Peru’s Congress Removes President Boluarte As A Crime Wave Grips The Country

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s Congress voted early Friday to impeach unpopular President Dina Boluarte as a crime wave grips the South American nation and replaces her with José Jerí, a 38-year-old lawyer who leads the legislature.

Lawmakers had launched a debate and impeachment trial in the 130-member unicameral Congress late Thursday after accepting four requests for a vote to remove Boluarte’s government for failing to prevent crimes.

They demanded that Boluarte appear before them to defend himself shortly before midnight, but when he did not appear they immediately voted to remove him from office. In short order, 124 MPs voted just after midnight to impeach Boluarte. There were no votes against the effort.

The shocking turn of events came just hours after a shooting at a concert in the capital sparked anger over crime gripping the country.

Unlike eight previous attempts to remove Boluarte, nearly all legislative groups backed the latest demands.

Boluarte, Peru’s first female president, took office in December 2022 after Parliament used the same mechanism to impeach her predecessor.

After Friday’s vote, Boluarte described his administration’s achievements in a speech on national television.

“I thought of the Peruvians, not myself,” he said.

Minutes before his speech, the broadcast was interrupted to show Jerí taking the oath.

Congress president Jerí was sworn in early Friday as interim president until the end of Boluarte’s term. Elections were scheduled to be held next April, and Boluarte’s term was due to expire on July 28, 2026.

Jerí said he would defend Peru’s sovereignty and hand power to the winner of the April elections.

Boluarte became Peru’s sixth leader in less than a decade. A normal presidential term is five years.

He came to power in Peru in 2022 to complete the term of then-President Pedro Castillo, who was impeached just two years into his five-year term after he tried to dissolve the legislature to avoid being removed from office. He served as Castillo’s vice president before becoming president.

There were more than 500 protests demanding his resignation in the first three months of his presidency.

His scandal-plagued administration’s inability to cope with Peru’s incessant crimes brought his end.

On Wednesday, he partly blamed the situation on immigrants living in the country illegally.

“This crime has been decades in the making and has been further strengthened by illegal immigration, which past administrations have failed to defeat,” he said during a military ceremony. “Instead, they opened our borders and allowed criminals to enter everywhere without any restrictions.”

Official figures show 6,041 people were killed between January and mid-August. This figure is the highest in the same period since 2017. Meanwhile, between January and July, extortion complaints reached 15,989, a 28% increase compared to the same period in 2024.

The country’s latest presidential crisis erupted on Wednesday after a man opened fire and injured five people during a concert by Peru’s most popular cumbia band, Agua Marina.

Prime Minister Eduardo Arana defended Boluarte during a crime-focused hearing before Parliament on Thursday, but that wasn’t enough to deter lawmakers from pursuing motions to impeach the president.

“Parliament’s concerns are not resolved by considering the impeachment request, still less by approving it,” Arana told MPs. “We are not clinging to our positions. We are here, and we knew from the beginning that our first day here could also be our last day on the job.”