Hours after attempting a coup, the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, left the government palace and was arrested, according to the country’s media. While this was happening, the Attorney General’s Office announced measures against the head of state.
The Peruvian parliament approved this Wednesday a motion of censure against the country’s president for “moral incapacity”, hours after Pedro Castillo announced the dissolution of this body and the creation of an “emergency government.”
The deputies voted in extraordinary session the third motion of censure against Castillo for “permanent moral incapacity”, which was approved with 101 votes in favor, above the 87 necessary. Of the 130 deputies, only a few from the Perú Livre party voted against, Peruvian radio RPP reported.
Parliament asks Vice President Dina Boluarte to assume the presidency, as provided for in the Constitution, reported the Europa Press agency.
Boluarte had already rejected, through the social network Twitter, Castillo’s actions, noting that “they aggravate the political and institutional crisis that Peruvian society will have to overcome with strict compliance with the law.”
The People’s Office, an autonomous government body, said in a statement, before this congressional vote, that, after years of democracy, Peru is headed for a constitutional collapse “that can only be described as a coup d’état.” [de Estado]🇧🇷
This body urged Castillo to resign his position and turn himself in to the judicial authorities.
The joint chiefs of the Armed Forces and the Peruvian National Police rejected the constitutionality of Castillo’s dissolution of Congress, according to a statement cited by AP.
The president of Peru ordered the dissolution of parliament, a few hours before a session to debate an ‘impeachment’ against the head of state, and announced the installation of an “emergency government”.
Until the constitution of a new parliament, “the Government will be governed by decree-law,” added the left-wing head of state, also announcing a “mandatory curfew as of today”, between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m., in the national level.
Pedro Castillo said that he intends to “convene as soon as possible a new Congress with constituent powers to draft a new Constitution within a period of no more than nine months,” adding that he decided to declare the “judicial system, the judiciary, the Public Ministry, the National Council of Justice and the Constitutional Court”.
Members of the government itself, Peruvian State institutions and opposition leaders denounced a “coup d’état” and requested the intervention of the Armed Forces and the international community.
Peru’s economy, foreign affairs, labor and justice ministers resigned in protest of Castillo’s decision.
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 the international arena, the Peruvian ambassador to the United States, Oswaldo de Rivero, the representative to the UN, Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros, and the ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Harold Forsyth, have already announced their resignation.
Updated news at 7:52 pm
Source: TSF
