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126 views • December 8, 2022

Peru's President Ousted After Trying to Dissolve Congress

NTD News
NTD News
LIMA, Peru—Peru's Congress voted to remove President Pedro Castillo from office Wednesday and replace him with the vice president, shortly after Castillo tried to dissolve the legislature ahead of a scheduled vote to remove him. The national ombudsman's office called Castillo's attempt to dissolve the Congress a coup. Lawmakers then voted 101–6 with 10 abstentions to remove Castillo from office for reasons of “permanent moral incapacity.” Shortly before the vote, Castillo announced that he was installing a new emergency government and called for the next round of lawmakers to develop a new constitution for the Andean nation. He said during a televised address that he would rule by decree meanwhile, and ordered a nightly curfew starting Wednesday night. Castillo also announced that he would make changes in the leadership of the judiciary, police, and constitutional court. The head of Peru's army then resigned, along with four ministers, including those over foreign affairs and the economy. Castillo took action as his opponents in Congress moved toward a third attempt to remove him from office. The Ombudsman's Office, an autonomous government institution, said in a statement before the congressional vote that after years of democracy, Peru is in the midst of a constitutional collapse “that can't be called anything but a coup.” The office called for Castillo to resign and turn himself in to judicial authorities. “Mr. Castillo must remember that he was not only elected president of the republic, but also that the people elected representatives for public service,” the statement said. “Castillo's actions ignore the will of the people and are invalid.” The congressional vote called for Vice President Dina Boluarte to assume the presidency. Boluarte via Twitter rejected Castillo’s actions, saying “it worsens the political and institutional crisis that Peruvian society will have to overcome with strict adherence to the law." Boluarte was later sworn in Wednesday as Peru’s next president. The 60-year-old lawyer took the oath of office and became the first female leader in the more than 200-year history of the independent republic. Boluarte said her first order of business would be to address government corruption, ostensibly what felled Castillo. “There has been an attempted coup ... that has not found an echo in the institutions, nor in the street,” Boluarte said. She called for a political truce to install a national unity government. “What I ask for is a space, a time to rescue the country,” she said. Bilingual in Spanish and Quechua, Boluarte was elected as vice president on the presidential ticket that brought Castillo to power July 28, 2021. During Castillo’s brief administration, Boluarte was minister of development and social inclusion. Peru’s Joint Chiefs and National Police rejected the constitutionality of Castillo’s dissolution of the Congress in a statement. Castillo had said in an unusual midnight address on state television ahead of the vote that he would never stain “the good name of my honest and exemplary parents, who like millions of Peruvians, work every day to build honestly a future for their families.” The peasant-turned-president said he’s paying for mistakes made due to inexperience. But he said a certain sector of Congress “has as its only agenda item removing me from office because they never accepted the results of an election that you, my dear Peruvians, determined with your votes.” Castillo has denied allegations of corruption against him, saying they’re based on “hearsay statements by people who, seeking to lighten their own punishments for supposed crimes by abusing my confidence, are trying to involve me without evidence.” Federal prosecutors are investigating six cases against Castillo, most of them for alleged corruption, under the theory that he has used his power to profit from public works. The power struggle in Perú’s capital has continued as the Andes and its thousands of small farms struggle to survive the worst drought in a half-century. Without rain, farmers can’t pl
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