Peru's Congress votes to remove President Boluarte as crime wave grips country
Lima (AP): Peru's Congress voted to remove deeply unpopular President Dina Boluarte from office as a crime wave grips the South American nation.
Lawmakers had voted to accept four requests for a vote to remove Boluarte from office over what they said is her government's inability to stem crime.
They exceeded the minimum 56 votes required for each request, setting up a debate and impeachment trial in the 130-member unicameral Congress.
Lawmakers then requested that Boluarte come before them on Thursday shortly before midnight to defend herself, but when she did not appear they immediately voted to oust her. In short order, 124 lawmakers voted just past midnight to impeach Boluarte.
The shocking turn of events came just hours after a shooting at a concert in the capital inflamed anger over crime roiling the South American nation.
Unlike eight previous attempts to remove her, almost all legislative factions expressed support for the latest requests.
Boluarte took office in December 2022 after Parliament used the same mechanism to impeach her predecessor.
Boluarte's government has struggled to respond to the spike in crime, particularly homicides and extortion. On Wednesday, she partially blamed the situation on immigrants living in the country illegally.
“This crime has been brewing for decades and has been strengthened by illegal immigration, which past administrations haven't defeated," she said during a military ceremony. “Instead, they've opened the doors of our borders and allowed criminals to enter everywhere... without any restrictions.”
Official figures show that 6,041 people were killed between January and mid-August, the highest number during the same period since 2017. Meanwhile, extortion complaints totalled 15,989 between January and July, a 28 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
The country's latest presidential crisis erupted after a man opened fire and injured five people Wednesday during a concert of Peru's most popular cumbia groups, Agua Marina.
Prime Minister Eduardo Arana on Thursday defended Boluarte during a crime-focused hearing before Parliament, but it was not enough to dissuade lawmakers from pursuing the motions to see the president out of office.
“Parliament's concerns are not resolved by addressing a request for impeachment, much less by approving it,” Arana told lawmakers. “We are not clinging to our positions. We are here, and we knew from the beginning that our first day here could also be our last day in office.”
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No benefit for K'taka from union budget: Deputy CM Shivakumar
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Sunday said that there was no benefit for the state from the union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament.
He, however, said that he is yet to go through the budget in detail.
"There is no benefit for our state from the central budget. I was observing it. They have named a programme after Mahatma Gandhi now (after repealing the MGNREGA act that was named after Gandhi) ," Shivakumar said.
Speaking to reporters here, he demanded that the MGNREGA act be restored, as he also made it clear that the new rural employment legislation -- VB-G RAM G -- that has been enacted with a 60:40 percent fund sharing formula between the Centre and state governments, cannot be implemented.
"I don't see any major share for our state from this budget," he added.
Stating that there were expectations for Bengaluru from the central budget, Shivakumar, who is also the Minister in-charge of the city's development, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called it a "global city", "but what has the central government done for it."
He further pointed out at the troubles that sugar factories, especially those from the cooperative sector, face, due to alleged lack of decisions or measures by the central government to help them.
The Centre has the right to fix MSP for the farmers' produce. "They will have to take necessary measures to help the farmers," Shivakumar added.
