Jose Sanchez
Research expert covering society, economy, & politics for Latin America
Political instability and corruption in Peru - statistics & facts
On December 7th, 2022, the Peruvian president Pedro Castillo was arrested while trying to take refuge in the Mexican embassy in Lima after announcing the “Exception Government” and the dissolution of Congress. Former vice-president Dina Boluarte was appointed as president becoming the eight in charge in the last 22 years and the first female president of Peru. The change was not taken particularly well by the population, in fact, her approval rate in January 2024 was only eight percent. A month after this takeover, thousands of protesters stormed the country, blocking streets, taking airports, and even causing some casualties. The widespread protest called “La toma de Lima” asked for the destitution of Boluarte and new elections. The aftermath was the declaration of State of Emergency and Congress debating new elections in 2024. In late 2022, a draft for new elections in April 2024 was approved by Congress, as of early 2024, no election has been scheduled.
The capacity of Congress to overthrow the President is unmatched. For the members of Congress there is no major repercussion and talks with voting rounds to remove the elected President can be started by the opposition almost immediately after taking possession. Other countries in the region have in place different political mechanisms to balance power, for example, Ecuador has a “crossed death” procedure where Congress can impeach the head of state, but the latter can dissolve the former at the same time. Due to that, voters in Peru have a similar negative image of Congress. Moreover, the dissatisfaction with general politics is clearly visible in the voter turnout of the last four General Elections in the Andean country. In 2006, the participation rate was over 88 percent, while in the 2021 ballots it barely reached 70 percent, a considerable decrease when considering that casting your vote in Peru is mandatory for ages 18 to 70 and not doing so comes with possible monetary fines.
The political debacle
This is a recurrent problem, even though Pedro Castillo was democratically elected in the General Elections of 2021, the transition was not easy due to the narrow elections, weak political parties, and a strong division of powers that ended up in a strong opposition between the executive and legislative powers. One of the peculiarities of both powers in Peru is the ability that they have to dissolve the other. It is more complicated for the president to dissolve Congress, but the other way around depends on a vote that Castillo manage to win and avoid being dismissed on several occasion when corruption claims about him were picking relevance and his approval rate started to plummet. Then as a last resort, Castillo tried to dissolve the Congress and create a new type of government. Nonetheless, Congress acted quickly and declared the “Vacancy due to permanent moral incapacity”, same title given in the last 23 years to Alberto Fujimori (2000) and Martín Vizcarra (2020).The capacity of Congress to overthrow the President is unmatched. For the members of Congress there is no major repercussion and talks with voting rounds to remove the elected President can be started by the opposition almost immediately after taking possession. Other countries in the region have in place different political mechanisms to balance power, for example, Ecuador has a “crossed death” procedure where Congress can impeach the head of state, but the latter can dissolve the former at the same time. Due to that, voters in Peru have a similar negative image of Congress. Moreover, the dissatisfaction with general politics is clearly visible in the voter turnout of the last four General Elections in the Andean country. In 2006, the participation rate was over 88 percent, while in the 2021 ballots it barely reached 70 percent, a considerable decrease when considering that casting your vote in Peru is mandatory for ages 18 to 70 and not doing so comes with possible monetary fines.
The prevalence of corruption
A recent survey found that 54 percent of Peruvians thought corruption was the main problem of their country, this figure was the highest in Latin America by far. This type of crime impacts heavily on the economic and political instability of the country, from lowering public trust to discouraging foreign direct investment. Corruption also exacerbates inequality by benefiting a few at the expense of the rest of the population. The problem has prevailed in most recent years, even after some of the biggest headlines, reaching spheres outside the political one. Bribes are one the most prevalent economic and corruption crimes, in fact, 17 percent of Peruvians had to pay bribes to a police officer at least once in 2021 and another 14 percent to a public official.Odebrecht case in Peru
Corruption cases in Latin America are constantly in the news, but not a single case had a worst outcome for Peru than the Odebrecht case. An investigation in 2019 of the Brazilian construction company created a domino effect that affected most Latin American countries due to bribery payments to many politicians, officials, and even political parties to ensure government contracts. Specifically, It in Peru the briberies had a net value of 29 million USD and created profits for Odebrecht of over 143 million USD. During these investigations two former and the president at that moment were heavily implicated and afterwards judged and found guilty of corruption and money laundry connected to the case. This situation created a general discontent in the population and a lower confidence in government institutions.
