{"id":600468,"date":"2026-02-19T06:59:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/600468\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:59:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:59:11","slug":"jose-maria-balcazar-becomes-perus-interim-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/600468\/","title":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Balc\u00e1zar becomes Peru’s interim leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIMA, Peru (AP) \u2014 Peru\u2019s Congress late Wednesday elected legislator Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Balc\u00e1zar as the country\u2019s eighth president in a decade<\/a>, replacing another interim leader who was ousted the previous day<\/a> over corruption allegations just four months into his term.<\/p>\n

Balc\u00e1zar, an 83-year-old former judge representing the leftist Per\u00fa Libre party, defeated three other candidates<\/a> with a majority of the 130-member legislature. <\/p>\n

The revolving-door presidency in Peru reflects a political crisis fueled by a lack of legislative majorities for leaders. Lawmakers have frequently used a broad interpretation of a constitutional article regarding \u201cpermanent moral incapacity\u201d to remove sitting presidents. <\/p>\n

Balc\u00e1zar, a retired judge with nearly 30 years of experience in the judiciary, was sworn in shortly after the vote by the president of the Congress, Fernando Rospigliosi.<\/p>\n

He will govern for five months before handing over power to the winner of upcoming elections. Peruvians will choose a new president and legislature on April 12. If no presidential candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the two front-runners will advance to a runoff in June.<\/p>\n

Balc\u00e1zar\u2019s successor will confront a surge in murders and extortion that continues to devastate small business owners and the working class.<\/p>\n

Various political groups are demanding firm guarantees for a transparent election.<\/p>\n

Balc\u00e1zar told journalists that he will ensure that the upcoming elections are \u201cunquestionable,\u201d that macroeconomic policies will remain unchanged, along with sound monetary policy \u201cso that economic agents can work without concern,\u201d and that he will seek to refocus the fight against organized crime.<\/p>\n

Congress had voted Tuesday to remove conservative interim President Jos\u00e9 Jer\u00ed after four months in office. The current Congress, which began its term in 2021, has now impeached three heads of state: Pedro Castillo, Dina Boluarte and Jer\u00ed.<\/p>\n

In October 2025, Jer\u00ed was serving as president of Congress and was next in the line of succession to replace Boluarte, who had no vice presidents.<\/p>\n

His own removal<\/a> followed revelations regarding his undisclosed meetings with Chinese business owners<\/a>, including a state contractor. Jer\u00ed asserted he was merely coordinating a Peruvian-Chinese festival.<\/p>\n

The Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office has launched two preliminary investigations into Jer\u00ed over allegations of illegal sponsorship of private interests and influence-peddling to the detriment of the state.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LIMA, Peru (AP) \u2014 Peru\u2019s Congress late Wednesday elected legislator Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Balc\u00e1zar as the country\u2019s eighth president…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":600469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7373,1613,17628,82642,90,175356,57,6604,149573,258636,1612,50,149572,3416,82644,80,4217,103,107],"class_list":["post-600468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-2026-elections","tag-central-america","tag-corruption","tag-dina-boluarte","tag-elections","tag-fernando-rospigliosi","tag-general-news","tag-international-news","tag-jos-jer","tag-jos-mara-balczar","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-pedro-castillo","tag-peru","tag-peru-government","tag-politics","tag-south-america","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116096006667997709","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}