The president of Peru, officially called the president of the Republic of Peru, is the head of state and head of government of Peru. The president is the head of the executive branch and is the Supreme Head of the Armed Forces and Police of Peru. The office of president corresponds to the highest magistracy in the country, making the president the highest-ranking public official in Peru.
The Congress of the Republic of Peru is the unicameral body that assumes legislative power in Peru.
The Republic of Peru has two vice presidents, the First Vice President and the Second Vice President, who are elected along with the President in democratic elections. Their only constitutional mission is to replace the President in case of death, permanent or temporary incapacity, resignation, being abroad without the permission of Congress, failure to return from abroad at fixed time, and/or dismissal or removal from office as allowed by the Constitution. They cannot be appointed outside of general elections.
José Pedro Castillo Terrones is a Peruvian politician, former elementary school teacher, and union leader who served as the President of Peru from 28 July 2021 to 7 December 2022. On 7 December 2022, he was impeached and removed from office by the Congress of Peru after attempting a self-coup.
Martín Alberto Vizcarra Cornejo is a Peruvian engineer and politician who served as President of Peru from 2018 to 2020. Vizcarra previously served as Governor of the Department of Moquegua (2011–2014), First Vice President of Peru (2016–2018), Minister of Transport and Communications of Peru (2016–2017), and Ambassador of Peru to Canada (2017–2018), with the latter three during the presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.
On 24 December 2017, the President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, pardoned jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori. Because the pardon was granted on Christmas Eve, it became known as the "indulto de Navidad".
Since 2017, the Republic of Peru has experienced a period of political instability that initially took place between the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) and allied parties against the majority-Fujimorist Congress.
Free Peru, officially the Free Peru National Political Party, is a Marxist political party in Peru. Founded in 2008 as the Free Peru Political Regional Movement, the party was officially constituted as a national organization in February 2012 by the name of Libertarian Peru. It was registered as a political party in January 2016 and adopted its current name, Free Peru, in January 2019. Its presidential candidate Pedro Castillo won the 2021 Peruvian general election against Popular Force nominee Keiko Fujimori. Free Peru has the second most seats in the Congress of Peru with 22 out of 130 total representatives, but its opposition continued to rule Congress after forming a larger alliance of seats led by the Popular Action party. Free Peru is a participant in the São Paulo Forum, an annual conference of leftist parties in the Americas.
Luis Alberto Otárola Peñaranda is a Peruvian attorney and politician who currently serves as Prime Minister of Peru. He previously served as Minister of Defense twice, under Ollanta Humala and Dina Boluarte.
Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra is a Peruvian politician, civil servant, and lawyer currently serving as the President of Peru since 7 December 2022. She had served as the first vice president and minister at the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion under President Pedro Castillo. Before then, she served as an officer at the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC) from 2007 until 2022.
The presidency of Pedro Castillo began with his inauguration as the president of Peru on 28 July 2021, the Peruvian Independence Day. In the 2021 Peruvian general election, Castillo, a school teacher and union organizer, won the presidential election against the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori of Popular Force by a 45,000 margin in the runoff. In the congressional elections, Castillo's party, Free Peru, did not get a majority in the Congress of the Republic of Peru.
Events in the year 2022 in Peru.
Mass protests in Peru against inflation and President Pedro Castillo's government began in March 2022. The protests occurred amid rising fertilizer and fuel prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions imposed on Russia. Some of the larger protests were organized by Geovani Rafael Diez Villegas, the leader of the Union of Multimodal Transport Guilds of Peru (UGTRANM) who had previously collaborated in late 2021 with business executives and right-wing politicians, opposing the Castillo government and whose power is recognized as rivaling the government's own Ministry of Transport and Communications. Diez Villegas demanded the removal of passenger restrictions on buses, pardons for transportation workers who were charged with crimes, and negotiations for forgiving debt owed by transportation businessmen to the government. He later organized a general strike aimed at paralysing transportation in Peru beginning on 4 April 2022 that resulted in protests, product shortages, transportation stoppages and rioting.
Karelim Lisbeth López Arredondo is a Peruvian businesswoman and lobbyist known for controversial interactions with the governments of Presidents of Peru Martín Vizcarra and Pedro Castillo.
On 7 December 2022, President of Peru Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve Congress in the face of imminent impeachment proceedings by the legislative body because of profiting off of government contracts, immediately enacting a curfew, establishing an emergency government and calling for a constituent assembly. The act was recognized by politicians, the Constitutional Court of Peru and media as a coup d'état, with some comparing it to the autogolpe of Alberto Fujimori during the 1992 Peruvian self-coup d'état. Numerous members of Castillo's government resigned from their positions shortly after he announced the dissolution of Congress, and the Peruvian Armed Forces also refused to support his actions.
The 2022–2023 Peruvian political protests correspond to a series of demonstrations against the government of Dina Boluarte and the Congress of Peru called by supporters of the ousted president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, organized by social organizations and indigenous peoples who felt they experienced political disenfranchisement, specifically on the politically left-wing to far left. The protests have no defined leadership and were instead organized by grassroots movements. Castillo was ousted after his dismissal by Congress and arrest for having announced the dissolution of Congress, the intervention of the state apparatus and the establishment of an "emergency government", which has been characterized as a self-coup attempt. Among the main demands of the demonstrators is the dissolution of Congress, the resignation of the current president Dina Boluarte, new general elections, the release of Castillo and the installation of a constituent assembly. It was also reported that some of the protesters have declared themselves in an insurgency.
The third presidential vacancy (impeachment) process against President Pedro Castillo was an action initiated by the Congress of the Republic of Peru with the purpose of declaring the "permanent moral incapacity" of the President of the Republic, Pedro Castillo, under Article 113 of the Political Constitution of Peru.
The Ayacucho massacre was a massacre perpetrated by the Peruvian Army on December 15 in Ayacucho, Peru during the 2022-2023 Peruvian protests. On that day, demonstrations took place in Ayacucho and the situation intensified when the military deployed helicopters to fire at protesters, who later tried to take over the city's airport, which was defended by the Peruvian Army and the National Police of Peru. Troops responded by firing live ammunition at protesters, resulting in ten dead and 61 injured; 90% of the injured had gunshot wounds while those killed were shot in the head or torso.
On 9 January 2023, Peruvian National Police shot at protesters in Juliaca during the 2022–2023 Peruvian political protests against President Dina Boluarte. At least 18 were killed and over 100 injured by police responding to protests in the city, with all of the deaths being attributed to gunshot wounds. The massacre was the deadliest day during the series of protests in Peru. Local media criticized the response of national media, saying that events in Juliaca were overlooked.
