From corruption to coups: one by one, every president of Peru since the 1990s and what happened to them

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Pedro Castillo was arrested this Wednesday afternoon, after carrying out a self-coup and being dismissed by the Peruvian Congress, which he had tried to close a few hours earlier. A rural teacher and leader of the left, he thus joined the long list of presidents imprisoned, convicted or exiled in the modern history of the Andean country.

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Over the past 10 years, six people passed through the Government Palace of Peru: ollanta humala (2011-2016), Peter Paul Kuczynski (2016-2018), Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020), Manuel Merino (2020), Francesco Sagasti (2020-2021) and Castillo (2021-2022). Dina Boluarte, so far vice president, will be the seventh on the list.

elections, lines of succession and processes of removal accelerated the replacement of the head of state. But presidents with judicial problems extend, at least, since the early 90swith the choice of Albert Fujimori. From that moment on, prison, exile and death dominated Peruvian politics.

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On 21 November 2000, following a corruption scandal, the Parliament Fujimori fired for “permanent moral incapacity”president since 1990, who resigned the day before from Japan, where he had fled.

Extradited, he was sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for corruption and crimes against humanity. The Constitutional Court ordered his release on March 17, 2022, reinstating a presidential pardon that had been reversed.

In 2003 the centrist president Alejandro Toledo has declared a state of emergency before a wave of social discontent. Part of the opposition and the press are calling for his departure “due to incompetence”. The government resigns en bloc.

In 2008, Social Democrat President Alan García accepted the government’s resignation after finding out an alleged case of corruption in favor of the Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum. March 19, 2019 he shot himself in the head when the police had already entered his home in Miraflores, Lima, to take him to prison for corruption and money laundering.

On June 6, 2011, ollanta humala he became the first leftist president in 36 years. A year later, members of his government criticized for his handling of social conflicts (with a balance of 17 dead), they resign.

In 2015, the head of government Ana Jara was overthrown by a motion of censure, the first in 50 years, after an espionage case.

Elected in 2016, the president of the centre-right Peter Paul Kuczynski ended up under investigation for alleged money laundry in the corruption scandal of the Brazilian construction giant odebrecht with bribes to politicians in exchange for contracts.

On March 21, 2018, “PPK” I quit on the eve of a likely parliamentary vote to indict him before an impeachment trial. He was placed in custody and subsequently under house arrest.

ollanta Humala has been remanded in custody in 2017, accused of having received three million dollars from Odebrecht during his election campaign. Indicted in 2019, he has been on trial, along with his wife, since February 21, 2022.

The leader of the opposition Keiko Fujimoridaughter of former president Alberto, also the subject of an investigation into the Odebrecht case, was arrested in October 2018 and served time 16 months in custodybefore being released on bail.

In March 2022, he was asked for thirty years in prison.

Also suspected of corruption in this scandal, the former president Alejandro Toledo was arrested in 2019 in the United States and then placed under house arrest after being jailed for seven months. The US justice authorized his extradition in September 2021.

In September 2019, the president Martín Vizcarra has dissolved Parliamentor controlled by the Fujimori opposition and announced early legislative elections.

Congress responded by suspending him for a year and voting to replace him with vice president. But military leaders, police officers and regional governors back the president. The vice president has resigned.

In January 2020 the Fujimorists lost the legislative elections.

Later, in November, Parliament fired Vizcarra for “moral incapacity”, amid allegations of alleged bribes he received as governor in 2014.

The head of the legislature, Manuel Merinobecomes interim president resign after five dayspressed by street demonstrations and by the political class.

The engineer Francisco Sagasti, elected president of the Parliament, assumed the interim presidency.

Source: Clarin

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