By Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) -&nbsp;Peru&nbsp;swore&nbsp;in a&nbsp;new&nbsp;president&nbsp;on&nbsp;Wednesday&nbsp;after&nbsp;a&nbsp;day&nbsp;of&nbsp;political&nbsp;drama&nbsp;that&nbsp;saw&nbsp;leftist&nbsp;leader&nbsp;Pedro&nbsp;Castillo&nbsp;arrested&nbsp;after&nbsp;his&nbsp;ousting&nbsp;from&nbsp;office&nbsp;in an&nbsp;impeachment&nbsp;trial&nbsp;following&nbsp;his&nbsp;last-ditch&nbsp;bid&nbsp;to&nbsp;cling&nbsp;to&nbsp;power&nbsp;by&nbsp;dissolving&nbsp;Congress.
Ignoring&nbsp;Castillo's attempt to shut down the legislature by decree, lawmakers moved ahead with a previously planned&nbsp;impeachment&nbsp;trial, with 101 votes in favor of removing him, six against and 10 abstentions.
The result was announced to loud cheers, and the legislature called on Vice&nbsp;President&nbsp;Dina Boluarte to take&nbsp;office.
The 60-year-old Boluarte was sworn in as&nbsp;president&nbsp;through 2026, making her the first woman to lead&nbsp;Peru. She called for a&nbsp;political&nbsp;truce&nbsp;after&nbsp;months of instability, including two prior&nbsp;impeachment&nbsp;attempts, and said a&nbsp;new&nbsp;cabinet inclusive of all&nbsp;political&nbsp;stripes would be formed.
She lambasted&nbsp;Castillo's move to dissolve&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;as an "attempted coup."
The public ministry said on&nbsp;Wednesday&nbsp;evening that&nbsp;Castillo&nbsp;had been detained and accused of the crimes of "rebellion" and "conspiracy" for breaking the constitutional order.
Television outlets showed&nbsp;Castillo&nbsp;leaving a police station and reported he would be moved to a police-run prison.
Castillo&nbsp;earlier had said he would temporarily shut down&nbsp;Congress,&nbsp;launch a "government of exception," and call for&nbsp;new&nbsp;legislative elections.
That sparked resignations by&nbsp;his&nbsp;ministers amid angry accusations&nbsp;from&nbsp;both opposition politicians and&nbsp;his&nbsp;allies that he was attempting a coup. The police and armed forces warned him that the route he had taken to try to dissolve&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;was unconstitutional and the police said they had "intervened" to fulfill their duties.
Some small street protests took place. In Lima, dozens of people waving&nbsp;Peruvian flags cheered&nbsp;Castillo's downfall, while elsewhere in the capital and in the city of Arequipa&nbsp;his&nbsp;supporters marched and clashed with police. One held a sign saying: "Pedro, the people are with you."
Dozens of police&nbsp;officers with shields and plastic helmets were deployed around the Government Palace and&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;in Lima, which were surrounded by metal barricades.
U.S. WELCOMES&nbsp;NEW&nbsp;GOVERNMENT
Peru&nbsp;has gone through years of&nbsp;political&nbsp;turmoil, with multiple&nbsp;leaders accused of corruption, frequent&nbsp;impeachment&nbsp;attempts, and&nbsp;presidential terms cut short.
The latest legal battle began in October, when the prosecutor's&nbsp;office&nbsp;filed a constitutional complaint against&nbsp;Castillo&nbsp;for allegedly leading "a criminal organization" to profit&nbsp;from&nbsp;state contracts and for obstructing investigations.
Congress&nbsp;summoned&nbsp;Castillo&nbsp;last&nbsp;week to respond to accusations of "moral incapacity" to govern.
Castillo&nbsp;has called the allegations "slander" by groups seeking "to take advantage and seize the&nbsp;power&nbsp;that the people took&nbsp;from&nbsp;them at the polls."
The 53-year-old&nbsp;leftist&nbsp;teacher-turned-president&nbsp;had survived two previous attempts to impeach him since he began&nbsp;his&nbsp;term in July 2021.
But&nbsp;after&nbsp;Wednesday's attempt to dissolve Congress&nbsp;his&nbsp;allies abandoned him and regional&nbsp;powers underlined the need for democratic stability.
"The United States categorically rejects any extra-constitutional act by&nbsp;President&nbsp;Castillo&nbsp;to prevent Congress&nbsp;from&nbsp;fulfilling its mandate," the U.S. ambassador to&nbsp;Peru, Lisa Kenna, wrote on Twitter.
Later on&nbsp;Wednesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department welcomed Boluarte's appointment in a statement, adding that the United States would "support&nbsp;Peru&nbsp;under the unity government&nbsp;President&nbsp;Boluarte pledged to form."
The turmoil rattled markets in the world's number two copper producer, though analysts said that the removal of&nbsp;Castillo, who has battled a hostile&nbsp;Congress&nbsp;since taking&nbsp;power, could eventually be positive.
"Peru's financial markets will suffer, but won't collapse, thanks mainly to solid domestic fundamentals," said Andres Abadia at Pantheon Macroeconomics.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Sarah Morland; Writing by Adam Jourdan and Valentine Hilaire; Editing by Anthony Esposito, Rosalba O'Brien, Robert Birsel)

you might like

New Peru president sworn in, predecessor Castillo arrested