Peru's Congress Removes Interim Pres.  02/18 06:19

   

   LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Peru's Congress voted Tuesday to remove interim President 
Jos Jer from office as he faces corruption allegations, triggering a fresh 
wave of political instability just weeks before the nation's April presidential 
and congressional elections.

   Jer is under a preliminary investigation into corruption and influence 
peddling, stemming from a series of undisclosed meetings with two Chinese 
executives.

   With 75 votes in favor, 24 against and three abstentions, Peru's legislature 
voted to remove Jer from the position he had assumed on Oct. 10 when 
predecessor Dina Boluarte was dismissed as a crime wave gripped the country.

   Jer's removal from office is the latest chapter in a prolonged political 
crisis in a country that has seen seven presidents since 2016, and is about to 
hold a general election amid widespread public outcry over the surge in violent 
crime.

   Lawmakers will choose a new president from among their members to govern 
until July 28, when the interim leader will hand over the office to the winner 
of the April 12 presidential election. Jer will return to his position as a 
legislator until July 28, when the new Congress also takes office.

   A vote on the interim leader will take place Wednesday, after lawmakers 
register their candidates.

   The accusations against Jer stemmed from a leaked report regarding a 
clandestine December meeting with two Chinese executives. One attendee holds 
active government contracts, while the other is currently under investigation 
for alleged involvement in an illegal logging operation.

   Jer has denied wrongdoing. He said he met the executives to organize a 
Peruvian-Chinese festivity, but his opponents have accused him of corruption.

   Despite a revolving door of presidents, Peru's economy has remained stable. 
The Andean nation had a public debt to gross domestic product ratio of 32% in 
2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and the government has welcomed 
foreign investment in areas like mining and infrastructure.

   As Peru heads into this year's general election, Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a 
conservative businessman and former mayor of Lima is leading a crowded field 
that also includes Keiko Fujimori, a well known former legislator whose father 
was Peru's president in the 1990s. If none of the candidates gets 50% of the 
vote there will be a runoff in June between the top two contenders.

   Lawmakers in Peru have gained increasing leverage over the nation's 
executive branch over the past decade, using corruption investigations to 
remove presidents who have struggled to build congressional majorities.

   A clause in Peru's constitution that allows presidents to be removed if they 
are found "morally incapable" of leading the country has been broadly 
interpreted by legislators and has been used several times to vote presidents 
out of office.

   Boluarte, Jer's predecessor, lasted almost three years in office and 
survived violent protests in which police killed dozens of protesters. But she 
eventually was removed on moral incapacity grounds, with lawmakers citing the 
high crime rate and corruption scandals.

   Pedro Castillo, a leftist union leaders who won the 2021 presidential 
election, was voted out of office by legislators in late 2022 after he tried to 
dissolve congress in order to skirt anti-corruption proceedings. Last year 
Castillo was sentenced to 11 years in prison for trying to overthrow the 
nation's institutions.