Peru | President dissolves Parliament just before being impeached, “a coup” denounced

(Lima) Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was in detention at a police base in Lima on Thursday, the day after his dismissal and arrest during a day full of twists and turns which saw his vice-president Dina Boluarte invested in the head of the Latin American country, accustomed to political crises.

The third impeachment procedure got the better of the left-wing president. Mr. Castillo tried his luck by announcing the dissolution of Parliament which was trying to bring him down, a maneuver immediately qualified as a “coup d’etat” by many personalities.

Coming to power in July 2021, Pedro Castillo, 53, was “placed under arrest”, announced prosecutor Marita Barreto. Footage showed the ousted head of state seated in an armchair, surrounded by prosecutors and police.

According to Peruvian media, Mr Castillo was then transferred by helicopter to a police special forces base in Lima, where he is expected to be held for a maximum of 15 days. The prosecution also carried out searches on Wednesday evening at the presidential palace.

A judicial source told AFP that an investigation for “rebellion” had been opened against Mr. Castillo, who only ruled the country for seventeen months.

It is in addition to the six other investigations for corruption or influence peddling targeting him, offenses of which members of his family and his political entourage are also accused.

His dismissal for “moral incapacity”, broadcast live on television, was approved by 101 of the 130 parliamentarians, including 80 in the opposition.

In a last-minute effort to save his post, the former president had announced the dissolution of parliament just hours before it was to meet to decide his fate.

He had also announced the establishment of an “exceptional emergency government” and wanted to “convene a new Congress with constituent powers as soon as possible”. A maneuver ignored by Parliament and widely denounced by the political class.

According to the police, after the failure of his attempt to dissolve, Mr. Castillo intended to take refuge in the Mexican embassy and seek asylum, but he was arrested before.

“Today there was a coup d’etat in the purest style of the 20^e century”, denounced the president of the Constitutional Court Francisco Morales, believing that “no one owes obedience to a usurping government”.

Independent political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP that Mr Castillo had “violated article 117 of the Peruvian Constitution and (was) illegal. It is a self-coup”.

During an investiture ceremony in front of the Parliament where she was girded with the presidential sash to become the first woman president of Peru, Dina Boluarte also repeated that there had been “an attempted coup promoted by Pedro Castillo who found no echo in the institutions of democracy or in the streets”.

“I assume (power) in accordance with the Constitution of Peru, from this moment” and until “July 2026”, when Mr. Castillo’s mandate was to end, said the 60-year-old lawyer from of the same Marxist-inspired party (Peru libre) as him.

“Democratic Normalcy”

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered peacefully outside Parliament.

“We are tired of this corrupt government, of this government that has been stealing from us since day one,” Johana Salazar, a 51-year-old worker, told AFP.

Others came to the defense of Mr. Castillo and called for “respect for the vote of the people”, such as Sissy, a 50-year-old municipal employee, believing that “since the president arrived, they have humiliated him, they don’t ‘have not accepted a president from the provinces’, in reference to the former teacher in rural areas for 24 years, a novice in politics.

The United States immediately made it known that it no longer considered Pedro Castillo to be the country’s incumbent president. “We will categorically reject any act that contravenes […] to any Constitution, any act that undermines democracy,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he found it “always regrettable that a democratically elected president should suffer such a fate”, but he was pleased that “everything was conducted within the constitutional framework”.

The Spanish government and the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro denounced a “break in the constitutional order” in the attempts of Mr. Castillo, Madrid welcoming “the restoration of democratic normality”.

Pedro Castillo had already escaped two impeachment motions for “moral incapacity” – which had previously brought down two sitting presidents, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (right) in 2018 and Martin Vizcarra (center) in 2020 -, the last of which in March 2022 .

He was notably accused of repeated ministerial crises and the formation of four governments in eight months, an unprecedented event in Peru.