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The Polisario Front has just suffered another diplomatic setback in Latin America, after a number of countries withdrew their recognition of its so-called «Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)». Thus, the Peruvian justice decided, this week, to reject the appeal lodged by the figurehead of the Front in Latin America and its «itinerant ambassador», Khadijetou El Mokhtar. She had seized the Constitutional Court of the country to protest against the decision of her expulsion from Peru in 2017.
The decision, considered final, was unanimously approved by the seven judges of the magistracy, following the attempt by Khadijetou El Mokhtar, who holds Spanish citizenship, to «usurp a diplomatic status in the name of a fictitious entity that Peru no longer recognizes since 1996», according to Peruvian media sources.
On September 9, 2017, the Polisario leader brought legal action against the Director General of Immigration and Nationality at the Peruvian Ministry of Interior, officials of this directorate as well as against the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country.
But following the new ruling, Khadijetou El Mokhtar becomes persona non grata in Peru. Previously, she had participated in various public events and political activities as «ambassador» of the Polisario, which the court considered «against public order and internal order and violating all immigration laws in the country».
A scenario à la «Aminatou Haidar» aborted in Lima
It is worth mentioning that the «diplomat» of the separatist movement was appointed to this post by Brahim Ghali in June 2017, as part of a vast operation to redeploy frontline officials in several capitals of the world, particularly in the countries of South America.
Three months later, the Peruvian police had prevented her from leaving the airport in the capital Lima, because she was presenting herself as an «ambassador» of the Polisario. The latter, hoping to reproduce the same scenario Aminatou Haidar had pulled in the Canary Islands, then denounced the alleged influence of Moroccan lobbyists in Peru and urged her to observe a hunger strike at the airport.
After proposing she returns to Peru as a «tourist», which she rejected, and after having exhausted all the humanitarian means at their disposal, the Peruvian security authorities then decided to deport her to Spain. In an official reaction, the Peruvian diplomacy had explained that «it was decided to prohibit the access to Peru of the Spanish citizen El Mokhtar Sidahmed for infringement of her migratory status as a tourist during her stay in [the] country».
«The Spanish citizen remains voluntarily at the international airport of Lima given that she refuses re-embarkation to her country of origin and that she does not accept the facilities offered to her by the National Superintendence in charge of Migration», the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs added.
It should be recalled that Peru suspended its recognition of the «SADR» in 1996, under the mandate of President Alberto Fujimori (1995-2000), a decision that has been preserved by his successors Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), Andy Garcia Perez (2006-2011), Olanta Humala (2011-2016) and the current president Pedro Pablo Kuczynsk, in office since July 2016.
