Chela Ordoñez traveled almost 1,000 km from the province of Piura in northern Peru to the capital Lima when she learned that President Pedro Castillo had been arrested after trying to shut down Congress and impose emergency state.
The home tutor gathered with a crowd of other supporters Thursday afternoon outside a police base on the outskirts of Lima, where Castillo was being held following his failed takeover the day before. “We are here because we are poor,” she said, as a busload of other supporters arrived.
“Castillo is the only president of Peru who has represented us,” said Pilar Pillaca, another protester.
The drama of recent days reflects Peru’s bitter social and political divisions and signals the depth of the challenge facing his successor.
Dina Boluarte, who served as Castillo’s vice president, was sworn in as the Andean country’s first female head of state on Wednesday afternoon after Castillo was ousted and must now try to forge a majority in the highly fragmented Congress and to bridge the divisions that divide the country.
Many Peruvians saw the far-left Castillo’s decision, hours before the congressional vote on his impeachment, as a brazen attempt to overthrow Peru’s democracy after 16 months of chaotic rule. His tenure has seen more than 70 ministers come and go, while prosecutors have opened multiple corruption investigations into him and his family. Congress has already tried twice to impeach him.
Most business circles were relieved to see Castillo, who took office in July 2021, removed from office, while many Peruvian newspapers applauded his downfall. “Democracy Holds,” reads the title of an editorial in El Comercio.
But for Ordoñez, Pillaca and thousands of protesters across the country, the former primary school teacher from the rural province of Chota is facing persecution by a corrupt Congress and elite.
Last month, a poll by the Institute of Peruvian Studies found that Castillo’s approval rating was 19% in Lima and 33% in the country’s urban areas, but 45% in rural areas.
A career lawyer and political newcomer, Boluarte has vowed to build a cabinet that represents Peru’s diversity and restore trust in politics – a tall order in a country that has had six presidents in just over four years.
“What she could do is appoint a centrist prime minister and give ministerial positions in the productive sector to the center-right and social positions to the center-left,” said Rodolfo Rojas, a partner at the consultancy firm in political risks Sequoia in Lima. “That would generate a minimum consensus for her to govern in the immediate future.”
Boluarte will also have to manage the economy of the world’s second largest copper producer. After nearly two decades of steady growth, it began to falter under Castillo’s rule and in October ratings agency Fitch revised the country’s outlook from “stable” to “negative”. The following month, Castillo’s third and final finance minister, Kurt Burneo, acknowledged that political dysfunction was hurting the business climate.
Peruvian sovereign bond prices and the ground were hit by Castillo’s attempt to dissolve parliament on Wednesday, but quickly recouped their losses after lawmakers voted to impeach him by a 101-6 margin. The country’s 2031 sovereign bond traded at around 86 cents to the dollar on Friday, near its point at the start of the week, after falling below 85 cents on Wednesday.
Boluarte on Thursday ruled out new elections in the immediate future, telling a news conference his government was mandated to fulfill Castillo’s term, which ends in 2026. The last president to serve a full term in Peru was Ollanta Humala, who left office. in 2016. “I know there are voices calling for early elections,” she said. “That’s democracy.”
Castillo remains under arrest and has been charged with rebellion. A judge on Thursday, considering him a flight risk, ordered that he be held until Tuesday for further investigation.
Most of his cabinet members immediately resigned in protest at his attempt to seize power, and the army and police did not support him, leading him to flee the presidential palace with his family.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Castillo called him on his way to the Mexican embassy to seek asylum before being intercepted by police on Wednesday afternoon. Another left-wing leader, López Obrador, said it was “regrettable” that Castillo had faced “confrontation and hostility” from Peru’s political and economic elites since the start of his presidency.
In the center of Lima, a few blocks from the town hall where Castillo was initially detained, hundreds of supporters gathered in the Plaza de San Martín. Some carried banners protesting his innocence and calling for the closure of Congress.
Passers-by went about their business, indifferent to the turmoil that overwhelmed the politics of their country. “This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a president come and go,” said an elderly man as he scanned the front pages of the day’s newspapers, most celebrating or decrying Castillo’s downfall.
But as the crowd grew to a few thousand and headed for Congress, Peru’s divisions were visible.
“Everyone should celebrate because we brought down a corrupt man,” José Varón, sporting the Peruvian football team’s shirt, shouted at protesters. “You have it all wrong.”
Additional reporting by Tommy Stubbington in London