Spanish
Dina Boluarte, removed in the early hours of Friday by the Congress of Peru, is the fourth highest authority in the country to be dismissed by the legislative power so far this century, after the cases of Martín Vizcarra, Pedro Castillo and Alberto Fujimori.
In addition to them, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned from the presidency in 2018 when he was going to be removed by Congress.
In total, eight of the last former presidents of the country, the aforementioned plus Alejandro Toledo, Alan García and Ollanta Humala, have been convicted or investigated for alleged corruption. Alan García committed suicide in 2019 when he was about to be arrested.
Boluarte has been removed by Congress after declaring her "permanent moral incapacity" to face the growing citizen insecurity and the rise of organized crime, just six months before the general elections scheduled for 2026. The motions were approved by 122 votes in favor out of a total of 130, many more than the 87 required.
Pedro Castillo
Boluarte's predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was also removed for "permanent moral incapacity" after he attempted to dissolve Congress and establish an exceptional government. Castillo (July 2021-December 2022), the last Peruvian president elected at the polls and who appointed 70 ministers in 17 months, was removed from office on December 7, 2022, on the third attempt, after a failed self-coup. The former ruler is in pre-trial detention in Barbadillo prison, currently alongside former presidents Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) and Ollanta Humala (2011-2016). Martín Vizcarra Martín Vizcarra, who had come to the presidency in March 2018, was also removed by Congress on November 9, 2020. Vizcarra's removal occurred due to suspicions of having received bribes when he was governor in the Moquegua region (2011-2014), facts for which the Prosecutor's Office is currently requesting 15 years in prison. Before becoming president, Vizcarra had been vice president of the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczyinski (July 2016-March 2018).Pedro Pablo Kuczyinski
Kuczyinski was not formally removed because he resigned on March 23, 2018, when Congress was about to approve his removal after videos were leaked that implicated him in an attempt to buy votes. The legislature had already voted for his removal in December 2017 for his alleged links to Odebrecht, without reaching a sufficient majority.Alberto Fujimori
The chain of presidential dismissals and problems with the justice system began with Alberto Fujimori, who governed the country between 1990 and 2000. In April 2000, he defeated Alejandro Toledo in the elections, who withdrew from the second round after denouncing fraud. Although Fujimori took office on July 28, amid significant protests, the dissemination of a video in which his main advisor and head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos, was seen giving money to an opposition congressman, precipitated his downfall a few months later. Fujimori fled to Japan and from there presented his resignation on November 19, 2000, but Congress rejected his resignation and removed him for "permanent moral incapacity", after which he was replaced by Valentín Paniagua.Other dismissals in Latin America
In addition to the dismissals in Peru, there have been other dismissals of heads of state in Latin American countries so far this century. In April 2005, President Lucio Gutiérrez was removed from office by the Ecuadorian Congress after a week of street protests demanding his resignation, in which two people died. The institutional crisis had begun after the government's decision to remove the members of the Supreme Court and intensified after the annulment of the corruption trials against former President Abdalá Bucaram, a decision that allowed the latter to return to the country. On June 28, 2009, the President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya , was removed from office by the Congress of his country hours after the military detained and deported him to neighboring Costa Rica. Parliament elected its president, Roberto Micheletti, on the same day to succeed him at the head of the Republic and unleashed an international crisis. In June 2012, the President of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, was removed from office by the Senate, which considered him “guilty” of poor performance in his presidential duties in relation to the massacre during the eviction of “landless” people from a hacienda in Curuguaty, on the 15th of that month, in which 6 police officers and 11 peasants died. Dilma Rousseff, the first female president of Brazil, was removed from office on August 31, 2016, by the Senate in the context of an impeachment trial, after being found guilty of violating the fiscal responsibility law for having modified the budgets via decree, without legislative authorization.
