Peru power grab hints at dark past

Biden administration welcomes new leader in Lima

Peru’s ousted President Pedro Castillo rose to power 17 months ago as a populist outsider.

But he squandered what popularit y he had when he dissolved Congress in an act of political suicide that recalled some of the darkest days of the nation’s anti-democratic past.

At a court appearance yesterday, a judge ordered Castillo, 53, held on charges of rebellion.

Meanwhile, his successor, Dina Boluarte, the first woman to lead the country of 33 million, began the difficult task of trying to rally Peruvians behind institutions gutted for years by endemic corruption and mistrust. With polls showing Peruvians despising Congress even more than they do Castillo, Boluarte appealed for a “truce” from the political feuding that has paralysed Peru for years. As part of her effort to reorient the country, she walked back comments a day earlier that she would finish Castillo’s five-year term, which ends in 2026, and refused to rule out the possibility of holding early elections.

The Biden administration in the United States condemned Castillo’s power grab as illegal and expressed support for Boluarte’s call for a government of national unity.

Meanwhile, several leftist allies in Latin America have refused to speak out against his overthrow. A major exception was Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who called Castillo’s removal a “soft coup” fuelled by deep-seated racism against the ex-school teacher from the heavily Indigenous Andean highlands.

In just three tumultuous hours on Thursday, Castillo went from decreeing the dissolution of Congress to being replaced by his Vice-President.

But the threats against his Government had been building as accusations of corruption, inexperience and incompetency forced him to shelter inside the presidential palace.

Castillo won a runoff election in June 2021 by just 44,000 votes after campaigning on promises to nationalise Peru’s key mining industry and rewrite the constitution, gaining support in rural Peru.

However, once in office, he cycled through dozens of Cabinet choices, a number of whom have been accused of wrongdoing. Congress first tried to impeach him last December over an investigation by prosecutors into illicit financing of the governing party.

Lawmakers tried again in March, accusing Castillo of “permanent moral incapacity”.

The effort failed, with only 55 votes in favour.

On Thursday, Peru was girding for a third impeachment vote. The night before, the president said in an unusual midnight address to the nation that a sector of Congress had it out for him and that he was paying for mistakes made due to inexperience.

Then shortly before noon on Thursday, Castillo went on state television to announce the dissolution of Congress. He said elections would be held to choose new lawmakers and a new constitution would be written. Some Cabinet ministers resigned immediately, but the Supreme Court and Constitutional Tribunal rejected it as an attempted coup.

Despite the high political drama, only small clashes have erupted between a handful of Castillo supporters and riot police on guard outside the police station in Lima where he is being held.

Boluarte, 60, will have to seek reconciliation with a weak mandate and no party. Hanging over the political crisis i s the question of what to do with Castillo.

Lopez Obrador said yesterday that he had all but greenlighted Castillo’s request for asylum, made i n a Thursday phone call to the Mexican President’s office. But he said those plans were frustrated when Castillo was intercepted by police on his way to the Mexican Embassy in Lima, where a group of protesters awaited.

Later, his foreign minister said Mexico’s ambassador met with Castillo in prison and would initiate consultations with Peruvian authorities about his asylum request.

Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro, called on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to intervene to guarantee Castillo’s constitutional rights, saying he was unable to get a fair trial with so many powerful interests stacked against him.

But echoing the comments of Brazil’s incoming President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Petro left no doubt that Castillo had brought the troubles on himself.

“Anti-democracy can’t be fought with more anti-democracy,” he wrote on Twitter.