South American nation ousts president

Peruvian lawmakers have voted to remove Dina Boluarte amid public anger over the government’s failure to curb violent crime and corruption scandals

Peru’s Congress has overwhelmingly impeached President Dina Boluarte and immediately installed congressional chief Jose Jeri as her replacement amid public outrage over crime and allegations of corruption.

Early on Friday, lawmakers voted unanimously, 124-0, to remove Boluarte, invoking a constitutional clause of “permanent moral incapacity” to declare the presidency vacant.

Her ouster follows months of mounting political pressure and criminal investigations. Boluarte, 63, saw her public approval collapse to as low as 2% amid a firestorm of allegations, including bribery and responsibility for lethal crackdowns on protesters, all of which she denied.

Under the constitution, congressional president Jose Jeri Ore, 38, will act as interim leader and must call new elections. A member of the conservative Somos Peru party who just took the congressional helm in July, Jeri now joins the ranks of the world's youngest heads of state.

Boluarte became Peru's first female president in 2022 after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was impeached and arrested for trying to dissolve Congress and rule by decree.

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Her tenure, however, was marred by escalating scandals. The most serious of which was the crackdown by security forces on protests following Castillo's arrest, which resulted in more than 60 deaths.

She also faced separate accusations of illicit enrichment for allegedly accepting Rolex watches and other jewelry as bribes, and for using a presidential vehicle to transport a fugitive politician.

Critics accused her of abandoning her post in 2023 to undergo cosmetic nose surgery, as she did not formally delegate her powers during the nearly two-week absence as required by law. Boluarte maintained the procedure was medically essential, a claim reportedly contradicted by the surgeon, who described it as purely aesthetic.

Her removal, on Friday, was driven by public fury over rampant crime. According to national police, extortion cases have surged from a few hundred annually in 2017 to over 2,000 per month this year. The violence has proven deadly, with dozens of bus drivers killed and businesses targeted by explosives, prompting a state of emergency to be declared in Lima earlier this year.