A new effort to weaken the Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, in the opposition Congress targets his vice president, who has resorted to international jurisdiction in search of stopping an investigation that could expel her from office, they told Reuters the civil servant’s lawyer and Legislative sources.
Congress plans to accuse Vice President Dina Boluarte of an alleged constitutional infraction before the end of July, according to the sources, at a time when President Castillo is also facing an inquiry in Parliament who tried twice to remove him from office.
“The plan is to disable the vice president and then suspend President Castillo to take power. A coup is being sought from Congress,” said lawyer Alberto Otárola, who requested on June 23 the intervention in the case of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
Otárola said that she went to the IACHR to request a “precautionary measure” that could suspend the investigation against the vice president, alleging that Congress is violating Boluarte’s rights to be elected to office.
The IACHR is an autonomous body of the Organization of American States and can grant precautionary measures in favor of citizens in countries that have joined the bloc’s jurisdiction, such as Peru. Such a measure is binding.
Castillo, whose popularity has fallen to its worst level in almost a year in power, would be weakened without a female vice president in a possible new impeachment scenario.
“If there is a precautionary measure in the IACHR, the state is obliged to comply with it,” constitutional lawyer Omar Cairo told Reuters. But he – he added – if there is only one recommendation to Peru, Congress with the “arrogance” of its votes, appealing to external interference, can ignore it.
To disqualify Boluarte from office for an infraction of the Constitution, half plus one of the votes of the 130 members of Congress is needed. An impeachment of President Castillo requires at least 87 votes, an unlikely scenario at the moment, according to analysts.
Congressional Onslaught
The charges against Boluarte must be confirmed in mid-July by a special committee on constitutional accusations in Congress, a legislative source said, before lawmakers vote for a final decision in plenary session.
The committee accuses Boluarte of exercising the position of Minister of State and at the same time representing a private civil association, something that the legislative group affirms is not allowed by the Constitution. But Otárola said that Boluarte left the civil association before holding public office.
The action of the Congress led by right-wing and center-right parties comes when Castillo resigned last week from the Marxist Peru Libre party that ran him in last year’s elections. The political group accuses the president of applying a “neoliberal” program to his management.
Castillo, who scared investors with plans for a statist economy in the world’s second largest copper producer, has moderated his speech; but with four different cabinets he evidences erratic appointments of officials. This week he appointed his sixth Minister of the Interior.
Added to the political uncertainty is the atmosphere of social conflict, with protests in the mining and transportation sectors, in the midst of the most pronounced local inflation in 25 years.
The fragmented Congress is investigating Castillo, as is the prosecution, for allegedly be linked to a corruption plot in the public works concession of his former Minister of Transport who is a fugitive. Castillo, a former trade unionist and rural teacher, has denied all the accusations against him.
“First we must end the constitutional accusation against the Vice President and then continue with the President. Castillo’s permanent moral vacancy is the most appropriate,” said legislator and retired admiral Jorge Montoya, of the far-right Popular Renovation party. “There is still no certainty of having the votes for the vacancy, but we are going to have it,” he said.
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