On February 17, 2026, Peru did something it has now done with unsettling regularity: it removed its president. With 75 votes in favor, 24 against, and 3 abstentions, Peru's Congress voted to oust interim President José Jerí from the position he had assumed just four months earlier, following the removal of his predecessor, Dina Boluarte, amid a crime wave that had gripped the country.
The action triggered a fresh round of questions that Peruvians have been asking for a decade—why does this keep happening, and when does it stop?
The Scandal That Brought Jerí Down
The political scandal that ended Jerí's presidency was dubbed “Chifa-gate”—a play on the term for Peruvian-Chinese fusion cuisine—after surveillance footage emerged showing the president entering a Lima restaurant owned by a Chinese businessman while wearing a hood to conceal his identity. The businessman in question, Zhihua Yang, held a state-granted energy concession, making the covert nature of the meetings immediately suspicious.
A second video showed Jerí entering a Chinese goods store owned by Yang—this time in sunglasses. Peruvian law requires presidents to disclose official activities, but Jerí had reported neither visit. The revelation prompted the attorney general to open a corruption inquiry, and calls for his resignation intensified quickly.
The situation deepened when investigators found that Jerí had also met with a third Chinese businessman, Jiwu Xiaodong, who was under house arrest amid an investigation into his alleged ties to illegal logging. Legislators further alleged that Jerí had lied to Congress and in media interviews about the nature of his dealings. Jerí denied wrongdoing throughout, saying the meetings were about organizing a Peruvian-Chinese festival—and that Yang had simply given him candy and paintings as a gesture of kindness.
Congress was unmoved. Seven separate motions of censure were filed against him, and the vote to remove him was decisive.
A Structural Problem, Not Just a Political One
Jerí's removal is not an anomaly. It is the latest chapter in what analysts now describe as a structural breakdown of Peruvian democratic governance. His impeachment marked the second time a Peruvian president had been removed in less than six months and the sixth time a leader had left office before the end of their term within the past decade.
A clause in Peru’s constitution enables legislators to remove presidents who are found to be “morally incapable” of conducting their duties—a standard so broadly interpreted that lawmakers have wielded it repeatedly as a tool of political leverage rather than genuine accountability.
Francisco Guerrero, a senior fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego, described this clause as a “poisoned apple” for Peruvian democracy. “The poisoned apple, the apple that is rotting Peruvian democracy, is based on the idea that the way to get rid of presidents is through impeachment, and the impeachment process is based on a reason that is completely elusive, which is this concept of moral incapacity. Who determines the moral incapacity of a president?” Guerrero said.
Who is Running the Country Now?
The day after Jerí’s removal, Peru’s Congress elected legislator José María Balcázar as the country’s eighth president in a decade. An 83-year-old former judge representing the leftist Perú Libre party, Balcázar defeated three other candidates with a majority of the 130-member legislature.
He is now the oldest president in Peru’s history.
Balcázar told journalists he will ensure that the upcoming elections are “unquestionable,” that macroeconomic policies will remain unchanged, and that he will refocus the government’s fight against organized crime. His appointment, however, immediately drew criticism from the right. Congresswoman Patricia Juárez of the far-right Fuerza Popular party wrote on social media: “We worked tirelessly for five years to prevent the congressional leadership from falling into the hands of the left. May God help Peru.”
Balcázar’s interim presidency has already proven turbulent. Just one month into his term, his prime minister, Denisse Miralles, resigned at his request, triggering the mandatory resignation of all 18 other cabinet ministers — forcing Balcázar to reconstitute his entire government with less than a month before the April 12 general elections.
As analyst Nicolas Watson of consultancy Teneo noted: “It is difficult to believe that Jeri’s substitute would fail to last until July; yet another change of president over the next five months would mark a new nadir in Peruvian politics.”
The April 12 Election and What’s at Stake
A record 36 candidates are vying for the presidency, reflecting the country’s deeply fragmented political landscape. Rising crime rates and prolonged political instability are the top concerns for voters. Peru’s homicide rate has doubled since 2019, and extortion and gang-related crime have become far more common.
Leading the polls are two right-wing candidates: Rafael López Aliaga, a conservative businessman and former mayor of Lima, and Keiko Fujimori, the well-known former legislator whose father, Alberto Fujimori, served as Peru’s president in the 1990s before being convicted of corruption and human rights abuses. Neither candidate, however, consistently polls above the threshold required to avoid a runoff. If no candidate captures more than 50% of the vote on April 12, the top two will advance to a runoff on June 7.
The electoral stakes extend beyond the presidency. For the first time in decades, Peruvians will also vote to reconstitute a bicameral legislature, with a newly created 60-seat Senate joining the 130-seat Chamber of Deputies—the result of a 2024 electoral reform aimed at restoring institutional balance.
The Economy Holds, But for How Long?
One of Peru’s most striking paradoxes is that its economy has remained comparatively stable despite the political chaos. The Andean nation carried a public debt-to-GDP ratio of 32% in 2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and the government has continued welcoming foreign investment in mining and infrastructure projects.
But analysts warn that this resilience cannot hold indefinitely. Recurring instability hampers the government’s ability to address structural challenges, increases execution risk, neglects social demands, and gradually weakens institutional strength and public trust.
The April election itself introduces fresh economic uncertainty—Peru has a history of volatile voter preferences and outsider candidates emerging late in the race, and a market-unfriendly outcome remains a real possibility in so fragmented a presidential field.
What is clear is that Peru’s April 12 vote carries a weight beyond the usual. For a country that has cycled through nine presidents in a decade—through corruption, self-coups, crime waves, and “Chifa-gate”—the question is whether the ballot box can finally deliver what congressional power plays have not: stability.
Sociedad Media will continue to monitor Peru’s April 12 presidential election and the Balcázar interim government as the country approaches one of the most consequential votes in its recent democratic history. Have a tip, a source, or a story idea? Reach out to our team at info@sociedadmedia.com—we want to hear from you.
