Lima (AP) – The Peruvian Congress on Wednesday denied the permit requested by the president Dina Boluarte to travel to the Vatican and represent Peru at the funerals of Pope Francis.
It is not the first time that Parliament prevents President Boluarte from traveling abroad and governs remotely because there is no vice president who assumes management during his absence in the country. Last year, he could not attend the United Nations General Assembly for the same reason.
Congress rejected the new petition, raised on Tuesday, for 45 votes against and 40 in favor. There was an abstention.
Several legislators criticized that Boluarte is not focused on solving a wave of violence caused by crime that hits Peru. The South American country accumulates 677 murders from the beginning of 2025 to April 20, a figure higher than any previous record in the same period since 2017 when a count began in a national computer system of deaths.
“He would honor Pope Francis dedicated to his country, to bleed every day with the death of thousands of Peruvians,” said conservative legislator Norma Yarrow, of the popular renewal party.
The presidential palace has not issued comments at the time.
Peru celebrates three days of grieving for the death of Francisco, among tributes that include the writing of condolences messages in a book in the Apostolic Nunciature, a diplomatic headquarters of the Vatican in Lima, as well as the projection on Monday of an image of the Pope in some sources of water.
Francisco visited Peru in 2018, including a region of the Amazon hit by illegal gold mining, as well as the capital and another city of the north that years before had suffered the consequences of the El Niño climate phenomenon.
In Peru, 76% are Catholics, according to data from the 2017 National Census.
