wrote<\/a> Patricia Juarez, from the far-right Fuerza Popular party.<\/p>\n\u201cNow we are deeply concerned about the results because we could be handing over even the presidency of the republic to the left, embodied by Balcazar. May God help Peru.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balcazar hails from the left-wing Peru Libre \u2014 or Free Peru \u2014 party. Born in the northern department of Cajamarca, near the border with Ecuador, he studied law and eventually became a professor and a judge.<\/p>\n
His time in the judiciary, however, was not without controversy. In 2004, while serving as a provisional member of Peru\u2019s Supreme Court, he attempted to overturn a cassation ruling that was considered a final judgment under the law.<\/p>\n
He was subjected to disciplinary hearings, and Peru\u2019s National Board of Justice (CNM) ultimately decided not to renew his term on the high court\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n
Since 2021, Balcazar has been a member of Congress, briefly separating from the Free Peru for a period to join the Peru Bicentenario party.<\/p>\n
Like many of Peru\u2019s recent presidents, Balcazar has also been dogged by the spectre of corruption and scandal.<\/p>\n
His defence of child marriage has raised eyebrows when Congress debated a law to outlaw the practice in 2023. And he has faced investigations for misappropriating money from the Lambayeque Bar Association and for his involvement in a bribery scandal involving former Attorney General Patricia Benavides.<\/p>\n
But despite his prominent controversies, Balcazar\u2019s candidacy was able to unify enough lawmakers to win the vote, no small feat in Peru\u2019s fragmented Congress.<\/p>\n
What happened to Jose Jeri?<\/h2>\n
Jeri, 39, was one of the youngest presidents to lead Peru. But he ultimately was the latest in a string of three consecutively impeached presidents.<\/p>\n
His predecessor, Dina Boluarte, had been impeached in October for \u201cmoral incapacity\u201d, amid dismal poll numbers, allegations of corruption and scrutiny over her use of force against protesters.<\/p>\n
Boluarte, in turn, had replaced her predecessor, Pedro Castillo of the Free Peru party, who was impeached in December 2022 after he attempted what many consider a self-coup.<\/p>\n
He was subsequently arrested and charged with rebellion and conspiracy against the state. Last November, a court sentenced him to 11 years and five months in prison.<\/p>\n
Before becoming interim president, Jeri was the head of Congress, and he oversaw removal proceedings against Boluarte.<\/p>\n
Since taking office, however, Jeri himself became embroiled in multiple scandals. A sexual misconduct accusation was levelled against him, and there were also questions raised about late-night meetings he took in the executive office with women who later received government contracts.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest scandals, though, has concerned his off-the-books meetings with Chinese businessmen.<\/p>\n
Normally, Peruvian law requires official meetings to be logged on the presidential agenda. But Peruvian media obtained video showing Jeri \u2014 his face obscured by a hoodie \u2014 entering a restaurant owned by a Chinese businessman, Zhihua Yang, late at night.<\/p>\n
The meeting was not documented in government records. More footage emerged of Jeri at the businessman\u2019s wholesale store, this time wearing dark sunglasses.<\/p>\n
Yang previously received a government concession under Boluarte to construct a hydroelectric plant. But he has faced scrutiny about the project\u2019s transparency and progress.<\/p>\n
A second Chinese businessman, Xiaodong Jiwu, was also allegedly at the meeting. He has been under house arrest for illegal activities.<\/p>\n
Jeri denied speaking to Jiwu, saying he simply served food. As for his meetings with Yang, Jeri said they were attempts to arrange a Chinese-Peruvian friendship event. He also excused his presence at Yang\u2019s businesses as shopping trips.<\/p>\n
Though Jeri has denied wrongdoing, prosecutors have launched an investigation into potential influence-peddling under his presidency.<\/p>\n
The scandal has become known as \u201cChifagate\u201d, named for the Chinese-Peruvian fusion cuisine called \u201cchifa\u201d.<\/p>\n
But the uproar comes as Peru faces pressure\u00a0from the United States to limit its relations with China. The US Department of State warned<\/a> this month that Chinese investment in the port of Chancay could leave the country \u201cpowerless\u201d over its own territory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Peru\u2019s Congress has voted to appoint former judge and left-wing lawmaker Jose Maria Balcazar\u00a0as interim president, replacing the right-wing leader Jose Jeri a day after his removal. Wednesday\u2019s vote ushers in Peru\u2019s ninth president in a decade. Balcazar\u2019s\u00a0term, however, will be short. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list In just 53 days, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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