Something interesting about politicians is how they look for scapegoats after trying their best to damage the state that they are sworn to protect. In this case, Peru saw a different outcome. Usually, when a president decides to dissolve a parliament, it almost always goes through.
However, this time, Peruvian former President Pedro Castillo wasn’t so lucky – and now, Peru has a new president, Dina Boluarte. Get to know all about the political unrest in Peru and how the new President took office.
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The Reign Of Castillo
Pedro Castillo took office as the president in 2021. The former left-wing former school teacher defeated his right-wing rival, Keiko Fujimori, in a polarising election that was witnessed by the world. Dina Boluarte was previously working as the vice president under Castillo.
Now, she has taken the oath to perform her duties as the president of Peru, making her the first female president. It all started when former president Castillo released a statement that he was replacing Congress with an ‘exceptional’ emergency government.
The former president announced the dissolution of the parliament while addressing the nation on national television. He mentioned that he was going to dissolve the opposition-controlled Congress.
He was then accused of initiating a coup d’etat by the head of the constitution, and even foreign states like the USA jumped in and urged him to ‘reverse his decision.’ This was only a few hours before Congress had to start the impeachment trial against Castillo, making it the third time since he entered the office in July 2021.
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Castillo’s Cast Out
However, lawmakers were not quite fond of Castillo’s idea. They instead ignored his orders, called in an emergency meeting, and concluded that Castillo was to be impeached.
When the trial took place, the votes were not in favor of Castillo – 101 votes were in favor of impeaching him while only six votes opposed the impeachment. Local Peruvian media reported that former president Castillo was on his way to the Mexican embassy when he was arrested.
A New Hope?
Once the former president was impeached, Ms. Boluarte was sworn in as president and is to run the office till July of 2026, the same time when the former president’s tenure would’ve ended. After taking the presidential oath, President Boluarte called for a political truce so that the country could focus on overcoming the crisis. In her statement, she requested that her fellow citizens give her the time and space for her to ‘rescue the country.’
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The future of Peru is uncertain, especially with the corruption claims and the current political and economic instability going on. Could the presidency of Boluarte make a change and help the Peruvians? This is something only time will tell.
The former president had a hunch that he was gaining quite a few enemies, but he didn’t see this coming.