Peru’s Congress voted on Wednesday to remove President Pedro Castillo after he tried to dissolve the legislative body following his third attempt to remove him from office.
Lawmakers voted 101-6 with 10 abstentions to remove Castillo from office for reasons of “permanent moral incapacity.”
Pedro Castillo was removed as president of Peru after a vote in Congress on December 7, 2022.
(Carlos Garcia Granthon/Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Vice President Dina Boluarte was quickly sworn in to replace Castillo. The 60-year-old lawyer was sworn in and became the first female leader in the history of Peru.
His oath of office culminated in hours of uncertainty, as both the president and Congress seemed to exercise their constitutional powers to eliminate each other. She said that her first order of business would be to tackle government corruption.
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“There has been an attempted coup… that has not found an echo in the institutions, nor in the street,” said Boluarte. He called for a political truce to install a government of national unity.
Castillo left the presidential palace in a car that took him through downtown Lima and then into a police station, where his condition was not immediately clear.
Peruvian Dina Boluarte, right, greets members of Congress after being sworn in as the new president hours after former President Pedro Castillo was impeached in Lima, on December 7, 2022.
(CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP via Getty Images)
Shortly before the vote, Castillo announced that he would install a new emergency government and called for the next round of legislators to develop a new constitution. He said during a televised address that he would rule by decree in the meantime and ordered a nightly curfew starting Wednesday night.
Castillo also announced that he would change the direction of the judiciary, the police and the constitutional court. He then resigned as Peru’s army chief, along with four ministers, including those of Foreign Affairs and the Economy.
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Castillo took action as his opponents in Congress moved toward a third attempt to remove him from office.
The congressional vote called for Boluarte to assume the presidency. Boluarte rejected Castillo’s actions and said that “it aggravates the political and institutional crisis that Peruvian society will have to overcome with strict adherence to the law.”
The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Peruvian National Police rejected the constitutionality of Castillo’s dissolution of Congress in a statement.
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Since 2016, Peru has been mired in political crises, with congresses and presidents trying to eliminate each other.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
