Peru: Congress dismisses interim president Jerí

The Peru Congress on Tuesday removed acting President Jose Jeri from office for misconduct in his duties and unfitness for office, after a lightning impeachment trial.

The seventh head of state in 10 years was removed with 75 votes in favor, 24 against and three abstentions from the post he had acceded to as president of Congress in October.

Jerí's removal is part of the institutional crisis that Peru has been experiencing since the 2016 elections, when a permanent clash of powers broke out between a strong Parliament and a weak Executive in a context of party fragmentation and absence of political consensus.

"The board declares the vacancy of the president of the Republic," announced the head in charge of Congress, Fernando Rospigliosi, after the vote. Fifty-eight votes were needed to remove him from office.

Parliament will elect a new head of the legislature on Wednesday at 18h00 (23h00 GMT), who will automatically assume Peru's interim Presidency until July 28, Rospigliosi said.

Peru will be left without a president for more than 24 hours, according to the decision of the Congress, an unprecedented case in the recent history of this country.

Jerí fell at a time when the public prosecutor's office is investigating him for two cases of alleged influence peddling.

His mandate was due to end in July and his task was to guarantee the transparency of the presidential and legislative elections on April 12.

Jerí, 39, was head of Congress until he replaced Dina Boluarte, ousted in a lightning impeachment trial alleging her inability to solve a wave of extortion and contract killings, on Oct. 10.

Outside Congress, a small group of protesters carried signs calling for Jerí to be removed for turning the presidential palace "into a brothel."

"He is not our president, censure now, immediate censure," 48-year-old shopkeeper Maria Galindo told AFP.

Jeri faced up to seven censure requests pushed by the minority leftist opposition and a bloc of right-wing parties seeking to remove him for "functional misconduct and lack of suitability" to hold office.

"He has disappointed congress for the mistakes he has made, congress was wrong to elect him and we can correct the mistake," said right-wing legislator Jorge Marticorena during the debate.

"This president is useless, we have enough numbers of hired killings and homicides, the numbers have not gone down," said leftist Susel Paredes.

Institutional crisis

"I have not committed any crime. I have the full moral sufficiency to be able to exercise the presidency of the Republic," Jerí declared in a television interview on Sunday.

"Having a new replacement in the presidency - the fourth in the current political lustrum - will not solve any of the deep institutional crisis that the country is experiencing," political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP.

Moreover, "it will be difficult to find in the current Congress - with evidence of mediocrity and solid suspicion of widespread corruption - a replacement with political legitimacy," he added.

The speed with which the censorship is being plotted was linked to the electoral campaign, which registered a record of more than 30 presidential candidates.

Renovación Popular president Rafael López Aliaga, who is leading in the polls, has been the most emphatic in calling for Jerí's resignation.

López Aliaga, a supporter of President Donald Trump, has pointed out that "Jerí is an operator of dozens of Chinese groups that enter the Palace en masse."