Breaking | Peru removes president Jose Jeri in ‘Chifagate’ scandal tied to China contractor

Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to remove President Jose Jeri from office following a series of undisclosed late-night meetings at a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese state contractor, setting off a political scandal dubbed “Chifagate”, a reference to the country’s Chinese-Peruvian fusion cuisine.

Lawmakers voted 75-24, with three abstentions, to censure Jeri over the unregistered encounters with businessman Zhihua Yang, whose companies have supplied the state and who owns the restaurant and a wholesale outlet in Lima.

The vote took place during an extraordinary session in which seven censure motions, filed between January 21 and January 27, were admitted and debated together. An attempt by Jeri’s party, Somos Peru, to argue that only a presidential vacancy procedure could remove him was defeated 71-34.

Congressional leaders said a new head of Congress would be elected on Wednesday evening and then assume the presidency under constitutional succession rules.

Jeri did not attend the debate, maintaining that the censure process denied him the right to mount a defence.

More to follow …