From president to prisoner: The rapid descent of Peru's Pedro Castillo
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Peruvian politics took a wild turn this week. Cornered by anti-corruption prosecutors, President Pedro Castillo attempted to launch a coup and rule by decree. Now, lawmakers responded immediately by impeaching him, and he is now in police detention. Simeon Tegel reports.
VICTOR MAZZOTTI: (Speaking Spanish).
SIMEON TEGEL, BYLINE: Like many Peruvians, Victor Mazzotti was bitterly disappointed by Pedro Castillo, Peru's first-ever campesino president. He says that Castillo conned the poor by making unrealistic promises that, once in power, he did not keep. But not everyone in this Lima street market agrees.
CARMEN RAMOS: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: Clothes seller Carmen Ramos says Castillo doesn't deserve to be behind bars. Something funny is going on, she says, suggesting that the now ex-president was set up. Castillo represented the Marxist-Leninist Free Peru party. Ever since his inauguration in July last year, he was consumed by fierce political clashes with the conservative majority in Congress and staggered from one corruption scandal to another. After being ousted by 101 votes to six, he was replaced by his vice president, Dina Boluarte.
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PRESIDENT DINA BOLUARTE: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: In her inaugural speech, Boluarte called for dialogue and an end to the political warring between the executive and legislature. But she also insisted that she and the Congress, which polls show was even more unpopular than Castillo, would see out their terms, due to end in 2026.
JUAN ESPINOSA: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: This is Juan Espinosa, a repairman based at that street market. Like many Peruvians, especially the poor, he says it was Congress that stopped Castillo from doing his job. Pedro Castillo's 17 months in power were marked by chaos, corruption and incompetence. But many ordinary Peruvians also blame the right-wing Congress, which continually attacked him and sought to impeach him three times. Most Peruvians now want new elections, new general elections. As the dust settles in Peru, a significant minority of Peruvians, especially in remote parts of the Andes and Amazon, have been angered by Castillo's ouster and do not believe the corruption allegations against him. But if Peruvians can be happy with one thing that has come out of this latest political crisis, it is that their democratic institutions did hold up when they came under attack from within.
For NPR News, this is Simeon Tegel in Lima, Peru.
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