Peru gets third President in just one week

Peru’s Congress has decided to make legislator Francisco Sagasti as the Andean country’s guardian president, in an effort to defuse an acute political dilemma after angry demonstrations and the resignation of two presidents in the past week.

People called the nation’s red-and-white flag and sounded horns outside the doors of Congress on Monday as the 76-year-old Sagasti, from the centrist Morado Party, obtained enough ballots to supervise Congress. This suggests he will consider the presidency of Peru before national elections announced for April.

Sagasti will be Peru’s third president in just a week, after interim leader Manuel Merino quit on Sunday, five days after being declared in following the impeachment of centrist Martin Vizcarra.

The replacement of Vizcarra, who was familiar with many Peruvians but outraged legislators with his potential for anti-corruption actions and efforts to control parliamentary privilege, sparked days of demonstrations that started to the deaths of two men.

“Today is not a day of recognition,” Sagasti replied, seeming a dull tone in his first words after obtaining a position in Congress. “We cannot return back, bring them back to life, but we can demand action from Congress, from the administrator, so that this does not happen again.”

Sagasti, a former World Bank executive and engineer, faces a formidable challenge to make adherence to Peru, which was already difficult hit by COVID-19 and travelling for its most serious economic contraction in a century.