Uncertainty continues among Peruvians stranded in Israel

Five days later Hamas carried out terrorist attacks that killed at least 1,200 people in Israelincluding two victims of Peruvian nationality, Dina Boluarte’s government did not coordinate the sending of any aircraft to repatriate the more than 100 Peruvian citizens who are in that country, a source from Itamaraty, who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed to El Comercio.

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On Monday, in a conversation with this newspaper, Peru’s ambassador to Israel, Manuel Cacho-Sousa, explained that his diplomatic office had registered 40 compatriots and that he expected them to leave the country the following day; that is, Tuesday the 10th.

However, at the end of this article, Itamaraty only confirmed through its X account (formerly Twitter) the departure of 16 Peruvians on commercial flights. Furthermore, they indicated that another 131 compatriots would be waiting to leave the country in the coming days.

These numbers have been confirmed The trade by the Itamaraty source, who explained that the 177 registered citizens mentioned in the same tweet include both the 131 stranded and the Peruvians residing in Israel who decided to register with the embassy.

Furthermore, that source assured that the decision to send a repatriation flight does not depend on Itamaraty, as it is taken at higher levels of government, such as the Ministry of Defense, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) or the Council of Ministers. Peruvian Air Force.

The same person in charge guaranteed that in these types of decisions, aspects such as whether all compatriots want to return to Peru or some will want to stay in Europe are evaluated, since in the latter scenario “It would not be advisable to send a plane and it would be cheaper to buy tickets for them”.

Regarding this issue, a PCM source assured The trade that an important announcement in this regard will be made on Thursday, without specifying further details.

The truth is that many compatriots have not been willing to wait so many days, given the emergency situation in which Israel finds itself.

Given this, there were cases of compatriots who decided to leave the country on their own, paying the ticket and traveling to the first country possible. This was the case of 21 residents of Arequipa who were making a religious pilgrimage to Israel and who on Wednesday flew to neighboring Jordan, despite many not having enough resources to do so, according to a family member of the group who told Canal N.

In this regard, Ambassador Cacho-Sousa said that he no longer had the authority to help the aforementioned group, since they were in Jordanian territory.

Another similar case was that of compatriot Juan Carlos Costilla, who published a video on his social networks stating that he had obtained a ticket to Egypt and hoped to fly there in the next few hours.

Social media has also been a forum for several users to criticize the decision of President Boluarte, who left for Europe aboard the presidential plane on Wednesday morning.

The president’s trip includes visits to Germany, Italy and Vatican City; Around 14 employees from the Presidential Office travel with it and it is estimated that the total cost ranges between 400 thousand and one million soles.

Users questioned why the president did not prioritize sending the state aircraft to evacuate compatriots stranded in Israel.

As an example, the cases of Chile, Argentina, Brazil or Uruguay were cited, four Latin American governments that have carried out or are currently carrying out repatriation operations for their compatriots stranded in Israel.

Chile’s Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren, for example, announced on Tuesday that his country organized three humanitarian flights to evacuate 428 of its citizens who had registered at its diplomatic offices in Tel Aviv and Palestine. On Tuesday afternoon, Itamaraty reported that the first of the three planes had already arrived in Greece.

Also on Tuesday, the Armed Forces and Itamaraty began the “Safe Return” operation in which they would evacuate at least 625 of their citizens to Italy.

Uruguay’s Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs made a similar announcement that same afternoon, when they noted that an Air Force plane would travel to Israel to repatriate its stranded citizens.

On Wednesday afternoon, Brazilian President Lula da Silva declared “proud of the beautiful work that the Ministry of Defense and the Air Force are doing to rescue our compatriots who are in the conflict zone”. Six planes were ordered from Brasília to repatriate their compatriots. The first of them disembarked in the Brazilian capital with 211 passengers on board.

Similar decisions were adopted by countries such as Canada, South Korea, Denmark, Spain, France, Mexico, Nigeria, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland, among others.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.