Peru set to vote on whether to oust interim President José Jerí amid scandals weeks before elections
Jerí took office in October 2025 after lawmakers ousted Dina Boluarte, rising from his position as head of Congress
Peru’s Congress will debate and vote on Tuesday on a set of censure motions targeting interim President José Jerí, a move that could trigger yet another change at the top of the state in a country that has cycled through multiple presidents since 2016, just weeks before the April 12 general election.
Jerí took office in October 2025 after lawmakers ousted Dina Boluarte, rising from his position as head of Congress. The push to remove him has gathered pace in recent weeks as allegations mounted and enough signatures were collected to bring the matter to the floor, with parties that initially backed his rise now seeking distance ahead of the campaign.
The immediate trigger has been a scandal dubbed by parts of the press as “Chifagate”: security-camera footage and media reports showed Jerí attending meetings with a Chinese businessman outside his official agenda, including one visit in which he allegedly sought to avoid being recognized. Prosecutors have opened a preliminary probe into alleged influence peddling linked to those meetings and to state hiring decisions, according to reporting by outlets and news agencies.
Additional scrutiny has focused on alleged irregular hiring of women who secured government jobs after meeting Jerí at the presidential palace, based on official entry-and-exit logs cited in coverage. Jerí has denied wrongdoing and said the appointments were legal.
A central dispute is the vote threshold. Jerí argues that removing him would require 87 votes — the constitutional standard for elected presidents — while opponents say he can be ousted via censure as Congress president, which would automatically strip him of the presidency because he never ceased being a lawmaker. Reuters reported that, if censure succeeds, Jerí would also lose the congressional speakership and revert to an ordinary legislator.
If he is removed, Congress will have to quickly settle who takes over the executive until the next handover, in a field of limited options and politically divisive figures.
