Peru’s Congress on Tuesday ousted President Jose Jeri just four months into his term over a scandal involving undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman, extending a cycle of political upheaval that has gripped the Andean nation for much of the past decade.
There were 75 lawmakers who voted in favor of removing Jeri, while 24 voted against and three abstained.
Legislators will now elect a new head of Congress who will also assume Peru’s presidency, becoming the country’s eighth president in as many years. Jeri is Peru’s third consecutive president to be removed from office.
The rapid-fire ousters underscore how Peru’s political class has failed to address voter concerns like crime and corruption, leaving the country stuck in a cycle of short-lived administrations with little time or authority to tackle problems and a deeply unpopular Congress that seeks to gain support by removing unpopular leaders.
Ruth Luque, one of the lawmakers who backed the censure measures, said she wanted to replace Jeri with a leader who would put public interest and security first, ahead of a new president coming into office.
“We ask to end this agony so we can truly create the transition citizens are hoping for,” she said. “Not a transition with hidden interests, influence-peddling, secret meetings and hooded figures. We don’t want that sort of transition.”
With yet another interim leader set to take over ahead of scheduled elections on April 12, the volatility risks deepening public distrust as legislators and politicians seek to posture themselves as presidential contenders.
“It strikes me that there is no trace of high mindedness here, only electoral calculations,” said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. “Enough lawmakers concluded their support for Jeri would hurt them in elections, so they had to act.”
The scandal that was dubbed “Chifagate” – after a local name for Chinese restaurants – began last month when Jeri was filmed arriving at a restaurant late at night wearing a hood to meet with Chinese businessman Zhihua Yang, who owns stores and a concession for an energy project. The meeting was not publicly disclosed.
Jeri became president in October after Peru’s unpopular Congress voted unanimously to remove his predecessor Dina Boluarte, as the right-wing parties that had backed her dropped their support amid corruption scandals and growing anger over rising crime.
Boluarte had no vice president and Jeri, who was the head of Congress at the time, was next in the line of succession.
This interim status was used to remove him from the presidency on Tuesday. Unlike impeachment, which requires a supermajority of 87 in the 130-member legislature, Congress voted to censure Jeri, which strips him of his title as head of Congress with a simple majority.
Jeri has said he would respect the outcome of the vote.
VOTING ON NEW PRESIDENT ON WEDNESDAY
While the current head of Congress, Fernando Rospigliosi, would be constitutionally next in the line of succession, he has declined to assume the presidency. As such, legislators will have to elect a new head of Congress who will then automatically assume the presidency.
Rospigliosi said parties have until 6 p.m. local time to present their candidates and the legislature would vote on a new president on Wednesday.
This would be similar to Francisco Sagasti’s ascent to the presidency in 2020 after he was chosen by Congress amid a sharp political crisis and protests following former President Manuel Merino’s five-day presidency.
