Thread by @reginacp90

There’s some confusion about why it was a coup and not an impeachment even though it was done ‘constitutionally’ and without the use of force. I will try to explain what’s happening down in Peru 🇵🇪 a thread 🧵

Congress used an article of the Peruvian constitution that allows congress to ‘impeach’ a president because of ‘moral incapacity.’ This article is from 1839 when we had less than 20 years as a republic and when the word ‘moral’ was used as a synonym for ‘mental’

The constitution doesn’t explain what ‘moral incapacity’ is and is open to interpretation. It’s fairly easy to use; congress just needs any reason for presenting a motion for the president’s moral incapacity and 87 votes to support it (Peruvian congress has 130 congresspersons)

Although it is fairly easy to present the motion, it’s not easy to get the 87 votes. Usually, there would be congresspersons from the president’s party who would make a case for the president and vote against the motion. In this case, the president didn’t have a party

In 2016, we elected a president who ended up resigning at his 2nd motion of moral incapacity (2018), the VP (Vizcarra) took his place. He fought against an obstructionist congress who only took care of their interests and left behind the Peruvian people’s needs and interests

In 2019, President Vizcarra closed up the congress using constitutional means and called for congressional elections. The new congresspersons (no one from the president’s party) started around the same time the pandemic began. They ended up being worse than the previous congress

Since the new congress is transitional until the general elections (April ’21), they are seeking every possible way to stay in power and postpone the elections for personal benefit since 68 of them have trials under investigation and currently benefit from immunity

In summary, the president doesn’t have congressional support, and we have congresspersons who are only interested in their personal benefit. They just need a reason and 87 votes for the president’s impeachment

The first attempt of impeachment for moral incapacity was in Sept 2020, and it didn’t go through. In October 2020, some congresspersons started a new process of impeachment, which went through in Nov. Two attempts of impeachment in less than two months (told ya it was easy to do)

The president already accepted the result and left the governmental palace. So, what happens now? The President of Congress will be the new president (someone who hasn’t even finished college) and congress will choose the new members of the constitutional court and the ministries

They will choose people who will benefit and protect them. Meaning that they will have people in the Executive and Legislative branch, with the constitutional court reading the constitution in their favor and will use the pandemic as an excuse for postponing the elections

So why is this a coup and not an impeachment? Because it was based on an unconstitutional reading of the constitution from congress to maintain power for personal benefit. It’s basically a coup disguised as impeachment but was never in favor of democracy

I tried to keep it simple since there’s a lot of nuances here and there. Removing the president during a pandemic, when we’ve lost about 35K people (official record, but we know there are more) and 5 months from general elections is something we don’t deserve

President Vizcarra will need to answer for his ongoing investigations but not now. This is probably the end of democracy in Peru for a while, and it happened in the middle of a health emergency and during a political and educational change. We don’t deserve this

I apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors. I’m still in shock for everything that happened but wanted to explain the reasoning of why this is a coup and not an impeachment