Published on: 09/12/2022 – 07:07
Pedro Castillo, who was released on Wednesday, is now in custody after his “coup attempt”. If he is the last, he is not the first Peruvian head of state to fall victim to this permanent tension between Congress and the executive branch. For four years, six presidents have followed each other in Pizarro’s presidential palace.
With our regional correspondent, Eric Samson
The crisis is dead, long live the crisis! This is the feeling of many Peruvians, who do not expect the political temperature, which will be brought to a boil this week after, to drop the dismissal of Pedro Castillo by Congress Wednesday. The ex-president was taken into custody for a week. He is charged with “rebellion” and “conspiracy”.
Invested in his place, his vice president, Dina Boluarte, is the sixth President of Peru since 2018 (Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Martín Vizcarra, Manuel Merino, Francisco Sagasti and Pedro Castillo). But why is Peru so difficult to guide?
First of all, the political system is not designed to facilitate the government of Peru. Parliamentary elections precede presidential elections, making it difficult to form government majorities as traditional political parties have been replaced by smaller and smaller factions that only respond to particular interests.
“Moral Incompetence”
The 1993 constitution also weakens the head of state, who can be sacked for “permanent mental or physical incapacity.” Originally it was about giving oneself the opportunity to remove someone from power, for example a mentally ill person who prevents them from fulfilling their tasks.
The problem is that this concept of “moral incompetence” has never been clearly defined. It is therefore used at will by MPs to dismiss presidents who, for example, are accused of corruption but have not yet been convicted by courts and are therefore officially innocent. All they have to do is gather 87 out of 130 votes to permanently hang a sword of Damocles over the head of state. While the latter has the power to dissolve Congress if MPs twice vote no confidence in a cabinet of ministers, he remains in the hot seat no less persistently if he does not have a majority.
Will Dina Boluarte be able to avoid the fate of these predecessors? She is now Peru’s first female president, but no one dares to predict for how long.
Pedro Castillo supporters yell foul
Meanwhile, on Thursday afternoon, a few hundred pro-Castillo protesters still gathered in front of the prison where he is being held, near Lima, and in the capital’s city center, Plaza San Martin. They refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the new president and are demanding the ex-president’s release. There were also protests in the former president’s region of origin.
We want new elections and Congress is getting out!
A few hundred demonstrators demonstrate their resistance