Peruvian Political Crisis Intensifies after President Dina Boluarte Impeached, and a State of Emergency Introduced
By Raphael McMahon | October 2025
Summary
The Peruvian Congress voted to impeach President Dina Boluarte on the basis of “permanent moral incapacity” on 10 October. Congress leader José Jerí has been sworn in as interim president in her place.
An increase in crime in recent months has caused significant anti-government protests, led in particular by Generation Z. The protests are thousands-strong and have caused the detention of 17 activists, the injury of 24 more and the death of one. 89 police officers have also been injured.
The interim administration declared a 30-day State of Emergency in the Peruvian capital Lima on 22 October in response to the increasingly violent nature of clashes between anti-government protestors and security forces.
Context
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was impeached on 10 October after 122 out of 130 lawmakers in the Peruvian Congress voted to oust her. She has been accused of accepting jewellery as bribes, transporting a fugitive politician in a presidential vehicle and abandoning her post for 2 weeks for cosmetic surgery on her nose. In July, Boluarte issued a decree doubling her personal salary, which was met with popular outcry. She is Peru’s sixth president in 9 years and the seventh Peruvian president since 2000 to have been brought to trial or face legal challenges pertaining to corruption and human rights abuses.
Boluarte assumed office in December 2022, having previously served as Vice President to the impeached Pedro Castillo. Her term was beset by various scandals. In particular, she was criticised over the government’s handling of protests after Castillo’s ousting, which saw over 60 people die in clashes between Peru’s security forces and protestors, and for alleged personal corruption.
However, the vote was largely triggered by Boluarte’s perceived mismanagement of a worsening crime crisis. Between 2018 and 2024 homicides rose by 137%, whereas reported extortions increased sixfold between 2019 and 2024. The issue of crime came to a head when a shooting at a concert in Lima, Peru’s capital, wounded four members of a popular Peruvian band called Agua Marina. The shooting triggered Boluarte’s impeachment.
Boluarte’s replacement is Congress leader José Jerí, who has faced allegations of sexual assault, bribery and illicit enrichment. These allegations, against the backdrop of widespread dissatisfaction with the Peruvian government over the security crisis and perceived corruption, mean that Jerí’s interim presidency has faced violent protests, which are likely to continue. Clashes in Lima on 16 October between protestors and Peruvian security forces left one dead, the popular hip-hop singer Eduardo Ruiz, and over 100 injured. Jerí declared a state of emergency in Lima in response to the protests. The state of emergency allows the government to deploy the army to patrol the streets, restrict the right of Peruvians to freedom of assembly, limit the right to the inviolability of private property, and restrict visiting hours in prisons.
Implications
General elections have already been called, so no early elections will take place despite the presidential change. A general election in Peru is scheduled for April 2026. Jerí’s appointment appears not to have appeased protestors. On the contrary, many of the Peruvian protestors have called for his resignation, both due to allegations of corruption and sexual assault against him, and the death of Ruiz during the protests. Jerí is likely to crack down on protests and prolong the political instability, given the recent government introduction of a state of emergency in the capital.
However, Jerí has also taken measures to stem the crime wave that stimulated the mass protests; Jerí appointed retired police general Vicente Tiburcio as interior minister, stating that Tiburcio was chosen because of his experience fighting “organised crime, drug-trafficking and terrorism”. Tiburcio has pledged to strengthen sanctions against corrupt police officers, bolster the criminal investigation and operational intelligence capabilities of the police and incorporate the most able police officers into specialised anti-crime units. This tough stance on policing and crime is almost certain to continue.
A key consequence of the Peruvian crisis, reflected in the chants of “que se vayan todos” (“throw them all out”) heard in the protests of the last week, is growing disillusionment with the current Peruvian political class. When Peruvians were asked in a poll by the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP) about their preferred presidential candidate for the 2026 General Election, 63% replied that they had no preferred candidate. The frequency of presidential change, the continuous exacerbation of the security crisis and the perceived universality of corruption within the Peruvian congress seem to have turned Peruvians against politicians, as opposed to particular political parties. Boluarte’s ousting is unlikely to change this widespread discontent for Peru’s political class.
Quispe Keen/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Forecast
Short-term (Now - 3 months)
It is highly likely that violence, both state-sanctioned and irregular, will increase as a response to the declaration of martial law, which will almost certainly be perceived by protestors as an authoritarian consolidation of power by the new Jerí government. Human rights abuses, such as the arbitrary detention of activists, will also likely occur more frequently.
Medium-term (3-12 months)
Protests will likely reach a crescendo in the run-up to the April 2026 General Election, especially if the security and corruption crises are not seen to have been dealt with. It is a realistic possibility that a populist movement separate from the current political class, led by members of the protest movement, contests the elections and garners significant support.
Long-term (>1 year)
Institutional crises and corruption appear so deeply embedded that fundamental change will almost certainly be a process drawn out over various years. It is likely that the high presidential turnover will continue, given the precedent for presidential impeachment and the widespread and longstanding distrust of the office.
