Peru's Congress voted [9] on Oct. 9 to remove President Dina Boluarte from office for "moral incapacity" after a late-night session to debate her impeachment. Lawmakers ultimately voted 122-0 to remove Boluarte. She was replaced by congressional leader José Jerí. The impeachment proceedings were initiated after various lawmakers brought allegations of corruption and excessive use of force against protesters [10]. Boluarte's lawyer claimed to have received only 50 minutes between notification and the hearing. Boluarte chose not to attend Congress to present her defense, citing procedural violations. (Jurist [14])
President Jerí on Oct. 15 appointed as head of the Interior Ministry the fomer commander of the Peruvian National Police (PNP), Vicente Tiburcio Orbezo. Tiburcio's tenure as PNP commander only lasted three months, as he was sacked by then-president Pedro Castillo in apparent retaliation for having ordered the arrest of his nephews in the corruption probe [15] against his administration. But he has had a long career fighting organized crime and armed insurgents, having been part of the team within the PNP's Special Intelligence Group (GEIN [10]) that carried out the arrest of Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmán [11] in 1992. He subsequently served in campaigns against both the Shining Path and Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA [12]). He was chosen by Jerí with a mission of addressing the crisis of "citizen security" in Peru. (InfoBAE [16])
Peru is currently grappling with a surge in gang-controlled extortion and contract killings, with extortion cases skyrocketing from a few hundred in all of 2017 to more than 2,000 per month this year, according to PNP data. Dozens of bus drivers targeted by extortion rings have been killed on the job in the past two years, and several stores and other small businesses have been attacked with explosives. (NYT [17])
Boluarte had been seeking emergency powers [18] to crack down on illegal mining, which remains an outstanding problem. On Oct. 6, the Andean Community [19] regional trade bloc ruled that Peru is failing to meet its commitments to curb illegal gold mining and mercury trafficking. The bloc ordered Peru to urgently reform its laws, seize dredging machinery and other mining equipment, and end extensions of a registry for titling informal miners that critics say shields illegality. This comes as the price of gold is skyrocketing, fueling the illegal trade. It is estimated that 50% of all the illegal gold exported from South America originates in Peru. (AP [20], PRI [21])
The illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares (540 square miles) of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon since 1984, and the rate of loss is accelerating, according to the Andean Amazon Monitoring Project (MAAP [22]) and its Peruvian partner organization, Conservación Amazónica [23]. (The Guardian [24])
