“We cannot do this,” President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government press conference. ”It’s not up to us.”
European Commission (EC) spokesperson for foreign affairs Peter Stano told Euractiv on Thursday that Mexico‘s membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC) means it has a legal obligation to detain Putin if he comes to Mexico.
The Ukrainian embassy in Mexico asked the Mexican government on Wednesday to detain Putin if he attends the inauguration of the zero-elected Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to which the dictator has been invited.
The Kyiv delegation thanked Mexico for inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the October 1 ceremony.
Putin is a war criminal, Ukrainian diplomats said.
“We are confident that the Mexican government will in any case fulfill the international arrest warrant by handing over the aforementioned person (Putin) to the UN judicial body in The Hague,” the Ukrainian embassy said in a statement.
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin on war crimes charges for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia following Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Juan Ramon de la Fuente, who has been appointed foreign minister in the Scheinbaum government, said it was “standard protocol” to invite the leaders of all countries with which Mexico has diplomatic relations, including Russia and Ukraine, to the inauguration.
Sheinbaum, who will become Mexico’s first female president, won a historic election on June 2 and will begin her six-year term in October.
Putin and Zelensky were among the world leaders who congratulated him.