Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has accused his opponents of subverting democracy as he faces a third impeachment challenge.
Castillo, who started his five-year term in July 2021, is expected to appear in the impeachment trial from December 7, to answer the accusations of “failure to act”. Peru’s Congress voted for an incumbent president last week.
Facing a congressional vote that could remove him from office, Castillo rejected allegations of corruption in a speech on Tuesday, instead accusing his opponents of trying to “burn democracy and ignore the right of our people to choose”.
A former Peruvian rural teacher, Castillo’s unexpected rise to the presidency in 2021 was followed by a difficult period in office.
He has already survived two rounds of opposition. The latest results from a legal complaint filed by the prosecutor’s office in October, alleging that Castillo leads a “criminal organization” that profits from government contracts and obstructs investigations.
Congress also criticized Castillo for the failure. He has appointed five ministers and at least 80 ministers during his term.
The controversy surrounding Castillo comes amid political uncertainty in Peru, which has seen seven presidents and four former leaders arrested or wanted for corruption since 2011.
Castillo said that the efforts were against powerful interests that want to take back the power that “the people took from the elections”.
But Attorney General Patricia Benavides said her office had found “significant signs of an organized crime group in the state”.
Although Peru’s presidents are generally immune from impeachment, constitutional complaints allow Congress to hold them accountable.
Peru’s 130-member parliament passed a resolution to begin impeachment on December 1 with 73 votes in favor, the majority from right-wing parties.
But the threshold to remove the president from office is higher, requiring a two-thirds vote or 87 votes. Previous attempts in December 2021 and March 2022 have failed to clear that threshold.
Castillo and his family are facing six counts of corruption. The president has denied any wrongdoing.
In October, five of Castillo’s associates were arrested on corruption charges. And in August, his sister-in-law, Yenifer Paredes, was given 30 months in prison before trial. Prosecutors say Mr. Paredes is involved in a scheme to award contracts to the president’s allies in his home region. He was not charged.
In November, Castillo accepted the resignation of former prime minister and powerful ally Anibal Torres, marking Castillo’s fourth prime ministerial departure. Torres challenged Congress to vote in confidence and stepped down after the legislative body refused to do so.
Although political turmoil has plagued Peruvian politics for years, the country’s economy has grown faster than any major economy in South America.
But according to Reuters, Colombia is expected to beat Peru this year, perhaps due to the country’s political uncertainty. The region has struggled with the fallout from rising inflation, as well as food and energy shortages caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Castillo ran on a left-wing party that promised a better economic system, but he governed in a conservative manner and did not pass any economic reforms.
According to Reuters, Castillo’s government has seen very low spending on development projects, and Congress has suspended a proposal to raise taxes on the country’s mining industry.
It is unclear what, if any, effect Castillo’s removal would have on the economy, and Peru is expected to remain one of the fastest growing countries in South America. But the country’s political turmoil has long been a concern for investors. In 2020, for example, the country went through three presidents in less than 10 days.
“I think there is no alternative but for the government to be involved [economic] expectations because companies are doing well,” said Pedro Francke, Castillo’s state finance minister who resigned earlier this year.
Castillo has called for negotiations and said that he “didn’t commit corruption”. But with hostile opposition, numerous legal issues and protests calling for his impeachment, it is unlikely that he will see his five-year presidential term end in 2026.
For his part, the President seems eager to get to work. In response to the protests in November, Castillo said, “They will take me until the last day of my administration because my people have decided that way.”
