Is what Castillo attempted a coup?
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(CNN Spanish) --
Before being arrested, the now former president Pedro Castillo announced the dissolution of the Peruvian Congress and expressed his intentions —already truncated— to govern by decree law, a measure that has vast precedents in the country, including the called a "self-coup" by former President Alberto Fujimori in 1992.
The Constitution of Peru gives the president the power to dissolve Congress "if it has censured or denied its confidence to two Councils of Ministers", something that has not happened in the country in this case, for which reason Castillo de Dissolving Parliament was considered an unconstitutional measure, according to the consensus of constitutional analysts in that country.
Who is Pedro Castillo and what did he do as president of Peru?
Congress, despite Castillo's intentions, met, approved a vacancy motion against him, and the former president was subsequently arrested.
Martín Vizcarra was the last president who, in 2019, decided to dissolve the Congress of the Andean country.
However, the cases are not comparable according to experts such as lawyer Aníbal Quiroga, who told CNN that this was done "constitutionally" although "in a doubtful manner."
At that time, the historian Daniel Parodi Revoredo explained in a text published by El Comercio of Peru that the dissolution of the Legislative Power has been a "common place" in the course of the 20th century and made a count of at least seven cases.
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The Congress of Peru approved the vacancy motion against Pedro Castillo 1:48
Fujimori's "self-coup" in 1992
The previous antecedent is the so-called "self-coup" of the then president Alberto Fujimori in 1992. Fujimori intervened all the powers of the State and with the closure of Congress, the Judiciary and the Public Ministry, he concentrated power in himself and ruled without restrictions.
For opponents, that decision turned a democratic president into a dictator, while for his followers it was what allowed the hyperinflation that was plaguing the country at the time and the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso to end.
The first dissolution of the century took place in 1919, according to Parodi, when the then opposition presidential candidate Augusto Leguía, with the support of law enforcement, dissolved the Legislative Branch and called a Constituent Congress.
The next instance, which he qualifies as "somewhat sui generis", occurred in 1936 and was when Óscar Benavides ignored the triumph of Luis Antonio Eguiguren and Congress decided to "self-dissolve and extend Benavides' mandate until 1939. Since then, the authoritarian general ruled by decree."
The next two closures of Congress occurred in 1948 and 1962, by action of Generals Manuel Arturo Odría and the duo of Ricardo Pérez Godoy and Nicolás Lindley López, respectively.
In the 1960s there was one more dissolution, in 1968, at the hands of General Juan Velasco Alvarado.
The cases are not all the same, because in some the generals wanted to maintain "the democratic appearance by electing congresses absolutely addicted to their respective regimes", while in others they ruled directly by decree.