Lima, June 22 (Prensa Latina) Peruvian Congresswoman Ruth Luque today announced an unconstitutional challenge to a law that allows President Dina Boluarte to travel abroad despite the lack of a vice president to take office.
The progressive lawmaker reported that the first step will be to collect the signatures of 33 parliamentarians supporting the demand so it can be debated in plenary, a number below the 40 votes against the project recorded.
Boluarte was unable to travel abroad as she was the only remaining vice-president when then-President Pedro Castillo was dismissed (deposed) by Parliament and imprisoned for attempting to dissolve Congress.
Congressmen, lawyers, political analysts and others are questioning the law because the constitution requires that if the president is absent, one of the two vice presidents must replace him, which can only be changed by constitutional reform and not by law.
Castillo’s predecessors, Martìn Vizcarra and Francisco Sagasti, substitute presidents in a similar situation to Boluarte, without a vice president, simply did not travel abroad.
The norm passed last night stipulates that the rulers who
They do not have a vice-president, they will be able to travel and govern remotely with the technical means available and be in constant contact with their prime minister, in this case Alberto Otárola.
Rep. Luque pointed out that holding the presidency remotely should not absolve whoever holds it from taking responsibility for what might happen in the country.
His colleague Sigrid Bazán, also a progressive, argued that the controversial law concealed a desperate attempt by Boluarte to seek asylum in another country after his government.
“Sooner or later, justice will be done for her, whether inside or outside the country,” she said, alluding to the possibility that the president will be brought to justice over the deaths recorded during the protests against her.
npg/mrs