted and their lives are not in danger,” said Congresswoman María del Carmen Alva, a staunch opponent of Mr. Castillo who leads the legislature’s foreign-relations committee.