The Congress of Peru expressly dismissed the president, Dina Boluarte, on Thursday night, after bringing together four vacancy motions (removal) to declare her “permanent moral incapacity” to face the growing citizen insecurity and the rise of organized crime, with just six months left until the 2026 general elections.
The Peruvian Legislature approved the four motions to remove Boluarte from power with 122 votes in favor of a total of 130, a figure much higher than the 87 that were required for the initiative to be successful, in a session where the president did not appear before the chamber to exercise her defense.
The first female president of Peru thus ended a term of two years and ten months since she assumed the Presidency at the end of 2022 to succeed the leftist Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), of whom she was his vice president, and remained in power thanks to the support of a group of right-wing forces that control Congress and who now promoted and supported her departure.
The impeachment bill read before the Congress vote stated that the “permanent moral incapacity of the President of the Republic and the vacancy of the Presidency of the Republic” of Peru is declared.
He explained that this Thursday four agenda motions were presented that proposed the dismissal of Boluarte for a reason established in the Peruvian Constitution.
For this reason, he resolved to declare his “permanent moral incapacity” and the vacancy of the presidency, as well as “consequently, the application of the succession regime established” in the Peruvian Constitution.
This succession indicates that, since Boluarte does not have vice presidents, the president of Congress assumes the leadership of the State, a position currently held by the right-wing José Jerí.
Boluarte did not go to the chamber to exercise his right to defense, so Jerí announced the decision to continue with the impeachment process. “Since it has been summoned and has not appeared, the vacancy process will proceed,” he noted.
He immediately proposed that a debate on the motions begin, but a group of parliamentarians raised a preliminary question to avoid that process and go immediately to the vote.
Shortly before, one of Boluarte’s lawyers, Juan Carlos Portugal, announced on social network X that the ruler was not going to validate the process against her by going to Congress.
“A due parliamentary process – whose decision affects constitutional rights – has minimal and essential requirements. The right to defense, and its preparation within a reasonable period of time, is one of them,” he assured.
Portugal accused, in this sense, Congress of having renounced “this guarantee” and consummating “its violation.”
“The rights and guarantees of constitutional and procedural order have no face. We will not validate it, and for that reason, we will not go to the national Parliament. Not under these conditions,” he concluded.
Another of her lawyers, Joseph Campos, reported on the state channel TV Perú that he recommended that the president not attend Congress because they did not know the content of the vacancy motions presented against her.
Also read: Pedro Castillo says that the dismissal or resignation of Boluarte is a popular demand in Peru
The process against Boluarte
All impeachment motions presented against Boluarte were accepted by no less than 113 votes and Parliament also approved immediately summoning Boluarte with 118 votes in favor, which exceeds four-fifths of the Chamber.
The process was irreversible after receiving the support of the right-wing parties that until now had supported Boluarte in power since he assumed the Presidency in December 2022 and when there are only six months left until the Peruvian general elections of 2026, called for the month of April, are held.
Among the promoters of the impeachment process were several parties that have supported the president but have leaders with presidential aspirations, such as that of the ultra-conservative Renovación Popular, Rafael López Aliaga, who is the mayor of Lima; and that of the right-wing Podemos Perú, from businessman José Luna.
Over the course of the day, up to four impeachment motions were suddenly and without prior notice accumulated against Boluarte, who from one moment to the next was left alone after being left without the support of the partners who have allowed her to govern for almost three years in exchange for abandoning the political project of her predecessor, the leftist Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), who was the protagonist of a failed coup attempt in the face of a possible dismissal.
Boluarte leaves office as the most unpopular president in Latin America, with an approval rating of just 3% according to several polls, due to the more than 50 deaths during the repression of protests calling for new elections after the dismissal and imprisonment of Castillo, as well as numerous investigations into alleged corruption.
Upon completion of his dismissal, the President of Congress must assume the Presidency on an interim basis until the new elections are held, making him the seventh president of Peru since 2016, after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018), Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020), Manuel Merino (2020-2020), Francisco Sagasti (2020-2021) and Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), in addition to Boluarte.
With information from EFE.
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