Peruvian lawmakers declare Colombian president 'persona non grata'

BOGOTA, Colombia

Tensions are rising between Colombia and Peru after the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Peruvian Congress approved a motion Tuesday to declare Colombian President Gustavo Petro persona non grata for having compared the police of Peru to "Nazis."

With 13 votes in favor, none against and three abstentions, the committee chaired by conservative congresswoman Maria del Carmen Alva passed the bill, which will now be discussed in the full Congress.

The motion followed a statement made by Petro on Friday, when he talked about the heavy display of Peruvian police in the capital Lima in response to an anti-government demonstration.

"In Peru, (the police) march like Nazis against their own people, breaking the American Convention on Human Rights," said Petro, who has criticized the role of the armed forces in repressing the protests, which have been raging in the neighboring country for the past two months.

Alva said that this type of comment "cannot be allowed from a president of a brother country."

“We have to make them respect us as a country and we have to defend our national police," she said, adding that Petro had "trivialized the Holocaust."

During the discussion, the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs were urged to take "the necessary steps" to ensure that the Colombian president "does not enter the national territory."

The Peruvian government sent a diplomatic letter in January saying it "protested the acts of interference" by Petro after he spoke about the eviction by security forces of hundreds of demonstrators at a university in Lima.

Petro has not recognized Peruvian President Dina Boluarte since she replaced Pedro Castillo in December after police arrested Castillo when he tried to dissolve Congress.

Anti-government protests in Peru have left at least 70 people dead.