Peru’s Paper Presidencies
The real power of Peru’s political system lies in Congress, where various groups divide it up in more or less equal portions.
By Rafael Rojas (Confidencial)
HAVANA TIMES – For years, the real power in Peru’s political system has rested in its Congress, where different groups and party factions divide it among themselves in roughly equal shares. There are about eight parties with more than ten representatives in Congress. The largest, Popular Force, led by Keiko Fujimori, has 21 members; followed by Alliance for Peruvian Progress, headed by Cesar Acuña, with 17; and Podemos Peru, led by Jose Luna Galvez, with 13—and so on.
The presidency of Dina Boluarte, which began in December 2022 after Pedro Castillo’s attempted self-coup, was always provisional and revocable. The congressional power to declare the presidency vacant hung like a sword of Damocles over her term. Perhaps the only way Boluarte could have completed her mandate was by calling presidential elections—something neither she nor Congress was in a position to promote.
That is the only way to understand how the president’s removal could have resulted from a specific security crisis, like the one triggered by the armed attack on the concert of the band Agua Marina in the Chorrillos district of Lima. The attack occurred amid the corruption scandal known as the “Rolexgate”—an ongoing investigation into Boluarte for illicit enrichment—and constant complaints about the high costs and outright inefficiency of the citizen security apparatus.
In the largely presidentialist context of Latin American politics, the fragility of Peru’s presidency is astonishing. Between 2018 and 2022, Peru had six presidents: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Martín Vizcarra, Manuel Merino, Francisco Sagasti, Pedro Castillo, and Dina Boluarte. Except for Kuczynski, who resigned, the other five were removed by Congress through processes very similar to the one that just ended Boluarte’s term.
The new president, Jose Jeri, takes office with the mandate to curb criminal violence and advance judicial proceedings against political corruption. But his greatest challenge will be to organize the long-overdue 2026 elections, when Peru’s all-powerful Congress is to be renewed following the return to a bicameral system.
In April 2026, voters will elect 60 senators and 130 deputies to the new Peruvian Congress. The parliamentary reorganization that follows this electoral process will be decisive for the next presidential succession in the Andean nation. Jerí’s performance will be judged by how he manages that transition, beyond whatever results he may achieve in the coming months in controlling violence and improving public security.
Peru’s prolonged crisis could reach a turning point after that electoral process. For that to happen, the current de facto powers in Congress would need to achieve a new balance of forces. Only then could a new, legitimate, and effective presidential mandate emerge.
Published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.