On Feb. 18, 2026, Peru's Congress elected José María Balcázar as interim president, sending another lawmaker into the country's highest office only one day after legislators removed José Jerí over corruption allegations.
Balcázar, 83, is a former judge and member of the leftist Perú Libre party. He won a majority of the 130-member legislature against three other candidates and was sworn in shortly after the vote by Fernando Rospigliosi, the president of Congress. His tenure is limited to five months, with a new president and legislature due on April 12. If no candidate clears 50% in the first round, the top two finishers will meet again in a June runoff.
The handover deepens a political crisis that has made Peru one of Latin America's clearest examples of revolving-door government. The current Congress, elected in 2021, has now impeached three presidents: Pedro Castillo, Dina Boluarte and Jerí. Lawmakers have repeatedly relied on a broad reading of the constitutional clause on "permanent moral incapacity" to remove sitting leaders, a practice critics say has turned an emergency provision into a routine political weapon.
Jerí's removal followed revelations about undisclosed meetings with Chinese business owners, including a state contractor. He said he was merely coordinating a Peruvian-Chinese festival, but the Public Prosecutor's Office has opened two preliminary investigations into allegations of illegal sponsorship of private interests and influence-peddling to the detriment of the state.
Balcázar tried to project steadiness on his first day in office. He told journalists that macroeconomic policy would remain unchanged, that sound monetary policy would be preserved so economic actors could work without concern, and that organized crime would be pushed back to the center of the government's agenda.
That promise speaks to the pressure he now faces. Peru is confronting a surge in murders and extortion that has battered small business owners and working-class neighborhoods. Political groups are demanding firm guarantees for a transparent election, and the next president will inherit not just a short mandate but a public mood shaped by exhaustion with instability. Balcázar's five months will be judged less by symbolism than by whether he can keep the transition calm long enough for voters to choose the next government.
For a country that has gone through eight presidents in a decade, the challenge is not only replacing one leader with another. It is proving that the office can still anchor a functioning transfer of power.
Balcázar's rise is also a reminder of how narrow Peru's room for error has become. The current legislature has cycled through presidents so quickly that even an interim appointment can feel like a temporary ceasefire. Balcázar inherits a public demand for a clear election, a functioning anti-crime strategy and a presidency that can survive long enough to hand power over cleanly. In that sense, the next five months are less about ideology than about whether Peru can show that the state still has the capacity to govern without another abrupt break.
Balcázar's immediate job is to make sure the April vote happens on time and without another institutional rupture.
