Peru's political fragility laid bare as another leader falls to congressional vote
Peru will again swear in a head of state chosen by Congress rather than by direct vote, after legislators removed José Jerí from office barely 130 days into his interim presidency.
The decision, approved on February 17 by 75 votes to 24, leaves the country with its eighth president in a decade and lays bare the structural fragility of its semi-presidential practice within a formally presidential constitution.
Jerí, 39, had assumed office in October following the removal of his extremely unpopular predecessor, Dina Boluarte. His fall was triggered by seven motions accusing him of ethical misconduct, influence peddling and lack of transparency. The motions were accumulated into a single vote during an extraordinary session that lasted more than four hours.
At the centre of the controversy was the so-called “Chifagate”: covert meetings with Chinese businessmen that were neither disclosed in official transparency registers nor channelled through formal diplomatic or ministerial procedures.
Video footage broadcast by the programme Cuarto Poder showed Jerí entering a closed Chinese restaurant in Lima wearing a hood and dark glasses to meet Zhihua Yang, a businessman whose companies operate in sectors ranging from hydroelectric projects to security equipment.
One of Yang’s establishments had recently been ordered closed for municipal infractions, only for a central government regulator to revoke the underlying rule days later. Jerí acknowledged the meetings but described them as social or cultural encounters, arguing before legislators that he had committed no crime.
Investigative reporting detailed Yang’s commercial footprint, including concessions such as the Pachachaca 2 hydroelectric project valued at $224mn, and alleged regulatory irregularities involving municipal licences and heritage protection orders.
Congressional motions further referenced visits by another businessman, Ji Wu Xiaodong, who is under house arrest while investigated for alleged links to illegal logging. According to parliamentary critics, such undisclosed contacts constituted not mere errors of judgement but potential abuses of office.
Additional allegations concerned the use of Peru’s Fondo de Apoyo Gerencial mechanism to hire individuals allegedly linked to Jerí’s circle without competitive procedures. The Comptroller General’s Office requested documentation, while prosecutors opened preliminary inquiries.
Opposition legislators argued that the pattern of clandestine meetings and irregular appointments demonstrated incompatibility with the presidency.
Procedurally, the removal exposed a constitutional fault line. Several legislators proposed activating the vacancy mechanism for “permanent moral incapacity” under Article 113 of the Constitution, which requires 87 votes. Instead, Congress proceeded via censure, a tool ordinarily directed at ministers or parliamentary officers.
According to El Comercio, critics warned that using a simple majority to oust a sitting head of state establishes a controversial precedent that may weaken institutional safeguards designed to ensure executive stability.
The statistical backdrop amplifies these concerns. Since 2016, Peru has presented 28 motions of vacancy or censure against presidents, three of which have succeeded. Jerí’s 130-day tenure is the second shortest since the early twentieth century, surpassed only by Manuel Merino’s five-day presidency in 2020.
According to data compiled by El Comercio, since the political crisis that began during the administration of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the average length of a presidential term has decreased by approximately 66% compared with the 2001 to 2016 period.
Public opinion shifted rapidly. Surveys cited by El País show that 68% of respondents considered Jerí suspect in acts of corruption, while earlier approval ratings above 50% dropped sharply after the videos emerged. Jerí accused rivals of leaking footage to influence the general election scheduled for April 12, in which he is not a candidate. Power is due to transfer to an elected president on July 28.
Congress must now elect a new Speaker who will automatically assume the interim presidency. Four legislators have formalised bids, according to El Comercio: María del Carmen Alva of Acción Popular; José Balcázar of Perú Libre; Héctor Acuña of Honor y Democracia; and Edgar Reymundo of the Bloque Democrático Popular.
Internal party negotiations, failed alternative nominations and debates over neutrality have unfolded against the tight electoral timetable. Under congressional rules, a candidate requires a simple majority; if no list achieves it, a second round is held between the two leading slates.
The immediate vacancy may prove temporary. The deeper question is whether Peru’s repeated recourse to removal mechanisms reflects accountability in action or a chronic inability to sustain executive authority.
With more than half of twentieth-century governments interrupted and nearly all living former presidents having faced criminal investigations, Peru’s challenge is no longer episodic scandal but systemic instability.
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