Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to impeach President José Jerí after he failed to disclose meetings with Chinese businessmen who were under government scrutiny, the latest upheaval in a country that has cycled through leaders with striking speed.
Mr. Jerí, 39, the former head of Congress, took office as interim president in October after presiding over the removal of his predecessor. He is the sixth Peruvian president in the past decade to leave office before their term ended. One stepped down within days of taking office.
The Congress passed seven motions of impeachment, 75 in favor, 24 against and 3 abstentions.
Peru is scheduled to hold a general election on April 12, and will transfer power to a new president on July 28. Mr. Jerí is not a candidate, and presidents in Peru cannot run for consecutive re-election.
The impeachment followed the release last month of three videos showing Mr. Jerí entering a restaurant and convenience store in Lima owned by Yang Zhihua, a wealthy Chinese businessman who has come under government scrutiny. Local outlets reported that one of Mr. Yang’s stores had been ordered closed for violating a municipal ordinance; three days later a federal regulatory body overturned the law that led to the closure.
Mr. Jerí acknowledged that the videos were authentic. Peruvian law requires presidents to log their official activities, and he did not report the visits to Mr. Yang’s establishments, Mr. Jerí admitted under questioning from lawmakers last month.
During that questioning he declined to provide his phone records and said he had known Mr. Yang before becoming president. He added that the businessman had refused to let him pay for some candy and paintings he bought “because he was being kind to me.”
The explanations failed to quell criticism. Lawmakers across the political spectrum called for his removal and the attorney general opened a corruption inquiry into Mr. Jerí’s interactions with Mr. Yang.
Mr. Jerí has accused rivals of leaking the footage to influence the upcoming elections. Since the scandal erupted, Mr. Jerí’s approval ratings have dropped by 10 percentage points from his 51 percent rating, polls show.
The controversy widened when Cuarto Poder, a television program that first broadcast the videos, reported that another Chinese businessman, Ji Wu Xiaodong — who is under house arrest while being investigated for alleged ties to an illegal logging network — had visited the presidential palace three times during Mr. Jerí’s tenure. The president told lawmakers that Mr. Ji Wu was a friend of Mr. Yang’s and said he did not know him well.
The episode underscores Peru’s entrenched political instability epitomized by what has been the revolving door of the country’s presidency. Since 2016, a succession of presidents has been impeached, forced to resign or investigated.
The upheaval comes after the removal four months ago of Dina Boluarte, one of the most unpopular presidents in recent decades, amid public anger over surging crime.
Ms. Boluarte herself had ascended to the presidency in 2022 after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo — for whom she had served as vice president — tried to dissolve Congress and overhaul the judiciary. He was swiftly impeached and arrested, and last year he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiracy and rebellion.
That episode was only one in a long chain. Nearly every living former president has faced a criminal investigation.
Alejandro Toledo, who served as president of Peru from 2001 to 2006, was sentenced to 20 years for accepting bribes, and Ollanta Humala, president from 2011 to 2016, was convicted of laundering campaign funds tied to Odebrecht, a Brazilian firm.
Alberto Fujimori, Peru’s authoritarian leader of the 1990s, served more than a decade in prison for human rights abuses and corruption before a controversial pardon in 2023. He died in 2024 at 86.
Genevieve Glatsky is a reporter for The Times, based in Bogotá, Colombia.
The post Peru Ousts President, Again appeared first on New York Times.
