Reuters /Mexico City
Mexico yesterday urged Bolivia’s new conservative government to respect its right to grant asylum to nine people at its embassy in La Paz, days after complaining that Bolivian government surveillance there has grown excessive.
“The right of asylum must be guaranteed,” Mexico’s leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said when asked about the disagreement in a regular news briefing.
On Thursday, Mexico said it was asking the International Court of Justice to mediate in the dispute, which has chilled relations between the two Latin American countries.
Bolivia’s government, headed by interim President Jeanine Anez, a former senator, took power last month when long-serving leftist president Evo Morales resigned and fled to Mexico.
Morales quit under pressure from Bolivia’s armed forces after a presidential election that the Organisation of American States (OAS) said was rigged in his favor.
He quickly accepted an offer of political asylum from Mexico, putting a strain on ties between Mexico the government headed by Anez, an opponent of Morales.
According to the Bolivian government, a former senior aide to Morales, Juan Ramon Quintana, is among the nine people who have taken asylum in the Mexican embassy.
The Bolivian government has not named all of the nine people inside the embassy.
Those who have been identified, including Quintana, are allies of Morales wanted by the government for crimes including sedition and armed revolt.
Morales left Mexico this month and is now in Argentina.
According to Mexico’s government, Bolivia has issued arrest warrants for at least four of the people inside the Mexican embassy and says they must face justice.
Source:gulf-times.com
