Peru congress rejects latest effort to impeach president Dina Boluarte News
Presidencia de la República del Perú, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peru congress rejects latest effort to impeach president Dina Boluarte

The Peruvian Congress dismissed three motions aimed at impeaching President Dina Boluarte on Friday.

Motions 11507, 11508 and 11512 were introduced primarily by opposition legislators, mainly from leftist factions, with the intent of declaring Boluarte’s “permanent moral incapacity” to serve as president. The impeachment efforts were based on Article 113.2 of the Peru Constitution, which provides for the declaration of a president’s permanent moral incapacity.

The opposition legislators cited several reasons for their claims of Boluarte’s permanent moral incapacity. They accused her of “abandoning the post” for 12 days between June and July 2023 to allegedly undergo cosmetic procedures. Additionally, they pointed to her alleged involvement in a prosecutorial investigation against her brother, Nicanor Boluarte. She was accused of deactivating a special unit of the National Police of Peru (PNP) that was collaborating with the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption of Power (Eficcop) one day before her brother’s preliminary detention.

Further allegations included violations of the Constitution by traveling abroad without vice presidents in place, despite a law permitting her to remotely manage the presidential office, and investigations into her for purported illicit enrichment involving undeclared luxury watches and jewelry.

These motions also invoked Article 115 of the Constitution, which governs presidential succession in the event of a vacancy. This attempt to impeach Boluarte is reminiscent of previous efforts, such as the Rolex Gate scandal, where accusations regarding undeclared luxury watches and jewelry were raised but did not result in impeachment.

During the plenary session, which was broadcast live via the Peruvian Congress’ Facebook account, legislators deliberated on the three motions. According to parliamentary protocol, the impeachment process required the support of at least 40% of the active congress members, amounting to 47 out of 117 legislators. Despite this threshold, the motions were ultimately rejected by a simple majority vote, resulting in their archival.

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