Peru Ousts President for the Second Time in Less Than Six Months

Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to oust the country’s interim President José Jerí just four months after he took office following a scandal over the leader’s failure to report meetings with Chinese businessmen.

Jerí’s impeachment marks the second time a Peruvian President has been removed by Congress in less than six months and the sixth time one has left office before the end of their term within the past decade, underscoring the country’s ongoing political instability.

In a 75 to 24 vote, with three abstentions, lawmakers passed seven motions of impeachment against the former head of Congress, who became interim president in October following the removal of his predecessor Dina Boluarte.

Fernando Rospigliosi, the current acting head of Congress, would have been next in line to assume the presidency under the constitution, but he declined to do so. The legislature will instead choose a new leader to replace Jerí on Wednesday. Parties will have until 6:00 p.m. local time that day to choose their candidates, Rospigliosi said. 

A general election is scheduled for April 12, after which power will be transferred to a new President on July 28.

In recent weeks, Jerí was captured on video entering establishments owned by a Chinese businessman, Yang Zhihua, who holds a state energy concession as well as owning multiple stores. The footage showed the leader wearing a hooded top while arriving at a restaurant owned by the businessman late at night in December, and sunglasses when entering a Chinese goods store in early January. Peruvian law requires Presidents to disclose official activities, but Jerí did not report the visits to Yang’s establishments.

The leader last month confirmed the authenticity of the videos and acknowledged that he had not disclosed the visits, but has denied wrongdoing.

“I haven’t committed any crimes,” Jerí said on Sunday.

Jerí said he had known Yang before assuming the presidency and claimed that the businessman had given him some candy and paintings without letting him pay for them “because he was being kind to me.” The interim president declined to provide his phone records to lawmakers. 

The revelation of the undisclosed interactions with Yang prompted calls for Jerí’s resignation, and the attorney general opened a corruption inquiry into the matter. 

Cuarto Poder, a television broadcaster that first aired the videos, reported that another Chinese businessman, Ji Wu Xiaodong, who is reportedly under house arrest amid an investigation into his alleged ties to illegal logging, had on three occasions visited the presidential palace when Jerí was president. While speaking to lawmakers, Jerí denied that he knew Ji Wu well, saying the businessman was a friend of Yang’s.