Peru Impeaches Its First Female President

Peru's Congress voted early Friday to remove deeply unpopular President Dina Boluarte from office as a crime wave grips the South American nation, quickly replacing her with 38-year-old lawyer Jose Jeri, the legislative body's leader. Lawmakers had set up a debate and impeachment trial late Thursday in the 130-member unicameral Congress after voting to accept four requests for a vote to remove Boluarte from office over what they said was her government's inability to stem crime, per the AP. They requested that Boluarte come before them shortly before midnight to defend herself, but when she didn't appear, 124 lawmakers voted just past midnight to impeach her. There were no votes against the effort.

• The shocking turn of events came just hours after a shooting at a concert in the capital inflamed anger over crime roiling the country. Unlike eight previous attempts to remove Boluarte, almost all legislative factions expressed support for the latest requests. Boluarte, Peru's first female president, took office in December 2022 after Parliament used the same mechanism to impeach her predecessor.
• After Friday's vote, Boluarte spoke on national television, recounting her administration's achievements. "I have not thought of myself, but rather of Peruvians," she said. Minutes into her speech, the broadcast was interrupted to show Jeri's swearing in.

• Jeri, the president of the Congress, was sworn in early Friday as the interim president to serve out Boluarte's term. Elections are scheduled for next April; Boluarte's term was originally set to end July 28, 2026. Jeri said he would defend Peru's sovereignty and hand over power to the winner of the April election.
• Boluarte was Peru's sixth leader in just under a decade. A normal presidential term is five years. She assumed power in Peru in 2022 to complete the term of then-President Pedro Castillo, who was removed from office just two years into his five-year term after attempting to dissolve the legislature to avoid his own removal. She'd served as Castillo's vice president before becoming president.
• There were more than 500 protests demanding her resignation in the first three months of her presidency. Plagued by scandals, her administration's inability to address Peru's incessant crime proved to be her undoing. On Wednesday, she partially blamed the situation on immigrants living in the country illegally. "This crime has been brewing for decades and has been strengthened by illegal immigration, which past administrations haven't defeated," she said during a military ceremony. "Instead, they've opened the doors of our borders and allowed criminals to enter everywhere ... without any restrictions."