Peru Impeaches President After Discreet Meetings With China

Peru has impeached their president once again – just four months before the last impeachment – after allegations that he held discreet meetings with a Chinese businessman.

President José Jerí stepped into the role of interim president in October after the impeachment of Dina Boluarte, who was also an interim president after the impeachment of Pedro Castillo in 2022. All in all, Jerí is the seventh Peruvian president to leave office before the end of their term within the last 10 years. In fact, no Peruvian president has completed a five-year term since 2016, when Ollanta Humala completed his term after being elected in 2011.

Castillo was originally elected in 2021 for a period of five years, but his attempt to execute a self-coup and illegally dissolve Congress led to his immediate impeachment. Boluarte took over from there, but her leadership led the country into deadly protests and a surge in crime, alongside several major government corruption scandals.

Jerí took over after her impeachment in 2025, but he was impeached yesterday after the Peruvian Congress passed seven motions of impeachment with 75 in favor and 24 against, alongside 3 abstentions.

The vote comes after Jerí allegedly held discreet meetings with a Chinese businessman who was being scrutinized by the Peruvian government, leading to accusations of influence peddling and illegal sponsorship of interests.

Influence peddling takes place when a person in power uses their position or influence to gain money or power through favors, while illegal sponsorship of interests is when a person of power uses their position to improperly favor a certain third party– in this case, the Chinese businessman, Zhihua Yang, and his respective companies.

After his impeachment, the Peruvian government plans to elect a new interim leader by the end of the day, but their term will only last a few months as official elections approach in April. From there, the Peruvian people will elect a new president, who will take office on July 28.

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Image credit to AP