MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru: Motion to impeach Boluarte fails to get through Congress

Boluarte said the motion to impeach was an “obscure political maneuver”

Peru's one-house Congress Tuesday dismissed a motion to impeach President Dina Boluarte for “moral incapacity” by 64 votes to 37, and 10 abstentions. A reconsideration mooted immediately afterward was also rejected by 67 votes to 34 and, again, 10 abstentions. In view of these results, Congress Speaker José Williams ordered the case shelved.

A minimum of 52 votes of the 130 members of Congress was required to launch the impeachment. Tuesday's results were to be expected, political analysts in Lima told local media.

The opposition blames the president for the deaths of over 50 people during three months of clashes between demonstrators and the police following former President Pedro Castillo Terrones' removal from office leading to then-Vice President Boluarte's promotion on Dec. 7. Amnesty International said in February that it had documented evidence of “excessive and disproportionate use” of lethal weapons by security forces in Peru in dealing with protests. Castillo had attempted to dissolve Congress and rule by decree pending the drafting of a new Constitution and fresh elections.

Tuesday's was the first attempt to impeach Boluarte, who is due to complete the current government term until July 2026 but is under investigation by the prosecutor's office for the alleged crimes of “genocide, aggravated homicide, and serious injuries” for the deaths in the protests.

Based on statements by businessman Henry Shimabukuro, the prosecutor's office has also launched a probe into Boluarte's alleged crimes of prohibited financing of political organizations and money laundering, related to contributions in the 2021 campaign that brought Castillo and her to office.

The motion to impeach Boluarte had been put forward on Thursday by Congressman Hamlet Echevarría from the leftist Cambio Democrático-Juntos por el Perú.

Boluarte has rejected the accusations and deemed them an “obscure political maneuver that intends to stain the constitutional government, democracy, and institutionality, with statements and without evidence.” Boluarte's lawyer, Joseph Campos, declared this Tuesday to Canal N that the almost 60 deaths produced during the protests “cannot be established as genocide”, although he remarked that these cases “deserve investigation, sanction, and reparation.” Castillo is in pre-trial detention for 36 months for his Dec. 7 doings.

Peruvian presidents not completing their terms is a common occurrence since Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's resignation in 2018 minutes before an impeachment vote, and Martín Vizcarra being removed from office in November 2020, in addition to Castillo's case.