The imprisoned former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) assured this Thursday that “the vacancy (dismissal) or resignation” of the current president Dina Boluarte, whom he described as a usurper for replacing him in office, after having been his vice president, “has always been a popular demand.”
A message published on Castillo’s account on the social network
“Seeing that the end and justice will end up surrounding them, they want to erase their traces from the scenario of the dictatorship,” he said.
The former president also addressed “all the people of Peru” to assure them that he will not give up “to continue fighting.”
“Social mobilization is, historically, the source of victory to recover and restore the government of the people entrusted to me,” he concluded.
Castillo spoke in this way after the conservative forces that kept Boluarte in power announced this Thursday their intention to dismiss the president with six months to go before the general elections, where several of their leaders are presidential candidates.
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Up to three motions for presidential impeachment were promoted in Congress to declare the “permanent moral incapacity” of the head of state to confront citizen insecurity and organized crime, after a famous cumbia band was shot on Wednesday during a concert at a military venue in Lima.
Among the promoters of the motions are several parties whose leaders aspire to be presidential candidates in the 2026 elections, such as the ultra-conservative Renovación Popular, led by Lima mayor Rafael López Aliaga, and the right-wing Podemos Perú, led by businessman José Luna.
In turn, Fujimorism and the right-wing Action for Progress party (APP), Boluarte’s two main allies in Congress, announced their intention to support the dismissal of the ruler, the most unpopular in Latin America with an approval rating of 3%, according to several surveys.
Castillo is in preventive detention in Barbadillo prison, the prison for former presidents of Peru, after having announced on December 7, 2022 that he intended to close Congress, intervene in the Judiciary and govern by decrees, but he still does not have any disqualification or conviction that would prevent him from being a candidate in the next Peruvian elections.
The trial for his attempted coup d’état began on March 4 and the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for Castillo to be sentenced to 34 years in prison, accusing him of the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy.
With information from EFE.
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