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Mexico’s president on Thursday (Aug 8) rejected a request from the Ukrainian government to arrest Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader ignores an international arrest warrant and attends the inauguration of Mexico’s next president in October.
“We can’t do this,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government news conference.
“It’s not up to us to decide.”
Ukraine has asked Mexico to arrest Putin if he attends the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum on October 1. The Ukrainian Embassy in Mexico issued a statement on August 7, asking Mexico to arrest Putin, citing an arrest warrant issued by the United Nations International Criminal Court (ICC).
Peter Stano, a spokesman for the European Commission on foreign affairs, told EuroEvent on Thursday that Mexico is a member of the International Criminal Court, which means it would be legally obliged to arrest Putin if he accepted an invitation to attend the ceremony in Mexico City.
Sheinbaum’s team has invited the Russian president to attend the inauguration and noted earlier this week that a “diplomatic advisory” had been sent to all countries that maintain diplomatic relations with Mexico.
“We want the Mexican government to know that Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and has a warrant for his arrest,” the Ukrainian embassy said in a statement. The statement said Putin was suspected of ordering the abduction of Ukrainian children and taking them to Russia.
The statement expressed confidence that the Mexican government would comply.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin last year, accusing him of war crimes for illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine to Moscow after Ukraine’s invasion of neighboring Moscow in early 2022.
Russia is not a member of the ICC, but Mexico is.
In June, Putin congratulated López Obrador ally Sheinbaum on his election victory. At the time, he called Mexico “Russia’s historical and friendly partner in Latin America.”
Read more by Euractiv
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