After the coup attempt, the president of Peru Pedro Castillo was ousted by Parliament with an overwhelming majority (101 MPs out of 130) for “moral incapacity” and was arrested in Lima. Vice President Dina Boluarte was sworn in as Peru’s first female president. Castillo’s dramatic expulsion and arrest were seen as a relief by the Peruvian population because in his 17 months as president, according to analysts, he would have caused deep and lasting damage to the South American country’s economy and institutions.
Yesterday’s events were the latest unexpected twist in a country rocked by years of political chaos. Boluarte, 60, is the fifth president in just over two years; many of his recent predecessors have been accused or convicted of corruption. After being sworn in, the new president asked for a “political truce” and support to tackle the corruption that is undermining the country: “This cancer must be destroyed at its root”.
Shortly before being discouraged and arrested, to save himself from impeachment, Castillo had announced his intention to dissolve the Congress of the Republic and form an exceptional emergency government, evoking the need to reorganize the judicial system, the judiciary, the Constitutional Court and other institutional bodies. Castillo was arrested near the presidential palace. Peruvian media showed photos and videos of the former president at a police station. Boluarte had distanced himself from Castillo in recent weeks. “I reject Pedro Castillo’s decision to break with the constitutional order by closing the congress,” the new president tweeted. And she added: “This is a coup that deepens the political and institutional crisis, and Peruvian society will have to overcome the crisis by strictly following the law.” In his inaugural speech, Boluarte highlighted his humble past in a family that suffered from economic “precariousness”.
