Peru Has Had Three Presidents In One Week

 

PERU

Too Many Chefs

Recently, Peru had three presidents in one week.

Congress voted to oust popular President Martin Vizcarra on Nov. 9 on corruption charges that he denies. Vizcarra’s replacement, Interim President Manuel Merino, resigned after mass protests against what many Peruvians saw as a parliamentary coup – and the police brutality that followed it, reported CNN. A great photo essay of the protests in the Guardian shows the intensity of Peru’s biggest political crisis in a decade.

Meanwhile, the South American country didn’t have a president for 24 hours. Without a vice president, the top job went to the head of Congress, Francisco Sagasti, 76, who is now the Peruvian head of state. An engineer, Sagasti was among those taken hostage by Tupac Amaru rebels in 1996 at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima.

Sagasti’s job is to bring stability to the country. But he might not last long, either. The next presidential election is now scheduled for April 2021.

Still, he’s trying. After his quick inauguration, President Sagasti sought to address the anger of protesters, paying respect to the two young men who had died in the demonstrations. “We can’t bring them back to life,” he said. “But we can stop this from happening again.”

Protester Paloma Carpio, who was marching in Lima for a new constitution and justice for the victims of government brutality, sounded conciliatory. “I think that Sagasti is someone that gives democratic guarantees, who can (be) a transition toward a new government that will be okay,” Carpio told Al Jazeera.

Peruvian politics is rife with corruption, the New York Times wrote. Amid the coronavirus pandemic and consequent economic crisis, lawmakers who ousted Vizcarra are pushing for narrow special interests while fending off separate corruption investigations into their business.

Last year, former Peruvian President Alan García shot and killed himself as authorities arrived at his home to arrest him on bribery charges.

Also, security forces have few checks on their power. Peru’s constitutional court, for example, has ordered police to release more than 40 people who “disappeared” in custody during the recent protests, wrote National Public Radio.

The coronavirus has exposed how Peruvian leaders are not only corrupt but incompetent, wrote Independent Institute Fellow Álvaro Vargas Llosa in the Washington Post. Around 70 percent of the country’s economy is on the black market, where face-to-face interactions are common, driving up infection rates. Healthcare infrastructure is poor. Long, hard shutdowns don’t appear to be tackling the spread: Peru has one of the highest – if not the highest – per capita death rates from Covid-19 in the world.

Some think Sagasti should immediately focus on solving his country’s massive problems. Unfortunately, he will first need to spend time stabilizing his own position to do that.