President Pedro Castillo’s surprise election brought hopes for change in Peru’s unstable and corrupt political system. But impeachment votes and corruption allegations have turned Castillo’s presidency into an exercise in political survival.
But Castillo’s tribulations follow a pattern in Peru, which recently had three different presidents in a single week after one was impeached by Congress and protests forced his successor to resign. Almost all former Peruvian presidents who governed since 1985 have been ensnared in corruption allegations, some imprisoned or arrested in their mansions. One died by suicide before police could arrest him.
When he assumed power, Castillo not only faced a fragmented Congress and his own political inexperience, but a distrustful elite upset with controversial campaign promises that included nationalizing key industries. Five of the probes against Castillo are linked to what prosecutors describe as a criminal network led by the president, involving influence peddling and other crimes. A sixth investigation accuses him and his wife of plagiarizing their master’s degree theses a decade ago.
“Ideally, the president would resign,” Lady Camones, head of Peru’s Congress, said last month. “He has been asked to do so... It would be the ideal scenario. But let’s hope in any case that the evaluation is made by the president.”In a separate preliminary investigation, agents of the prosecutor’s office last month entered the presidential palace in Lima to arrest Yenifer Paredes, Castillo’s sister-in-law, whom he raised and considers a daughter.
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