Peruvian President Pedro Castillo went to Congress this Tuesday (15th) and made a speech to defend himself against corruption accusations involving his administration. He also acknowledged that all sectors of his government are going through a crisis.
The speech came a day after lawmakers authorized the opening of a process to analyze a new request for the removal of the leftist.
“Peru is going through an unprecedented institutional crisis,” said Castillo, in his most assertive defense speech so far. “We are going to send Congress a series of reforms that will allow us to overcome this structural crisis.”
Since taking office about seven months ago, Castillo has already had to appoint four ministerial cabinets and has faced a series of other strains.
Elected in July 2020, he saw his approval drop rapidly – ​​in February, 70% rejected his government, according to a poll by the Ipsos institute. The same survey showed that 57% say they want the president to leave office and 52% say they believe he is involved in corruption.
“I understand the power of Congress to exercise oversight and political control, but these mechanisms cannot be implemented through abuse of rights, degradation of the Constitution and ignoring the popular will expressed at the polls,” he said on Tuesday.
In December, another vacancy motion against the leftist, then due to lack of “moral capacity” for the position, ended up being rejected by parliamentarians.
Now, the new motion, which alleges cases of corruption in the government, will be debated by the House on the 28th. It will take 87 of the 130 votes to approve the vacancy.
In a scenario in which the request is accepted by the Legislature, the Presidency would be assumed by Castillo’s deputy, Dina Boluarte. Analysts, however, see it as unlikely that the right-wing opposition, despite having a majority in Congress, will be able to garner the necessary support to validate the removal.
Similar requests led to the downfall of Presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2018 and MartÃn Vizcarra in 2020.
A rural teacher, Castillo took to the Casa de Pizarro, seat of the Peruvian Executive, a mixture of left-wing populism in the economy with conservative guidelines in customs. The Peruvian is, for example, against gay marriage, abortion and what he calls “gender ideology”.
Faced with the great political instability since he took office, the president has already faced requests to challenge the election, the resignation of the head of the Armed Forces and dismissals of assistants – for controversial statements, denunciations of irregularities and for holding a party amid restrictions to contain to Covid.
One of the most controversial recent points, and which fueled the congressmen’s request, was the announcement of a possible national referendum to grant neighboring Bolivia an outlet to the Pacific Ocean through Peruvian territory, an old demand of the Bolivian government, but shelved for some time. years old.
The Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs later denied the president’s assertion. Any territorial change would have to receive congressional approval. Still, lawmakers have accused Castillo of betraying the motherland by supporting such a referendum.
But even before the current government, Peru has been suffering from a long period of strong political instability. There have been five different presidents since 2018 and several attempts at impeachment or other forms of removing governments in the period.
