Peru president removed from office after string of scandals and allegations

By Mauricio Torres, Jessie Yeung, CNN

(CNN) — Dina Boluarte, the president of Peru, was removed from office on Thursday after a late-night congressional vote in which parties across the political spectrum called for her ouster.

Boluarte has been under investigation for months over various allegations including bribery and involvement in a deadly crackdown on protesters in 2022.

She has denied all allegations and refused to attend the vote on Thursday, where Congress approved her removal, citing “permanent moral incapacity” to face the onslaught of organized crime in the country.

The president of Congress, 38-year-old José Jerí Oré, will act as interim president and must now call elections, under the constitution.

Boluarte becomes the latest in a long line of disgraced Peruvian leaders. Since the turn of the millennium, no fewer than seven presidents have been brought to trial or faced legal challenges relating to allegations of corruption or human rights abuses. An eighth shot himself dead when police were closing in.

In 2022, Boluarte became Peru’s first female president after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was arrested and impeached by lawmakers for attempting to dissolve the legislative body and install an emergency government.

But since then, she has been plagued by scandal. The most serious accusations concern the deaths of more than 60 people during a crackdown by government security forces on the protests that followed Castillo’s ouster.

She’s also accused of accepting Rolex watches and other jewelry as bribes, and transporting a fugitive politician in a presidential vehicle.

But the most lurid accusation is that she abandoned her post to get plastic surgery on her nose in 2023 – neglecting to inform Congress or delegate her powers during her nearly two-week absence, as she was constitutionally required to do. She insisted the surgery was “essential” for her health. The surgeon who did the operation denied that, saying they were all cosmetic procedures.

Even conservative parties that have historically supported Boluarte turned against her recently, joining the push to remove her from office, Reuters reported – including Rafael Lopez’s Popular Renewal and Keiko Fujimori’s Popular Force, both political heavyweights.

Besides the various political crises, Peru has also faced a security crisis that earlier this year resulted in a state of emergency in the national capital and the province of Callao, with crime surging after the killing of a popular musician.

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CNN’s Ángela Reyes Haczek and Verónica Calderón contributed reporting.