Peru's new foreign minister resigns in latest blow to president

Peru's foreign minister, Miguel Rodriguez, has resigned after just one month in office, the country's foreign ministry said on Friday, after public clashes between the official and leftist president Pedro Castillo.

Peru's foreign minister, Miguel Rodriguez, has resigned after just one month in office, the country's foreign ministry said on Friday, after public clashes between the official and leftist president Pedro Castillo. "I am writing to you to submit my irrevocable resignation to the position of Minister of State in the Office of Foreign Relations," Rodriguez wrote in a letter published by the foreign ministry on Twitter.

"The goal was to revitalize Peru's foreign policy, correct mistakes and try to strengthen the course of our country's international life," he added, without elaborating. Earlier this week, Castillo undermined Rodriguez's August announcement that Peru was breaking diplomatic ties with the partially recognised Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Western Sahara.

On Thursday, Castillo tweeted that Peru reaffirmed the defense of the Sahara state's "self determination." The two politicians also disagreed on the Escazu Agreement, a regional environmental treaty, and Peru's participation in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Rodriguez's departure comes alongside that of Peru's deputy transport minister Luis Rivera, who also resigned on Friday after being sentenced to six years in prison for corruption. Approval ratings for Castillo, who has been in office just over a year, have plummeted. He has already reshuffled his Cabinet several times and is battling a corruption probe led by the country's prosecutor.

 

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