Crisis in Peru: President Dina Boluarte ousted

BarcelonaPeru's Congress expressly removed the country's president, Dina Boluarte, from office on Thursday night after declaring her "permanent moral incapacity" to address growing citizen insecurity and the rise of organized crime. The removal comes just six months before the 2026 general elections. The elections are still ongoing, and until then, the government will be led by the president of Congress, José Jerí, who has assumed the role of interim head of government.

The Peruvian legislature has approved four motions to remove Boluarte from power, which received 122 votes in favor out of a total of 130. This is far higher than the 87 votes needed for the removal to be successful. Boluarte did not even appear in the chamber to defend herself.

Peru's first wife-in-law thus sees her two-year and ten-month mandate, since she assumed the presidency at the end of 2022, come to an end. After the fall of President Pedro Castillo three years ago, whose former vice president. As Boluarte now has no vice presidents, the interim presidency of the country is being assumed by the Speaker of Congress, José Jerí, who has already given a speech promising "humility, empathy, and national reconciliation" to confront "a constant crisis that seems to have no end," he said.

Boluarte had become the most unpopular president in Latin America, with a 3% approval rating, according to various polls. Behind this situation are the more than 50 deaths during the repression of protests calling for new elections, following the removal and imprisonment of Castillo, and numerous investigations for alleged corruption and illicit enrichment.

Jerí has promised to work to "build minimum agreements" between the political class and to "begin to lay the foundations for a country that will allow, precisely, to generate reconciliation among all Peruvians." "We have to lay these foundations today," he emphasized, stressing that the main damage currently affecting the country is "citizen insecurity."

"The main enemy is out there, in the streets; they are the criminal gangs and criminal organizations, and as enemies we must declare war on them," he announced, expressing his conviction that "this war will be won," Efe reports. He also pledged to ensure that the next elections, to be held in April 2026, will be carried out with "transparency, legality, and neutrality."

A president accused of illicit enrichment

Boluarte has been in the eye of the storm for more than a year, especially due to the luxury watch case. and jewelry that he allegedly did not declare. Specifically, it is a collection of fifteen luxury watches that, according to a journalistic investigation, Boluarte has worn at various official events since mid-2021, first as aVice President of Pedro Castillo and later as head of stateAmong them is a Rolex valued at $19,000.

That case had already forced him to face other motions of censure, which had always been rejected in Congress and had not even reached the debate stage. But finally, Thursday's vote turned the corner and ended with Boluarte's dismissal. The change has been the participation of right-wing parties that had historically supported him, including Rafael López's Popular Renewal party and Popular Force party, led by Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori. Both heavyweights in Peruvian politics are expected to run for president in the April 2026 elections.

Boluarte came to power in December 2022 when her predecessor, President Pedro Castillo, under whom she had served as vice president, was ousted and arrested after attempting to dissolve Congress. Castillo's removal sparked months of widespread protests, particularly in rural Andean and Indigenous communities, that left many dead. Human rights groups accuse Boluarte's government of using excessive force to suppress these protests.