LIMA (Reuters) – Peru has banned nine Bolivian citizens, including former president Evo Morales, from entering the country, the Peruvian interior ministry said in a statement on Monday.
It comes after weeks of protest in Peru against President Dina Boluarte following the ousting of former president Pedro Castillo, with protesters holding demonstrations near the border with Bolivia.
Multiple Bolivian citizens have entered the country in recent months to carry out political activities, which goes against Peru’s immigration legislation, national security and internal order, the statement said.
Meanwhile, Morales has publicly backed Castillo and said his ouster and subsequent arrest was illegal and unconstitutional on Twitter last month.
Peru’s Defense Minister Jorge Chavez accused foreigners last week of stirring up protests with a view to encouraging separatism in the country’s south.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino, Writing by Valentine Hilaire, Editing by Isabel Woodford)
