Peru’s Congress voted to remove President Dina Boluarte from office on the event date, then swore in congressional leader José Jerí as interim president to oversee the country until elections in April 2026.
The vote came after lawmakers summoned Boluarte to defend herself over her government’s failure to curb crime. When she did not appear, they moved quickly to impeach her. According to the DW report, 118 of 122 lawmakers supported the removal, a margin that showed the collapse of political backing around a president who had already faced multiple attempts to oust her.
Boluarte’s downfall was driven by anger over crime, especially homicides and extortion, and by a broader sense that her administration had lost control of the public-security agenda. The report said the impeachment came just hours after a shooting at a concert in Lima intensified public outrage. In that climate, the Congress found enough unity to use the same constitutional mechanism that had helped bring Boluarte to power in the first place.
Jerí, who had served as Congress leader, announced after the vote that Boluarte had been impeached for “moral incapacity.” He was then sworn in as interim president and pledged to lead a transitional government. His first message was direct: he said the main enemy was on the streets, not in parliament, and declared that Peru must “declare war on crime.”
The change in office caps a turbulent political cycle. Boluarte took over in December 2022 after parliament impeached her predecessor using the same process. She became Peru’s first female president, but the office never stabilised. The DW report said her government was plagued by scandals and failed to respond to worsening insecurity.
Official figures cited in the report show the scale of the problem. Between January and mid-August, 6,041 people were killed, the highest figure for that period since 2017. Extortion complaints also rose sharply, reaching 15,989 between January and July, up 28% from the same period in 2024. Those numbers explain why crime became the dominant political issue, even in a system already known for instability.
Jerí now inherits a transition government with a narrow remit but immense pressure. He must maintain basic state authority, reassure a frightened public and prepare for the April 2026 vote. The parliamentary arithmetic that removed Boluarte suggests that lawmakers wanted a clean break, but it does not guarantee a smoother governing environment.
Peru has seen enough leadership changes in recent years to make each new handover feel provisional. This one is no exception. The interim president begins with a security crisis, low trust and an electorate that has watched successive governments promise order and deliver little of it.
The event date’s impeachment was therefore more than a procedural act. It was an attempt, however uncertain, to reset the political system around a single demand that had become impossible to ignore: public safety.
