Sawt Falasteen - Peru set for eighth president in a decade

Jeri, 39, became the latest leader to fall victim to a cycle of institutional turmoil as a powerful Congress battles a weakened executive against a backdrop of chronic corruption and rising violence.

On Tuesday, he was ousted by lawmakers for suspected involvement in the irregular hiring of several women in his government and alleged graft involving a Chinese businessman.

He maintains his innocence, but for ordinary Peruvians, the political upheaval is just a sideshow to their own daily lives becoming increasingly precarious.

"We live in uncertainty," Erick Solorzano, a 29-year-old Peruvian doctor, told AFP, with just two months to go to new presidential elections.

In ten years, four presidents have been impeached, two stepped down to avoid the same fate, and only one managed to complete his intended term.

"Presidents don't last because of corruption," said Edgardo Torres, a 29-year-old industrial engineer.

"We need a true leader in such an unstable country," he told AFP.

- 'No guarantee' -

Peru's unicameral parliament will meet Wednesday to elect a new head of Congress, who will automatically take over the remainder of the presidential term, which ends on July 28.

Jeri himself became interim president following the impeachment last October of Peru's first woman leader, Dina Boluarte, amid widespread protests over corruption and a wave of violence linked to organized crime.

He took up the role with gusto, launching into an iron-fisted anti-crime drive that proved popular in some quarters but not enough to keep his head off the chopping block.

Prosecutors last week opened an investigation into whether Jeri "exercised undue influence" in government appointments.

He found himself in the spotlight over claims that several women -- nine according to prosecutors -- were improperly given jobs in the president's office and the environment ministry on his watch.

Jeri is also under investigation for alleged "illegal sponsorship of interests" following a secret meeting with a Chinese businessman with commercial ties with the government.

On Tuesday, lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to impeach him as well.

Four members of Congress have thrown their hat in the ring to replace Jeri: former Speaker Maria del Carmen Alva, left-wing congressman Jose Balcazar, veteran socialist Edgard Reymundo, and politician Hector Acuna, whose party is tainted by corruption scandals.

While politicians vie for power, Peru is contending with a wave of extortion that has claimed dozens of lives, high levels of post-pandemic poverty and unemployment, and the rise of gangs such as Venezuela's Tren de Aragua.

The Congress vote, scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm (2300 GMT), will end a power vacuum of more than 24 hours, unprecedented in the country's recent history.

However, "there is no guarantee that whoever replaces Jeri will be able to make it to July 2026," political analyst Augusto Alvarez told AFP.

P.Tamimi--SF-PST