In a dramatic midnight session, Peru’s Congress swiftly voted to impeach and remove President Dina Boluarte from office. This decisive action followed a shocking shooting at a cumbia concert and widespread public frustration over her inability to control rampant crime, leading key political allies to abandon her.
The vote to remove Ms. Boluarte was overwhelming, 122-0. Lawmakers cited ‘permanent moral incapacity,’ a constitutional clause allowing for the removal of a president. She was, after all, Peru’s most unpopular leader in recent history.
Following the vote, both lawmakers inside the building and demonstrators gathered outside erupted in cheers. In a prerecorded statement released shortly after, Ms. Boluarte maintained, ‘At all times I called for unity, to work together, to fight for our country.’
José Jerí, the current president of Congress, is now set to serve as interim president until the next general election, scheduled for April 12, unless a new leader is chosen from within the legislative body.
Ms. Boluarte’s ouster marks a significant shift, as the right-wing and centrist parties that had supported her coalition government for the past three years withdrew their backing. Her approval rating had plummeted from an initial 21 percent to a dismal 2 to 4 percent. On Friday, Congress approved four motions for her impeachment with cross-party support.
Her removal comes amidst a national outcry over a severe increase in crime. Peru is currently struggling with a surge in gang-controlled extortion and contract killings. National police data shows extortion cases skyrocketing from mere hundreds in 2017 to over 2,000 per month this year. Bus drivers have been particularly targeted, with dozens killed by extortion rings in the last two years, and many small businesses and concerts have faced explosive attacks.
(Image: Lawmakers in Peru’s Congress reacting after the vote to impeach Ms. Boluarte in Lima, Peru, on Friday. Credit: Angela Ponce/Reuters)
As lawmakers debated Ms. Boluarte’s impeachment, TV crews and small groups of protesters gathered outside the Ecuadorean Embassy in Lima. Rumors suggested she might seek asylum there once her presidential immunity expired.
One protester held a sign that succinctly captured the sentiment: ‘We’re governed by shame.’
Earlier in the week, Ms. Boluarte had advised Peruvians on how to deal with extortionists, telling them, ‘Don’t open those calls, those messages. Tell the police.’ However, her administration’s measures, including repeated states of emergency, largely failed to control the violence. Experts also point out that several laws she supported, seemingly to protect political allies, may have inadvertently hindered the prosecution of organized crime.
The gravity of the situation was highlighted on Wednesday night when unknown assailants on motorcycles opened fire with a machine gun at a popular cumbia band performing in Lima, injuring four members, according to local reports.
Ms. Boluarte assumed the presidency in 2022 after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo — the Marxist party leader she served as vice president — was impeached and arrested for attempting to seize control of Congress and the judiciary.
(Image: People gathered outside Ecuador’s embassy in Lima, Peru, on Thursday, following rumors that Ms. Boluarte might be seeking refuge there. Credit: Gerardo Marin/Reuters)
Her decision to remain in power instead of resigning, as she had initially promised to allow for new elections, triggered violent protests that resulted in the deaths of 49 civilians during police and military crackdowns. She is currently under investigation by national human rights prosecutors for these events.
To maintain her position, Ms. Boluarte had relied on a coalition of right-wing and centrist parties, successfully fending off seven previous impeachment attempts by leftist lawmakers. Notably, parties led by prominent presidential contenders Keiko Fujimori and Rafael López Aliaga, who were central to her downfall on Friday, had previously opposed her removal.
With elections merely six months away, politicians are eager to distance themselves from the deeply unpopular Ms. Boluarte. This week, conservative presidential candidate Phillip Butters was attacked by a mob at a radio station in Puno while defending his past support for the crackdown on protesters following Ms. Boluarte’s rise to power. Police had to escort him out wearing a helmet as protesters hurled rocks.
This incident underscored the volatile political climate, suggesting to some observers that it might have prompted certain right-wing lawmakers to finally abandon the president. Gonzalo Banda, a Peruvian political scientist at University College London, commented, ‘it’s only because electoral incentives have increased.’ He added, ‘I think the entire political establishment understood that there was no more time.’
Ms. Boluarte has also faced serious accusations, including accepting Rolex watches as bribes, abandoning her post for cosmetic surgery, and assisting the fugitive head of her former Marxist party in evading arrest – all of which she denies.
This ‘Rolexgate’ controversy resonated deeply in a country battling a struggling economy and increasing hunger. It further eroded Peru’s reputation, a nation once praised for solidifying its democracy and lifting millions out of poverty during a mining-fueled boom. ‘I think few presidents have faced political crises with such frivolity as Boluarte,’ said Mr. Banda. ‘She thought that after the initial protests, she had free rein, with a Congress uninterested in exercising political oversight. But everything is very precarious in Peru.’
(Image: A handout picture from the Peruvian Congress showing lawmakers during the impeachment session for Ms. Boluarte on Thursday. José Jerí, second from left, the president of Congress, is expected to serve as interim president until the general election. Credit: Jairo Diaz/Congress of The Republic of Peru, via Agence France-Presse)
Her impeachment is also a continuation of longstanding political turmoil in Peru, where six former presidents have been imprisoned over the past two decades, with three already convicted of corruption. Since 2016, a series of corruption scandals has plagued the nation. Pedro Castillo and Martín Vizcarra were both impeached, while Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned to avoid removal. Almost all living former presidents have faced investigations for corruption or human rights abuses. Alan García, who served two non-consecutive terms, died by suicide in 2019 as authorities arrived to arrest him.
In April, former first lady Nadine Heredia sought asylum at the Brazilian Embassy in Lima after she and her husband, former president Ollanta Humala, were sentenced to 15 years for laundering nearly $3 million – primarily from the Brazilian firm Odebrecht – to finance Mr. Humala’s 2006 and 2011 campaigns.
Other past presidents were also implicated in Odebrecht-related investigations: Alejandro Toledo received a 20-year sentence last year for accepting $35 million in bribes, while Mr. Kuczynski spent years under house arrest for charges he denies. Even more serious charges have been faced by some. Alberto Fujimori, who governed with authoritarian tactics in the 1990s, served over a decade in prison for human rights abuses and corruption before receiving a controversial pardon in 2023. He passed away last year at 86.
More recently, Mr. Castillo, Peru’s first left-wing president in a generation, has faced charges of rebellion and abuse of authority for his attempt to dissolve Congress in 2022. Later that year, Mexico granted asylum to his family, leading the Peruvian government to expel the Mexican ambassador. While Ms. Boluarte is widely unpopular, Congress itself is also deeply mistrusted by the public. Any moves by legislators to consolidate power further could trigger additional unrest if perceived as exploiting the current crisis for political gain.
As one demonstrator outside the congressional building succinctly put it on a sign: ‘Criminals sacrifice criminals to look like heroes.’