The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, determined on Wednesday the dissolution of parliament, a few hours before a session to debate a political trial against the head of state, and announced the installation of an “emergency government.”
In a message to the nation from the presidential palace, Castillo revealed that he had determined the “temporary dissolution of the Congress of the Republic and the installation of an exceptional emergency government,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Until the constitution of a new Parliament, “the Government will be governed by decree-law,” added the left-wing head of state, who also announced a “mandatory curfew as of today,” between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. :00 hours, throughout the country.
Pedro Castillo said that he intends to “convoke as soon as possible a new Congress with constitutional powers to draft a new Constitution within a period of no more than nine months.”
“This intolerable situation cannot last any longer, therefore, in response to the demands of the citizens (…) we have decided to establish an emergency government that aims to restore the rule of law and democracy,” said Castillo, before detailing the measures taken.
“The judicial system, the judiciary, the Public Ministry, the National Council of Justice, the Constitutional Court are declared reorganized,” added the Peruvian President, who also called on “all people in possession of illegal weapons” that ” hand them over to the national police within 72 hours”.
The National Police “will dedicate all its efforts to the real and effective fight against crime, corruption and drug trafficking,” he guaranteed, explaining that the police force will be provided with the “necessary resources.”
Following this announcement, the vice president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, denounced, through the social network Twitter, “a coup d’état that aggravates the political and institutional crisis” in the country, considering that Peruvian society must overcome “strictly respecting the law”.
Peruvian Foreign Minister César Landa denounced that Castillo promoted a “self-coup” and called on the international community to help “democratic redirection in Peru.”
César Landa unchecked, also through Twitter, the decisions of the head of state, also announcing his resignation as minister in the face of “President Castillo’s decision to close the Congress of the Republic in violation of the Constitution.”
In this way, Landa joined the dismissal of other ministers, such as Economy Minister Kurt Burneo, Justice and Human Rights Minister Félix Chero, and Labor Minister Alejandro Salas.
Peru’s opposition leader, Keiko Fujimori, also accused the country’s president of promoting “a desperate coup” and urged Congress to remove him and the Armed Forces to “support the constitutional order.”
“Pedro Castillo struck a desperate blow because he knew he had only a few hours in power. Congress must move forward with the (removal) motion and the Armed Forces must support the constitutional order,” said the leader of the Fuerza Popular party on Twitter. She and the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, author of a “self-coup” in 1992.
The president of the Constitutional Court of Peru, Francisco Morales, made a call, through Channel N, to the Armed Forces of the country, to “restore the constitutional order.”
The Peruvian ambassador to the United States, Oswaldo de Rivero, announced his resignation from his post, denouncing Castillo’s “rupture of the constitutional order” in his country.
This resignation is added to those announced moments before by the Peruvian representative to the UN, Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros, and by the ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Harold Forsyth.
The Peruvian parliament, dominated by the right, has scheduled for this Wednesday a new motion to dismiss the head of state for “permanent moral incapacity.”
The debate on this impeachment was scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. in Lisbon). To be successful, the motion must get at least 87 votes out of 130 in parliament. The opposition has about 80 seats.
Castillo has already escaped in two similar motions, the last one in March 2022. At the time, the opposition accused him of having intervened in a case of alleged corruption practiced by his entourage and of having committed “treason against the homeland” by declared open. to a referendum on the access to the Pacific Ocean of neighboring Bolivia, a landlocked country.
He is also accused of being responsible for repeated ministerial crises and for the formation of four governments in eight months, an unprecedented situation in Peru.
Source: TSF
