Peru 2026: the new fall of a president and the spectre of bourgeois stability

On 17 February 2026, the already broken republic of Peru added a new chapter to its long history of political instability. Congress, with 75 votes in favour, approved the censure and removal of President José Jerí, who had taken office just 130 days earlier following the departure of Dina Boluarte. The reason? A scandal known as ‘chifagate’: clandestine meetings between the president and Chinese businessmen, sparking suspicions of corruption.

José Jerí took office promising to combat public insecurity and end the political crisis. His arrival was the result of the very instability he claimed to be fighting: he was appointed after Boluarte's removal, in a process that has turned the Peruvian presidential seat into an electric chair that has seen eight presidents come and go in a decade. And who has their finger on the switch of this electric chair? Congress. Current regulations even indicate that a president can be removed or censured for ‘moral incapacity’. And who defines moral incapacity? Congress!

Jerí's protests that his removal was "anti-democratic" has an ironic ring given the state threw its last democratically elected president in jail for 11 years. It was in 2022 when this same body impeached and arrested Pedro Castillo after he tried to break the deadlock imposed on him by the capitalist state. Neither Bolourate or Jerí had any legitimacy to call themselves the President of Peru. Boluarte was only forced out by Congress to save the system after she reached a measly 2 percent approval rating when massive mobilizations and a general strike rocked the country.

What we are witnessing is the failure on the part of the Peruvian capitalist class to build a solid, lasting ruling bloc. Political parties no longer hide the fact that they have stopped serving the people; they are simply electoral machines at the service of factions of the ruling class or local strongmen: capital linked to large-scale mining, agro-exports, speculative financial capital, and a growing informal and illegal economy.

So, was it the people who brought down President Jerí? Did the marches and demonstrations work? Was it the opposition that censured him? No, a temporary opposition was created, made up of right-wing forces, from Fujimorismo to the Christian ultra-right of Renovación Popular, who did not waste the opportunity to present themselves as saviors, just two months before new presidential elections.

And the left? The parliamentary left, in pushing for his removal, fell into the trap of believing that changing the administrator in office would alter the balance of power within Congress. In reality, their action only paved the way for the right to rearrange the board in its own favour, presenting itself as the guarantor of ‘order’ and the ‘fight against corruption’.

What is behind ‘Chifagate’?

Peru has a long cultural and political history with China and Asia. Lima’s sprawling Chinatown is lined with Peruvian-Chinese restaurants, or chifas, and are where Jerí's secret meetings with Chinese businessmen of dubious reputation occurred.

Some of these characters had direct links to projects such as the Chancay megaport: a deep-sea port which will cut transit between China and Peru by 10 to 12 days, and is set to be linked to a railway to Brazil.

This is a key project meant to avoid the American-controlled Panama Canal. It’s this growing influence of Chinese capital which has angered layers of the Peruvian bourgeoisie and American imperialism. It is this, and not corruption – about which the imperialists and their stooges are indifferent – that really led to his downfall.

Lima’s sprawling Chinatown is lined with Peruvian-Chinese restaurants, where Jerí's secret meetings with Chinese businessmen occurred / Image: Miguel Angel Chong, Wikimedia Commons

Jerí tried to save face days before his removal, canceling the visit of a Chinese naval vessel and pivoting the Air Force to purchase 24 American made F-16 jets for $3.4 billion. This did not save him.

Peru is one of many battlegrounds in America's fight with China over Latin America. But what is the balance of forces? The American economy cannot absorb all the continent's commodities, and it's China that has not only bought Peruvian copper and gold, but has invested in the country, building infrastructure without the need for the bloody military coups the United States is known for. Still, this scandal shows the United States still carries a level of influence it can back up with military might.

For several months now, layers of the Peruvian bourgeoisie have been promoting the idea that Chinese capital is bad and that anything that comes from the United States is better. The new US ambassador to Peru, Bernie Navarro, has joined in. Through his social media accounts and media interviews, he has continuously denigrated Chinese investment and called on Peruvians to “defend their sovereignty.”

Not to be outdone, the aptly named ‘Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs’, tweeted: “Concerned about latest reports that Peru could be powerless to oversee Chancay, one of its largest ports, which is under jurisdiction of predatory Chinese owners,” adding, “Let this be a cautionary tale for the region and the world: cheap Chinese money costs sovereignty.”

And it’s on the basis of US imperialism’s urgings about ‘sovereignty’ that another Peruvian president has been ousted!

China vs. United States

It is only possible to scoff at all this talk of ‘sovereignty’ by US imperialism, given the role of US companies in environmental problems caused by mining, the deforestation of the rainforest by palm oil companies, and the direct role they played in overthrowing Pedro Castillo.

It is obvious Trump has sent their new ambassador Navarro on an anti-China mission, which is accompanied by a $1.5 billion agreement to modernise the Callao Naval Base, just 80 kilometers from the port of Chancay. China is Peru's main trading partner, but Peru has a long-standing politically and militarily subservient relationship to the United States. In this balance, the agreement to equip the Callao Naval Base is a sign of US interest in strengthening its strategic presence in South America.

Here, the difference in investment is stark: while China invested $3.5 billion in the port of Chancay without asking for a single dollar from the Peruvian government, the agreement to modernise the Naval Base involves the Peruvian state paying $1.5 billion to the US for the purchase of technology and consulting services.

Until a movement emerges that, as Mariátegui dreamed, joins the struggle of urban workers with the historical demands of peasant and indigenous communities in a project for a communist society, the permanent instability of capitalism will only grow.

The Peruvian crisis will not be resolved by changing presidents every few months, it will be resolved by changing the system that produces them. The fall of Jerí is not the end of the crisis, but a reminder that, for the vast majority, the real problem is not who occupies the Palace, but that the Palace always governs for the few.