Peru’s Congress on Tuesday voted to remove interim President José Jerí from office, sparking a new wave of political instability just weeks before the country’s April presidential election.
Jerí was Peru’s seventh president in less than a decade, and now he will take over as a member of Congress, who will be expected to lead the country during elections and until the nation’s newly elected president is sworn in on July 28.
How José Jerí became the president of Peru
Jerí, a 39-year-old lawyer, was elected to the Peruvian Congress in 2021 from Somos Peru, a small conservative party.
He was head of Peru’s Congress in October, when lawmakers voted to remove then-President Dina Boluarte from office as the nation grapples with a rising rate of violent crime.
After Boluarte’s removal, Jerí was elected by his peers as the nation’s interim president, expected to remain in office until July, when a new presidential term begins. But his authority was terminated as allegations of corruption arose against him and the Congress lost patience with his leadership.
The charges against Jerí
Jerí is facing the first corruption and influence peddling investigation launched by Peru’s Attorney General’s office earlier this year.
The charges stem from a series of undisclosed meetings with two Chinese businessmen in December. One of those businessmen has active government contracts, while the other is being investigated for alleged involvement in illegal logging.
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Jerí has denied wrongdoing. He said he met with the administration to organize the Peruvian-Chinese event, but his opponents accused him of corruption.
Although Jerí has yet to be found guilty of corruption, his former colleagues in Congress cited these allegations as one of the reasons for his removal, saying Jerí was unfit to perform his presidential duties.
A clause in Peru’s constitution allows legislatures to remove presidents found to be “morally incapable” of carrying out their duties.
The clause gave lawmakers greater power over Peru’s executive branch, which has also struggled in recent years to form a majority in Congress.
The moral turpitude clause has been widely interpreted by lawmakers who have used it and allegations of corruption to remove presidents who no longer conform to the needs of the nation’s political parties.
Peru has had seven presidents in the past decade – only two of whom were elected by popular vote. Others have been vice presidents who have stepped into the position of deposed presidents, and members of Congress who have been elected by their peers to lead the South American nation.’
The effect of this revolving door
Despite a volatile presidential administration, Peru’s economy has been stable over the past decade, with the government sticking to normal economic policies that include austerity.
The South American nation had a public debt to gross domestic product ratio of 32% in 2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and has welcomed foreign investment in sectors such as mining and infrastructure.
However, observers have noted that the nation’s increasingly powerful Congress has also passed legislation in recent years threatening the independence of Peru’s judiciary.
On Wednesday, the legislators will meet to elect a new interim president, who is expected to stay until July and hand over power to the winner of the presidential election, scheduled for April 12.
Rafael López Aliaga, an active businessman and former mayor of Lima, is currently leading a field full of candidates including former legislator Keiko Fujimori, a three-time president whose father was the country’s president in the 1990s.
If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in the April election, there will be a runoff in June between the top two candidates.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
