Peru’s President Pedro Castillo avoided impeachment by the country’s opposition-dominated legislature on Monday after a parliamentary debate lasting more than eight hours. Fifty-five legislators voted in favor of impeachment, 54 voted against and 19 abstained. The president’s critics needed 87 votes to impeach the leader, who was accused of corruption and moral incapacity. Congress voted to impeach Castillo, a former teacher from a peasant farming family, earlier in March over corruption allegations. He has denied the allegations and blamed them on economic groups seeking a “coup” against his government.
The impeachment vote took place against a backdrop of internal government struggles that have defined the left-wing leader’s first months as president. Castillo was sworn into office in July promising to be a champion of the poor and to improve education, health care and other services, but he has struggled to find support from some political groups, including the ones represented in Congress. Amid internal political wrangling as well as sustained attacks from the right-wing opposition, Castillo so far has sworn in four cabinets. One prime minister lasted only three days on the job. Reporting from Peru’s capital, Lima, Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez said Castillo defended himself before Congress on Monday, saying that the motion to impeach him was baseless. Meanwhile, a group of about 500 protesters, many of whom support Castillo’s removal from office, had gathered outside the hearing. “Many others are saying that they want everybody to go,” Sanchez added.
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