Lola Dunton-Milenkovic
Over the past two weeks, Peru has been submerged in political disorder that began when the country’s first female president, Dina Boluarte, was removed from office by the Peruvian Congress on 10 October. Her impeachment came following a string of scandals, a series of protests, and the unanimous approval of a motion for dismissal due to “permanent moral incapacity” with 118 votes in favour and no votes against.
Upon Boularte’s removal, Congress leader José Jerí Oré was sworn in as the interim president. Yet the protests persisted, culminating on 15 October with a demonstration that left one man dead, over 100 people injured, the declaration of a state of emergency, and a nation spiralling into disorder.
What led to Dina Boluarte’s impeachment?
Boluarte formerly served as the Minister of Development and Social Inclusion as well as Vice-President under Pedro Castillo of the Perú Libre party. Following a governmental crisis, she assumed the presidency in late 2022.
Upon taking office, the nation erupted in protests, with demonstrators calling for new elections. Peru sank into violence as street demonstrators clashed with law enforcement, resulting in over 60 deaths and hundreds of injuries. At the time, a UN rapporteur stated that the Peruvian government had “used excessive and disproportionate force during the protests”. Months later, the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights reported that “extrajudicial executions” had been committed. Despite low popularity and in such a hostile context, Boluarte still refused to call a new set of elections and declared that she would govern Peru until 2026.
Scandals followed, starting in 2024 when Peruvian media outlet La Encerrona published an investigation alleging that Boularte wore Rolex watches she had not reported, thus accusing her of illicit enrichment and failing to declare assets. Subsequently, her former party, Perú Libre, filed a motion to remove her from office, which failed due to lack of support. Boularte took further controversial measures, including issuing a decree to double governmental salaries, allowing her to earn 35,500 soles per month (approximately US$10,000) where she previously received about 16,000 soles (US$4,500). This amount is 35 times higher than the Peruvian monthly minimum wage of 1,025 soles (US$288).
Additionally, Boularte enacted an amnesty law for military personnel and police officers who had been prosecuted for human rights crimes committed during the war between the Peruvian state and the far-left guerrillas of the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). The brutal conflict was marked by atrocities committed by both sides. A reported 70,000 people were killed and 20,000 disappeared between 1980 and 2000. Shining Path fighters were responsible for about 54% of the deaths, and the military was responsible for the rest. The amnesty law incited anger among the victims’ families. Gisela Ortiz, a spokeswoman for the victims of the 1992 La Cantuta massacre, where intelligence services kidnapped and murdered 10 people at a university near Lima, denounced that “the law rewards human rights violators and closes ongoing investigations”. The director at Human Rights Watch described the law as “it undermines decades of efforts to ensure accountability for atrocities and weakens the country’s rule of law even further”.
When Boularte first took power, her disapproval rating verged on 80%. As her term continued, said disapproval increased, with Datum Internacional placing her disapproval rating at 93%. Furthermore, a CPI study found that she had 0% popularity among 18-24 year olds, which is an unprecedented figure for a Peruvian head of state. In the days leading up to her ousting, her popularity levels oscillated between 2% and 4%.
During Boularte’s tenure, Peru experienced a surge in violence. The crime with the steepest rise has been extortion. According to a report by the Observatorio del Crimen Organizado y la Violencia, in 2024 reports of extortion more than doubled compared to those recorded in 2018. Further police data revealed that 75 complaints of extortion are filed every day in Peru, and some 13,667 cases of extortion were reported in the first six months of 2025. An upward trend in homicides has also been observed, with more than 6,000 people killed between January and mid-August alone. This has been coupled with ‘corrupt’ legislation, as congressmen have passed laws to protect themselves from investigations targeting organised crime by limiting the time available to corroborate information provided by witnesses, requiring lawyers to be present during searches and seizures, and reducing the statute of limitations for certain serious crimes.
This dissatisfaction, corruption, extortion and heightened violence culminated on 9 October, following a shooting attack during a concert by the cumbia band Agua Marina in Lima. The incident highlighted the escalating insecurity in the Andean nation, unleashing a political storm that ultimately brought down Boularte’s government within only a few hours.
Who is the new president?
Following Boularte’s removal from office, José Jerí Oré was declared the new president. In the last eight years, he is the seventh president to lead Peru, a country that has also had 16 different finance ministers in the last ten years. He will serve for the remainder of Boularte’s term until the next presidential election in April 2026.
Professor Moisés Arce of Tulane University’s Political Science Department notes that Jerí’s rise to Congress was “accidental”. Prior to becoming president, Jerí was a legislator for the conservative Christian Democrat party Somos Perú, and won a seat in Congress replacing Martín Vizcarra who, despite having received more votes, was barred from holding public office. He then headed the Peruvian Congress which, with a single-digit approval rating, was almost equally as unpopular as Boularte’s presidency. According to Rodrigo Barrenechea, professor of social and political sciences at the University of the Pacific, Jerí was a virtually unknown figure in Peruvian politics until now, and he “finds himself in power almost by chance in a democracy that increasingly resembles a lottery”.
Jerí has pledged to undertake “a war on crime”, yet despite such statements, he has also faced numerous scandals, including corruption allegations and claims of illicit enrichment. There was also a now-shelved investigation of sexual assault following an allegation of rape in December 2024. During the investigations, Jerí’s political party announced the suspension of his membership, and ultimately the investigation was closed in August 2025, with a court ordering him to undergo psychological treatment as a protective measure. In both incidents, he denied any wrongdoing and expressed willingness to cooperate with investigations.
What happened on 15 October 2025?
With Jerí’s appointment, the waves of protests that resulted in Boularte’s impeachment have only continued. A protest staged on 15 October, called by Peruvian youth and supported by transport workers and civil groups, was the latest in a series of demonstrations against corruption and rising crime, specifically following a wave of extortions that has seen bus and taxi drivers threatened by gangs. Young Peruvians took to the streets, demanding that the country’s politicians do more to combat crime and corruption. Their anger towards what they call the “political class” has only intensified, and they are demanding “a clean slate” wherein Jerí should step aside in favour of an independent lawmaker.
Thousands of protestors assembled from around the country, clashing with police outside Congress in Lima. Police fired teargas, while protesters hurled fireworks, rocks and burning objects, chanting “Everyone must go!” while attempting to tear down metal barriers that protected the building. Protestor Eduardo Mauricio Ruiz, aged thirty-two, was killed by a bullet wound to the chest. The commander-in-chief of the Peruvian National Police has since reported that a non-commissioned officer, who is now in custody, fired the shot.
On 21 October, Peru declared a state of emergency in Lima and Callao. It commenced at midnight on Tuesday, only three hours after being announced, and is to last for 30 days. This allows the state to deploy the armed forces to support the police in maintaining public order, and to restrict or suspend certain rights, including freedom of assembly. Jerí’s reasoning for taking such a measure is “We’re moving from defence to offence. Wars are won with actions, not words”.
The protestors, however, have pledged that they will remain on the streets until Jerí is removed from office. The situation is reminiscent of what happened in 2020 when the deaths of two protestors forced Manuel Merino to resign five days into his presidency, though this time it seems that authorities are acting differently to avoid overwhelming popular unrest.
This series of protests in Peru was instigated before Boularte was president and led to the removal of both her and her predecessor, and now they continue with her successor. The list of demands, mainly voiced by Peru’s youth who desire a safer future, is only expanding, representing a melting pot of growing problems concerning Peruvian society today: crime, corruption, and decades of disillusionment with their government.