Sawt Falasteen - Peru picks Balcazar as interim president, eighth leader in a decade

The left-wing lawmaker was elected head of Peru's Congress after a vote broadcast live on TV, meaning the 83-year-old lawyer and former judge will become Peru's eighth head of state since 2016.

The vote brought to an end a power vacuum of more than 24 hours, unprecedented in the country's recent history.

Balcazar will lead the country until his successor takes office on July 28, after the presidential election on April 12.

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.

In a TikTok post Wednesday, Jeri said "serving Peru was, and will remain, an honor."

"It is not easy to resolve in a few months what has been pending for decades, but every step was taken with conviction, responsibility and dedication," he added.

Jeri 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' -

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.

In his TikTok post Wednesday, he touched on the continued need to "strengthen security as the foundation of a country with order and a future."

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.

Three members of Congress alongside Balcazar had thrown their hat in the ring to replace Jeri: former Speaker Maria del Carmen Alva, 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.

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

R.Halabi--SF-PST