Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has expressed openness to resuming diplomatic relations with Peru following the election of José María Balcázar as the new president by Peru's Congress. She stated that they will wait for Balcázar to take office and that Peru must take the first step, as it severed ties in November 2025.
In the morning press conference on February 19, Sheinbaum highlighted that Balcázar, a left-wing legislator from the same party as former President Pedro Castillo, supports child marriage and is under investigation for corruption. “We will wait once he takes office to see if it is feasible to restore relations,” the president said.
Relations between Mexico and Peru deteriorated in December 2022, when Castillo attempted to dissolve Peru's Congress and was ousted and imprisoned. Then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador supported Castillo, granted political asylum to his family, and did not recognize Dina Boluarte as successor, leading Peru to withdraw its ambassador from Mexico and declare López Obrador persona non grata.
Under Sheinbaum's government, Peru severed diplomatic relations in November 2025 due to asylum granted by Mexico's embassy in Lima to Betssy Chávez, former president of Castillo's Council of Ministers. Peru described this as an “unfriendly act” and interference in its internal affairs.
Mexico rejected Peru's decision. Roberto Velasco, Undersecretary for North America at the Foreign Ministry, stated: “We reject the decision taken by the government of Peru to break diplomatic relations with Mexico, but not consular relations, because we are acting peacefully, with a humanitarian sense and in strict adherence to international law.”
Historically, Mexico and Peru maintain significant diplomatic and commercial relations in Latin America and are members of the Pacific Alliance, though bilateral cooperation has been limited since Peru's political crisis at the end of 2022.
