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Peru’s Left-Wing President Attempts Coup; Congress Sends Him Packing
Peruvian President Pedro Castillo was impeached Wednesday and is now being held by Lima Police.
In the past six years, Peru has had six presidents amid numerous corruption investigations and impeachments.
Castillo was elected in July 2021, and his first meeting was with Ambassador Liang Yu at the Chinese embassy in Lima to discuss Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines. In his first six months as president, four different cabinets were selected after being dissolved following numerous corruption allegations. In April of this year, his own Marxist-Leninist party called for general elections in 2023 to replace him.
Pedro Castillo was detained after fleeing the palace with his family after Congress refused to dissolve and destituted him. Local reports say his motorcade was blocked by citizens en route to the Mexican Embassy and police took him into custody. https://t.co/BV4D1Oazrt
— Evan Dyer (@EvanDyerCBC) December 7, 2022
A man of limited political experience, Castillo has pursued an uneven path, often alienating both sides.
He endorsed stricter media regulation, forming a “constituent assembly” to replace the Peruvian constitution, and militarizing the youth to provide justice through “socialist administration.” At the same time, he’s pushed a conservative line on LGBT rights and abortion. Castillo defended Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and his Peru Libre party has praised Fidel Castro.
He and his family had been under investigation for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for government contracts. His ouster represents the third impeachment attempt against him.
Published in Foreign Policy
I don’t recall seeing ‘destitute’ used as a verb before.
I DO like his comedy-sized hat.
It’s a bad translation of the Spanish verb destituir (to dismiss, to remove, to depose).
Thank you for writing this up, Jon. I just heard of it this afternoon from Peruvian friends on Facebook.
It’s a legitimate sense of the word – I looked it up. It means to take away something from someone, to deprive them. It would seem to connote material deprivation, but power and authority fits too.
I’ve always been interested in Latin American politics, but it’s not reported on much in the U.S. (This is basically the opposite of clickbait.)
Colombia, which until the last election was the most Democratic place on the southern continent, will have to do something similar and the sooner the better. The left stole the last election, didn’t take much theft, sort of like here, as there are always lots of folks who like the lefts laments and know no history. But totalitarians must be dealt with or it can’t end well.
It’s an oversized hat. It’s funny.
Blocked by citizens = stuck in Lima traffic.