Peru's interim president ousted after four months in office

LIMA — Peru’s Congress has ousted interim President José Jerí in an “express impeachment” just four months after he took office amid a political scandal over his secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen.The scandal, dubbed ‘Chifagate’, unfolded last month after security-camera footage emerged showing him in clandestine meetings with Chinese businessmen outside his official agenda, including one visit in which he appears to conceal his identity with a hooded top.Lawmakers voted by 75 votes to 24 to proceed with the removal of Jerí, who had been at the helm for just four months.Jerí, 39, was Peru’s eighth president since 2016 amid oustings, resignations and interim terms, in an unprecedented period of political instability.The acting speaker of Peru’s congress, Fernando Rospigliosi, said lawmakers would vote on Wednesday to decide who would replace Jerí just months before the country’s presidential elections in April.Jerí was initially popular but his approval rating collapsed amid the controversy and other scandals.Political parties that had backed him began to call for him to quit, seeking to distance themselves as election campaigning got under way.Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into alleged influence-peddling linked to the meetings with Yang Zhihua, a well-connected Chinese businessman who has lived in Peru for decades and has been under government scrutiny.Prosecutors say another Chinese citizen, Ji Wu Xiaodong, who was present at one of the meetings, is accused of belonging to an illegal timber-trafficking network known as Los Hostiles de la Amazonia and had been placed under house arrest for two years.Jerí also faces scrutiny for allegedly hiring unqualified young women who secured government jobs after late-night meetings at the presidential palace, based on its official entry-and-exit log.Several of them had also accompanied Jerí on multiple official trips on the presidential plane.Jerí previously apologized for the meetings, but denied any wrongdoing and accused his rivals of a public smear campaign.His removal from office makes him the third consecutive president to be ousted, after he replaced former leader Dina Boluarte, who was impeached in October last year.The shake-up at the top of Peruvian politics comes amid a tit-for-tat row between the US Trump administration’s newly appointed ambassador to Peru, Bernardo Navarro, and China.Jerí was Peru’s seventh president since 2016 amid a tumultuous political landscape that has seen a succession of leaders leave the post under contentious circumstances. — Agencies