Peru's Congress removes interim President Jerí as he faces a corruption probe

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s Congress on Tuesday voted to remove interim President José Jerí from office as he faces corruption allegations, triggering a fresh wave of political instability just weeks before the nation’s April presidential and congressional elections.

Jerí is under a preliminary investigation into corruption and influence peddling, stemming from a series of undisclosed meetings with two Chinese executives.

With 75 votes in favor, 24 against and 3 abstentions, Peru’s legislature voted to remove Jerí from the position he had assumed on Oct. 10 when predecessor Dina Boluarte was dismissed as a crime wave gripped the country.

Jerí’s removal from office is the latest chapter in a prolonged political crisis in a country that has seen seven presidents since 2016, and is about to hold a general election amid widespread public outcry over the surge in violent crime.

Lawmakers will choose a new president from among their members to govern until July 28, when the interim leader will hand over the office to the winner of the April 12 presidential election. Jerí will return to his position as a legislator until July 28, when the new Congress also takes office.

A vote on the interim leader will take place on Wednesday, after lawmakers register their candidates.

The accusations against Jerí stemmed from a leaked report regarding a clandestine December meeting with two Chinese executives. One attendee holds active government contracts, while the other is currently under investigation for alleged involvement in an illegal logging operation.

Jerí has denied wrongdoing. He said he met the executives to organize a Peruvian-Chinese festivity, but his opponents have accused him of corruption.

Despite a revolving door of presidents, Peru’s economy has remained stable. The Andean nation had a public debt to gross domestic product ratio of 32% in 2024, one of the lowest in Latin America, and the government has welcomed foreign investment in areas like mining and infrastructure.

As Peru heads into this year’s general election, Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a conservative businessman and former mayor of Lima is leading a crowded field that also includes Keiko Fujimori, a well known former legislator whose father was Peru’s president in the 1990s. If none of the candidates gets 50% of the vote there will be a runoff in June between the top two contenders.

Lawmakers in Peru have gained increasing leverage over the nation's executive branch over the past decade, using corruption investigations to remove presidents who have struggled to build congressional majorities.

A clause in Peru's constitution that allows presidents to be removed if they are found “morally incapable” of leading the country has been broadly interpreted by legislators and has been used several times to vote presidents out of office.

Boluarte, Jerí's predecessor, lasted almost three years in office and survived violent protests in which police killed dozens of protesters. But she eventually was removed on moral incapacity grounds, with lawmakers citing the high crime rate and corruption scandals.

Pedro Castillo, a leftist union leaders who won the 2021 presidential election, was voted out of office by legislators in late 2022 after he tried to dissolve congress in order to skirt anti-corruption proceedings. Last year Castillo was sentenced to 11 years in prison for trying to overthrow the nation's institutions.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Demonstrators celebrate after Congress voted to remove interim President Jose Jeri as he faces corruption allegations outside the site where lawmakers met in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Photographed through a gate, Peru's President Jose Jeri, right, stands with Prime Minister Ernesto Alvarez during the changing of the guard ceremony at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerardo Marin)

Demonstrators celebrate after Congress voted to remove interim President Jose Jeri as he faces corruption allegations outside the site where lawmakers met in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Police stand guard outside the location where lawmakers are debating the removal of Peruvian President Jose Jeri in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

People protest against Peruvian President Jose Jeri outside the site where lawmakers are debating his removal in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Peru's President Jose Jeri applauds after attending the changing of the guard at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Gerardo Marin)

People protest against Peruvian President Jose Jeri outside the location where lawmakers are debating his removal in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. The sign reads in Spanish "President Jose Jeri, traitor, immoral, rapist of women," referring to a rape accusation case against the president that was dismissed by the prosecutor's office in August 2025. (AP Photo/Gerardo Marin)

The Congress building stands the day before lawmakers debate the removal of the nation's president in Lima, Peru, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia because a 90-day detention period has expired and the government has no viable plan for deporting him, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

The Salvadoran national’s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to his home country last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by Department of Homeland Security officials.

The government “made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, wrote in her Tuesday order. “From this, the Court easily concludes that there is no ‘good reason to believe’ removal is likely in the reasonably foreseeable future.”

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin criticized the ruling in an email.

“If this matter were actually about the law or due process, Kilmar Abrego Garcia would already be deported and would never set foot in this country again; Judge Xinis will not be satisfied until he is authorized to live in the United States forever," she wrote.

Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador because he faced danger there from a gang that had threatened his family. By mistake, he was deported there anyway last year.

Facing public pressure and a court order, President Donald Trump’s administration brought him back in June, but only after securing an indictment charging him with human smuggling in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty. Meanwhile, Trump officials have said he cannot stay in the U.S. In court filings, officials have said they intended to deport him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and Liberia.

In her Tuesday order, Xinis noted the government has “purposely — and for no reason — ignored the one country that has consistently offered to accept Abrego Garcia as a refugee, and to which he agrees to go.” That country is Costa Rica.

Abrego Garcia's attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, argued in court that immigration detention is not supposed to be a punishment. Immigrants can only be detained as a way to facilitate their deportation and cannot be held indefinitely with no viable deportation plan.

“Since Judge Xinis ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia released in mid-December, the government has tried one trick after another to try to get him re-detained,” Sandoval-Moshenberg wrote in an email on Tuesday. “In her decision today, she recognized that if the government were truly trying to remove Mr. Abrego Garcia from the United States, they would have sent him to Costa Rica long before today.”

The government should now engage in a good-faith effort to work out the details of removal to Costa Rica, Sandoval-Moshenberg wrote.

FILE - Kilmar Abrego Garcia speaks during a rally ahead of a mandatory check at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, Dec. 12, 2025, after he was released from detention on Thursday under a judge's order. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)