Castillo only took office last July. The initiative would not reach the necessary votes.
Three groups of the Congress of Peru presented on November 25 a request for a vacancy motion against the president Pedro Castillo for alleged “permanent moral incapacity”.
With the signing of 28 deputies, two more than necessary, from the Fuerza Popular, Renovación Popular and Avanza País parties, the request was accepted.
However now the motion will need the support of 52 legislators so that it can be admitted for processing in plenary session. If it occurs, then a debate must be called, with the presentation of the president, and a subsequent final vote in which 87 votes would be needed to approve the vacancy of the president of the Republic.
But it is something difficult to happen for now, according to Peruvian media such as Trade, since among the three benches that promote the initiative they only add 43 votes, to which another two of the Alianza para el Progreso deputies could be added, leaving a total of 45, seven signatures less than the mandatory ones for it to go to debate.
The action against the president had already been announced in previous weeks by the vice president of Congress, Patricia Chirinos, and Castillo himself had challenged the politicians against him to do so. But the real scenario is that the majority of the members of Congress do not support an impeachment of the president, who only has four months (of the five years that the mandate gives him, with no possibility of reelection) in office.
The presidential vacancy is an impeachment process that Congress can use to remove the president for reasons such as “moral incapacity,” something that has been questioned in the past. The last case was that of President Martín Vizcarra, with whom this procedure was used to remove him from power in 2020, leading to an episode of instability that resulted in three presidents in a week.
If the dismissal were to happen at this time, the person in charge of assuming the Presidency would be Dina Boluarte, who is the vice president and minister of Development and Social Inclusion. (I)
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