Third impeachment and removal of Pedro Castillo

Third impeachment and removal of Pedro Castillo
President Pedro Castillo swears in Prime Minister Betssy Chávez, days before impeachment
Accused	Pedro Castillo, president of Peru
Proponents	Congress of Peru
Date	29 November 2022 (2022-11-29) to 7 December 2022 (2022-12-07)
Outcome	Vacancy approval
Charges	Adopted: "moral incapacity" under Article 113 § 2 of the Constitution of Peru

Peruvian political crisis
Causes
Fujimorism Corruption Odebrecht scandal
Events
Institutional acts Censure of Zavala cabinet 2019 constitutional crisis Impeachments Kuczynski's 1st Kuczynski's 2nd Vizcarra's 1st Vizcarra 2nd Castillo's 1st Castillo's 2nd Castillo's 3rd Scandals Cuellos Blancos Pardon of Alberto Fujimori Mamanivideos scandal COVID-19 pandemic Vacunagate 2021 electoral crisis 2022 self-coup attempt
Elections
2016 general election 2018 referendum 2020 parliamentary election 2021 general election 2026 general election
Protests
2017 teachers' strike 2018 agrarian strike Protests against Manuel Merino 2020–2021 agrarian strike 2021–2022 mining protests Protests against Pedro Castillo Protests against Dina Boluarte Apurímac protests
Armed violence
Deaths of Brian Pintado and Inti Sotelo Ayacucho massacre Juliaca massacre
Peru portal
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The third presidential vacancy (impeachment) process against President Pedro Castillo was an action initiated by the Congress of the Republic of Peru with the purpose of declaring the "permanent moral incapacity" of the President of the Republic, Pedro Castillo,^[1] under Article 113 of the Political Constitution of Peru.^[2][3]

On November 8 and 17, according to the Government, Congress voted negatively on two motions of confidence presented that sought to modify the process of dissolving Parliament and calling a referendum without the need for an approving vote by Congress.^[4] However, both measures were dismissed by the executive board of Congress because "Law 31399" contemplates two exclusive rights of the Legislative Power, such as the ratification in the first vote of constitutional reforms and the provision that allows the President of the Republic to carry out a referendum to approve them, so the issues of trust directly interfered with the powers of the Congress of the Republic and collided with article 206 of the Political Constitution of Peru.^[5][6]

On 29 November 2022, the non-grouped congressman Edward Málaga presented the presidential vacancy motion for "moral ineptitude" with 67 signatures, which exceeded the necessary minimum number of 26 signatures.^[7][8] The debate for the admission of the vacancy motion was held on 1 December.^[9] When the date arrived, the motion was admitted to debate with 73 votes in favor, 32 against and 6 abstentions, with which the President of the Republic was summoned to the Plenary on 7 December 2022 to exercise his right to defense.^[10] The vacancy required a qualified majority (two thirds of the legal number of congressmen, which corresponds to 87 votes in favor of 130); however, various voices considered that the votes were not guaranteed to approve the vacancy,^[11][12][13] despite this, an unexpected event occurred hours before the session.

On the morning of the day on which the then president would exercise his right to defense, on 7 December 2022, he broadcast a message live to the nation in which he intended to carry out a self-coup.^{[14][15][16][17][18][19]} Following this message, the Congress of the Republic brought the session forward and began the vote for the vacancy directly, under Article 46 ("nobody owes obedience to a usurping government"), due to the seriousness of the situation.^[2] 101 votes were reached in favor of the removal, for which the vacancy motion was approved,^[20] ending the Castillo government.^[10]