Peru's Congress ousts eighth president in a decade over secret meetings

Peru's Congress voted 75-24 with three abstentions on February 17, 2026 to censure and remove JJJose Jeri from the presidency. Jeri had served just four months after becoming president in October 2025 when he was Speaker of Congress and DBDina Boluarte was impeached. The vote used the permanent moral incapacity mechanism under Article 113 of Peru's 1993 constitution, which requires a two-thirds supermajority but doesn't require criminal charges.

The scandal started when surveillance footage showed Jeri arriving at a Chinese restaurant in Lima on December 26, 2025, wearing a deep hoodie to disguise his identity. He met with ZYZhihua Yang, a Chinese businessman who made his fortune distributing Chinese imports in Peru and later moved into the energy sector. Additional footage captured Jeri visiting one of Yang's businesses days later, and at least one more meeting took place in January 2026.

Yang's company Hidroelectrica America holds a state concession for the Pachachaca 2 hydroelectric project worth $24.4 million. The project was supposed to begin commercial operations in May 2026, but as of October 2025, Peru's energy regulator Osinergmin reported that construction progress stood at 0%. Yang submitted a request to the Energy Ministry on December 23, 2025 to push the start date to June 2029, just three days before his first meeting with Jeri.

A third person at the meetings was JXJiwu Xiaodong, another Chinese businessman who was under house arrest at the time for illegal activities. Jeri acknowledged three off-agenda meetings with Yang but called them circumstantial and denied exchanging favors. None of these meetings appeared on the official presidential agenda, violating Peru's transparency requirements for executive meetings.

Jeri is Peru's eighth president in less than a decade. The current Congress, which began its term in 2021, has now removed three consecutive presidents: PCPedro Castillo in December 2022 after he tried to dissolve the legislature, DBDina Boluarte in October 2025 by a unanimous 122-0 vote amid a crime crisis and 2% approval ratings, and now Jeri. No Peruvian president has completed a full term since Ollanta Humala left office in 2016.

Congress elected 83-year-old JMJose Maria Balcazar as interim president

Balcazar is a former Supreme Court judge representing the leftist Peru Libre party, the same party as ousted president PCPedro Castillo

He'll govern for roughly five months until the winner of the April 12, 2026 general elections takes office on July 28 Peru's economy has remained surprisingly resilient despite the political chaos, but analysts at Americas Quarterly warn the economy can't stay permanently immune to institutional dysfunction.

China is the largest single foreign investor in Peru's mining sector, controlling roughly 30% of the country's mining investment portfolio. Chinese firms operate the $10 billion Las Bambas copper mine and built the $3.5 billion Chancay megaport terminal north of Lima. Peru ranked second only to Brazil in Chinese foreign direct investment in Latin America between 1990 and 2012, making the relationship between Peruvian leaders and Chinese business interests a matter of significant public concern.

An Ipsos poll from February 2026 found only 9% of Peruvians have a favorable view of Congress, the same body that keeps removing presidents. Analysts point to structural causes: Peru's fragmented party system means presidents rarely have legislative majorities, lawmakers face low professionalism standards, and the vague moral incapacity clause gives Congress an easy trigger to remove any president who becomes politically inconvenient. The result is a cycle where the body with the least public trust holds the most power over the executive.