Peru’s Congress approved a motion of censure against interim President José Jerí by 75 votes to 24 on Tuesday, February 17, 2026, removing him from office just four months after he assumed the presidency and weeks before a scheduled general election.
The vote passed with three abstentions, and Congress President Fernando Rospigliosi subsequently declared both the congressional and republican presidencies vacant, activating the constitutional succession mechanism. Lawmakers are expected to elect a new interim president on Wednesday, who will govern until July 28 when the winner of the April 12 general election assumes office.
Jerí’s removal was triggered by the “Chifagate” scandal, named after Peru’s Chinese-influenced cuisine. The controversy erupted after video footage emerged of Jerí attending an undisclosed late-night meeting with Chinese businessman Zhihua Yang at a Lima restaurant on December 26, with the president wearing a hood that partially obscured his face. A second meeting at a Chinese goods store on January 6, where Jerí arrived in sunglasses, deepened suspicion. Neither encounter appeared on his official presidential agenda, as required under Peruvian law.
Prosecutors also opened a preliminary investigation into alleged influence peddling tied to the hiring of nine young women in public institutions following meetings with Jerí at the presidential palace. Opposition lawmakers gathered sufficient signatures across seven separate censure motions to force the vote.
Jerí denied wrongdoing throughout, arguing the meetings were arranged to organise a Peruvian-Chinese cultural festivity. Last month he publicly apologised for how the encounters were conducted, acknowledging they had generated suspicion, but maintained no corrupt arrangement took place.
Jerí assumed the presidency in October 2025 following the removal of Dina Boluarte, who was herself dismissed on grounds of moral incapacity as violent crime gripped the country. Boluarte had replaced Pedro Castillo after Congress impeached him in December 2022 when he attempted to dissolve the legislature to avoid prosecution.
Despite a revolving door of presidents, Peru’s economy has remained relatively stable. The Andean nation carried a public debt to gross domestic product ratio of 32 percent in 2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and the government has continued to welcome foreign investment in mining and infrastructure. As Peru heads to the polls on April 12, conservative businessman and former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga leads a crowded field that also includes former legislator Keiko Fujimori, whose father Alberto governed Peru in the 1990s before being convicted on corruption and human rights charges.
