Peru's Congress ousted on Tuesday with a large majority interim President Jose Jeri after only four months in office, following a scandal involving undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman – continuing the country's revolving door of leaders.
There were 75 lawmakers who voted in favor of removing Jeri, while 24 voted against and three abstained.
Legislators will now elect a new head of Congress who will also assume Peru's presidency, becoming the Andean nation's eighth president in as many years. Jeri is Peru's third consecutive president to be removed from office.
Ruth Luque, one of the lawmakers who backed the censure measures, said she wanted to replace Jeri with a leader who would put public interest and security first, ahead of a new president coming into office. Elections are due to take place on April 12.
"We ask to end this agony so we can truly create the transition citizens are hoping for," she said. "Not a transition with hidden interests, influence-peddling, secret meetings and hooded figures. We don't want that sort of transition."
