Peru installs its third president in weeks as Congress removes Dina Boluarte and Keiko Fujimori leads the June 2026 presidential election first round

Summary

Peru's Congress voted on 8 February 2026 to remove President Dina Boluarte under the constitutional "moral incapacity" clause, citing governance failures, unresolved criminal investigations linked to the December 2022 protest crackdown that killed dozens of demonstrators, and corruption allegations. Congress first installed José Jeri as interim president, but within days questions arose over his eligibility, and on 19 February 2026 Congress installed Cristina Balcázar as Peru's third head of government within two weeks. The Balcázar government is a caretaker administration operating under a Congress-imposed mandate to supervise the June 2026 general election. Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular won the most first-round presidential votes in the June 2026 election; the results of the first round were expected to be certified in early July 2026, with a second round to follow if no candidate crossed 50%. The Boluarte impeachment was the latest in a cycle of executive removals that has left Peru with six presidents in ten years, each removed or resigned under the same congressional veto mechanism that political scientists have identified as a structural feature, not an exception, of the post-2016 Peruvian system.

The split

Supporters of Boluarte's removal argued that she had lost all political legitimacy after the 2022 crackdown, that her continued prosecution for corruption made it impossible to govern, and that the moral incapacity clause was constitutionally available and appropriately applied. Boluarte and her allies argued the removal was a congressional coup, driven by legislators seeking to avoid accountability for their own conduct, and that Peru's democracy was being hollowed out by a legislature that had weaponised the impeachment mechanism against every elected executive. International observers, including the OAS and several EU governments, expressed concern about the speed and pattern of removals without calling any individual impeachment unconstitutional. Fujimori's Fuerza Popular, which controls the largest congressional bloc, voted for the removal; the Fujimori camp now faces its own internal debate about whether Keiko Fujimori, who lost two prior presidential elections in 2016 and 2021 and spent time in pre-trial detention on corruption charges, has the political capital to govern after a narrow potential June victory.

By the numbers

• 6, number of Peruvian presidents since 2016
• 8 February 2026, date Boluarte was removed by Congress
• 19 February 2026, date Cristina Balcázar installed as president
• 2, number of interim presidents between Boluarte and Balcázar (Jeri briefly)
• 2022, year of the Boluarte-era protest crackdown that killed dozens of demonstrators
• June 2026, date of Peru's general election first round; Fujimori (Fuerza Popular) led

Why it matters

The Boluarte removal is significant because it demonstrates that Peru's constitutional system has evolved, in practice, into a parliamentary-style mechanism where Congress can remove any executive it cannot cohabit with. This has made Peru ungovernable in the conventional presidential sense: no executive can credibly threaten Congress with dissolution or popular mandate while Congress holds the moral incapacity clause as a permanent veto. For the Andean region, the Peruvian pattern is watched by Bolivia and Ecuador, where similar constitutional instability exists. For investors in Peru's mining sector, presidential instability creates policy uncertainty; Peru is the world's second-largest copper producer and the outcome of the June election will determine the regulatory environment for lithium and copper concessions. For the US, Peru is a key counternarcotics partner and its governance fragility complicates bilateral cooperation.

What to watch

• Whether the June 2026 presidential election first round produces a majority or triggers a runoff.
• Whether Keiko Fujimori wins the second round and how a Fuerza Popular government changes Peru's mining and fiscal policy.
• Whether the criminal cases against Boluarte linked to the 2022 crackdown proceed under the Balcázar caretaker government.
• Whether Peru's Congress-executive cycle produces another removal within the next presidential term.