MEXICO CITY

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday he will not attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Summit in the US because the Peruvian government will be in attendance. 

Lopez Obrador said he will skip the 30th anniversary of the APEC summit because "we do not have relations with Peru." The president has been a fierce critic of the de facto government in Peru after former President Pedro Castillo was ousted last December.

Vice President Dina Boluarte stepped into power following Castillo's deposal and incarceration.

That ignited a wave of social unrest and protests that resulted in violent clashes with authorities with more than 60 fatalities and hundreds injured. 

The Mexican government has since shown iron-clad support for Castillo and his family, granting political asylum to his wife and children. 

But the Peruvian government has labeled Mexico's support an affront, resulting in severed diplomatic relations. 

The UN and Mexico have condemned the actions of the current government and accused it of using excessive force to repress the Peruvian people. 

Lopez Obrador has often criticized Boluarte's government and the "corrupt" congress that deposed Castillo. He said they are "puppets" of the Peruvian political and economic elite. 

"Of course, we want Pedro Castillo to be released; he is unjustly imprisoned, unjustly, by the corrupt oligarchy of Peru, but that is another thing, that is another matter," he said. 

Lopez Obrador said Thursday that any pressing matter to be discussed with the US could wait and would be addressed privately between him and US President Joe Biden, either in Mexico or the US. 

"So, he (Biden) comes, or I go to deal with development issues, migration, drug trafficking, and all the issues of the bilateral agenda, but I cannot go to the San Francisco meeting for that reason," he said.