Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Peruvian Embassy Has ‘No Idea’ Who Its President Is Following Attempted Coup

Reuters/ALDAIR MEJIA

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Arjun Singh Contributor
Font Size:

Peruvian President Pedro Castillo’s attempt to dissolve his country’s Congress before a vote of impeachment has sparked chaos in the nation as well as confusion among diplomats regarding who is currently the leader of the country, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

“We have no idea who’s the president now,” said a spokesman for the Peruvian embassy in Washington, D.C. They added that they were waiting for information to reach diplomats regarding the matter. (RELATED: Openly Marxist Party Wins Presidency Of Peru With Candidate Pedro Castillo)

Peru entered a constitutional crisis on Wednesday after Castillo, a former schoolteacher and left-wing Marxist politician elected in 2021, announced that he would dissolve the unicameral Peruvian Congress and impose a state of national emergency, which included a national curfew and authority to rule by decree. The Congress was in the middle of impeachment proceedings against Castillo for allegations of corruption, previously investigated by Peru’s Public Prosecutor, that Castillo received $510,000 in exchange for granting Heaven Petroleum, a foreign company, a contract to sell biodiesel, per MercoPress.

 

Zamir Villaverde, a businessman involved in the deal who later released testimony against Castillo, said that the money was delivered to former Presidential Secretary Bruno Pacheo, who resigned from office following multiple allegations of corruption. He claimed that the money was intended for Castillo’s personal use. This is the fifth active investigation involving Castillo by the Attorney General of Peru’s office, which oversees the Public Prosecutor.

The Congress voted on a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against Castillo on Dec. 1 and was poised to vote to formally impeach Castillo on Wednesday, its third such attempt less than a year following his assumption of office. A vote of impeachment in Congress must be followed by a vote of removal.

Before that second vote, however, Castillo announced his dissolution and emergency measures. They were widely condemned by other institutions in Peru, with military and police leaders releasing statements in opposition, while reports of their resignation surfaced.

It is unclear at this time whether Castillo’s dissolution of Congress, a power of the president under Article 134 of the Peruvian Constitution, was recognized, and whether a removal vote has been legally conducted.

The First Vice President, Dina Bouarte, who would normally succeed Castillo in the event of a successful impeachment, also reportedly condemned the measure. Castillo was later reported to have fled the presidential palace to seek refuge in a foreign embassy, while some local media suggest that he’d been arrested by police.

Peru has been in the midst of a political crisis since March, with nationwide protests against Castillo’s government’s handling of inflation and the cost of living. In April, protesters ransacked government offices, including those of the Supreme Court of Peru, and attempted to storm the Congress.

Peru’s leadership has also been unstable, with the country having four presidents within the last two years, including one who served for just five days, following the impeachment of former President Martín Vizcarra in 2020.

The White House, the Organization of American States and the U.S. Department of State did not respond to a request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel