# Boluarte legitimacy crisis and protest lethal force ## What this driver is [Boluarte](/people/dina-boluarte) legitimacy crisis is one continuing Peruvian mechanism: the 7 December 2022 succession after Pedro Castillo’s failed self-coup, the December 2022–January 2023 southern protest wave and lethal-force findings recorded by OHCHR, the fiscalía investigations that named the presidency in the chain of command, and the 10 October 2025 unanimous congressional vacancy for permanent moral incapacity. The driver is not Fujimori 1992 as a twin, not ukraine-war, and not [territorial-revisionism](/drivers/territorial-revisionism). Neighbouring mechanisms — Rolexgate, 2025 crime wave, later Jerí and Balcázar interims — can move with this file or against it. They do not replace it. A first-woman photograph is not this node. This node is the succession, the protest-force findings, and the 122–0 vacancy. It applies to Peru from 7 December 2022 through 10 October 2025. It is not a 2026 Fujimori election as her Contribution. The legal core is the 7 December 2022 congressional oath, the 14 December 2022 state of emergency, OHCHR’s 2023 findings on excessive use of force in Ayacucho, Andahuaylas, Chincheros and Juliaca, the 30 July 2024 prosecutor complaint neighbourhood against the government for protest deaths, and the 10 October 2025 122–0 vacancy. A campaign adjective does not change those texts. ## Mechanism The file moves welfare through named channels. First, a succession without an election. Castillo attempted to dissolve Congress on 7 December 2022 and was vacated the same day. Boluarte, then vice-president, was sworn. Pedro Castillo remains an unresolved person candidate. This run does not mint him. Second, lethal force. Protests demanding her resignation and new elections concentrated in the southern Andes. OHCHR recorded excessive use of force and deaths. Quote OHCHR. Do not invent a unique 49 or 60 as Contribution.size; if a number is contested, keep the edge on the OHCHR instrument. Third, investigation. In July 2024 the prosecutor’s office filed a complaint against the government for protest deaths. Status later shifted. Fourth, vacancy. On 10 October 2025 Congress voted 122–0 to declare the presidency vacant for permanent moral incapacity after a crime-and-unrest week. José Jerí was sworn. He remains unresolved. Fifth, command. A Peruvian president commands the national police and can declare emergencies. She does not sit as every PNP rifleman in Juliaca. Sharing a Congress that had just vacated Castillo is not a reason to drop the lethal-force rows. ## Evidence base The best evidence is the 7 December oath, OHCHR texts, and the 10 October 2025 vacancy vote. OHCHR press notes and later reports recorded excessive force. AP and BBC recorded the 2025 impeachment. Congreso.gob.pe carries the vacancy. Reuters recorded 7 December 2022. Evidence is strongest for the oath, the vacancy roll-call, and OHCHR language. It is weaker for any unique first-day death coefficient. It is weakest where a first-woman adjective is asked to replace Juliaca. ## Effect on welfare indicators This driver, when it actually runs, is a first-order channel into [civic-space](/drivers/civic-space) series only where a sourced path exists. An education, CPI, or WJP path does not follow from a Peruvian emergency without a sourced channel. Missing coefficients stay missing. This catalog does not clone family-template DII onto the node. The welfare sign of strengthening this driver is negative: lethal force against protesters and a vacancy that ended the term. That is the opposite of treating a first-woman sash as a unique later civic rebate. ## Interactions and contested points The mechanism interacts with Congress’s vacancy habit (Vizcarra, Castillo, Boluarte) and with later 2026 elections. Reinforcement is obvious when OHCHR force findings and a 122–0 vacancy sit in the same presidency. Offsetting is the claim that Castillo’s self-coup authorised every later death. Castillo’s 7 December act is a parent. It does not unwrite Juliaca. The strongest competing view is that she restored constitutional order after a coup. She was sworn under the succession line. OHCHR still recorded excessive force. Store both. A second competing view is that every later 2025 crime death is her unique coefficient. The 2025 crime wave sat as neighbouring weather that Congress cited in the vacancy debate. It is not converted here into a unique homicide integer from 7 December 2022. Rolexgate and gift investigations are neighbouring scandal instruments, not this lethal-force node as a twin. Established: 7 December 2022 oath; OHCHR excessive-force findings; 10 October 2025 122–0 vacancy. Not established: a unique death total as Contribution.size. A later conviction with a date would be a new fact. It would not rename this driver as a restored-order success. Keep 7 December 2022 off 10 October 2025. ## Dated facts - 2025: Congress vacates Boluarte 122–0 for permanent moral incapacity. https://factrail.ai/facts/pe-boluarte-vacancy-2025. Sources: https://apnews.com/article/peru-new-president-boluarte-impeached-b035018e67805cc917f3c4855d9696be, https://www.congreso.gob.pe/. - 2022: Boluarte government declares a 30-day state of emergency as southern protests spread. https://factrail.ai/facts/pe-boluarte-emergency-2022. Sources: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/05/peru-un-human-rights-chief-deplores-excessive-use-force-against-protesters, https://www.gob.pe/institucion/pcm/noticias. - 2022: Boluarte is sworn president hours after Congress vacates Castillo. https://factrail.ai/facts/pe-boluarte-oath-2022. Sources: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-president-castillo-dissolves-congress-2022-12-07/, https://www.congreso.gob.pe/. ## Methodology https://factrail.ai/methodology Canonical: https://factrail.ai/drivers/boluarte-legitimacy-crisis