Castillo’s Fall From Power Followed Political Missteps That Alienated Peruvians

Peru's President Pedro Castillo addresses the audience during the opening of the VII Ministerial Summit on Government and Digital Transformation of the Americas in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 10, 2022. Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters

News Analysis

Former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo found himself behind bars on Dec. 7, following 16 months of corruption charges and protests.

The dizzying turn of events followed a day of tense political power struggles and an attempted coup by the ousted head of state.

A few hours before his arrest, Castillo addressed the Peruvian people in a televised broadcast, saying he intended to dissolve Congress to make way for a new assembly to be elected.

In the same speech, he said a new Congress would make constitutional amendments and that a mandatory 10 p.m. citizen curfew would go into effect immediately.

On Dec. 8, Peruvians awoke to find Castillo being held in Lima’s Barbadillo prison. Former Vice President Dina Boluarte now stands at the nation’s helm after being sworn in by Congress just hours after Castillo’s decree.

In an ironic twist, Castillo is being held at the same facility where former President Alberto Fujimori is serving a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity. Many Peruvians celebrated the sudden turn of events, both in the streets and on social media.

Congress’s dismissal of Castillo from office and his subsequent arrest marked the passage of another Peruvian president. The country has seen six leaders come and go in just seven years.

Some locals say the compounding effect of months of corruption investigations, deflated campaign promises, and high national inflation eroded Castillo’s foundation. It essentially left him without enough support to pull off a successful coup.

A Hard Lesson Learned

“It was all over for Castillo as soon as he tried to dissolve Congress,” Luis Garcia told The Epoch Times.

Garcia is a retired university professor who lives with his family in the sprawling suburbs of the nation’s capital, Lima.

“Congress has the real power in Peru,” he said. “And Castillo didn’t have the support he would have needed to pull off a coup.”

Peruvians are well-versed in the game of hasty political power grabs. When it comes to authoritarian maneuvers, Garcia points to Fujimori’s regime as a lesson civilians and legislators alike learned the hard way.

In 1992, Fujimori disbanded Congress and suspended the nation’s constitution after less than two years in office. He claimed that the goal was to establish a government of  “national reconstruction.”

Castillo’s move to “temporarily” dissolve Congress with the aim of changing the constitution is a page taken directly out of the incarcerated former president’s playbook.

However, there’s a critical difference between Castillo’s attempt and Fujimori’s.

“Castillo didn’t have the army behind him [and] Fujimori did,” Garcia said.

After Castillo’s mandate on Dec. 7, the Peruvian joint armed forces and national police made it clear that they wouldn’t support his attempt to consolidate power.

“Any act contrary to the established constitutional order constitutes an infringement of the constitution and generates noncompliance by the Armed Forces and the National Police of Peru,” an official spokesperson said in a statement.

The armed forces representative noted that Article 134 of the nation’s constitution does, in fact, allow a president to dissolve Congress. However, it’s only permissible when the assembly has censured or denied the confidence of the president in two councils of ministers.

Waning Popularity

Garcia pointed out that, unlike Fujimori, Castillo’s popularity had hit rock bottom before his last-ditch attempt to dodge a third impeachment vote in Congress.

“People have been questioning his [Castillo’s] decisions for months, and then you add in inflation,” he said. “He didn’t stand a chance.”

A former provincial school teacher of humble origins, Castillo’s primary support came from the nation’s 4 million strong indigenous population.

He won a tight election race last year against—interestingly enough—Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the imprisoned former president.

Keiko Fujimori, former presidential candidate and daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori in Lima, Peru, on March 25, 2011. Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

Styling himself as the champion of the working class, Castillo made lofty promises that he hadn’t been able to deliver. Key among these was his declaration that Peru would see less poverty under his watch.

Idealistic notions soured fast as national inflation began to soar in January. By the end of the first quarter of 2022, many of Peru’s working class began to see Castillo differently as inflation climbed to almost 8 percent.

In April, the then-president struck an agreement to end unrest that had erupted within the agricultural and transportation sectors of the city of Huancayo.

The two economic sectors are among the hardest hit by the country’s inflation, which topped out at nearly 9 percent in June and July.

“The president promised no more poor in a rich country, but we are getting poorer,” one Huancayo city resident said during an interview with local reporters.

Some Peruvians think this was the beginning of the end for Castillo.

“He couldn’t keep prices down amid global inflation. The poorest sections were hit hard this year,” Cusco resident Anna Diaz told The Epoch Times.

And while Castillo’s support base was slowly eroding among the populace, Diaz said corruption charges against his administration also struck a blow to his backers in the government.

Leftist Pedro Castillo celebrates from the headquarters of the "Free Peru" party after Peru's electoral authority announced him as the winner of the presidential election on July 19, 2021. Sebastian Castaneda/Reuters

In January, Peru’s attorney general opened an investigation of Castillo for alleged collusion and influence-peddling with companies over government public works contracts. The lack of support among fellow left-wing politicians became plain on Dec. 7.

Within minutes of Castillo’s shocking announcement, 12 ministers resigned from office.

Even Castillo’s own political party, Peru Libre, turned its back on the disgraced president. Vladimir Cerron, president of the Peru Libre political party, said on Dec. 7 that he wouldn’t support the “ongoing coup” attempt by Castillo.

“One minute after that speech, Castillo didn’t have a single friend in the government who would stand beside him,” Diaz said.

It appears he also had few friends among civilians in his final days.

Widespread protests erupted across the country last month, with thousands of angry protesters demanding Castillo’s impeachment.

In a miscalculated bid to keep the tide from turning, Castillo tried to dissolve Congress just hours ahead of a scheduled session that was to vote on his impeachment. It would have marked Congress’s third attempt since Castillo took office in July 2021.

“He wanted the opposition to end in the streets and in the government,” Diaz said. “It was his last chance. His failed coup was motivated by desperation.”

Castillo’s decree proved to be the final straw. During his speech, the former president said he would create a “government of exception” that would “only rule by decree.”

Less than two hours later, local authorities detained and later arrested Castillo as he attempted to flee with his family out the back door of the government palace in Lima.

Afterward, a lightning-quick game of political chess ended with an emergency congressional assembly voting to remove Castillo from office immediately. The motion passed with 101 votes in favor.

Congress swore in Boluarte as the nation’s commander-in-chief to serve the duration of Castillo’s term, which ends in 2026. Boluarte was quick to denounce the actions of Castillo earlier that day.

“I reject the decision of Pedro Castillo to perpetrate the breakdown of the constitutional order with the closure of congress,” Boluarte posted on Twitter.

“This is a coup that aggravates the political and institutional crisis that Peruvian society will have to overcome.”

Castillo is now under investigation for rebellion and conspiracy in the wake of his Dec. 7 actions. The former president didn’t make any public comments as of press time.