The most unpopular president in the hemisphere is finally ousted in Peru. And Venezuela’s opposition leader wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
Dina Boluarte, Latin America’s most unpopular leader, ousted in Peru
President Dina Boluarte of Peru had few friends and many enemies. Once a progressive, her brutal repression of popular protests in 2023, which left 69 people dead, turned her into a despised figure among her former supporters.
Conservatives disliked her as well, making her the region’s least popular president. Yet she survived in office thanks to an alliance with right-wing lawmakers who tolerated her in exchange for political favors.
That fragile, backroom alliance collapsed on Thursday as Peru’s spiraling security crisis made Boluarte’s position untenable. The final straw came when gunmen opened fire with machine guns on cumbia band Agua Marina as they performed live in Lima. Six people were wounded, including several of the band’s musicians, and the fallout set Peru’s presidential merry-go-round spinning once again.
Shortly after the attack, the Renovación Popular caucus in Congress filed multiple motions to impeach Boluarte. The party is led by the mayor of Lima, Rafael López Aliaga, a religious conservative seen as a leading contender in next year’s presidential election. Other right-wing groups — including Fuerza Popular, led by Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former dictator Alberto Fujimori — swiftly joined the effort, signaling they would no longer block Boluarte’s removal.
With the left already eager to see her go, Boluarte’s fate was sealed. In a late-night session, Peru’s unicameral Congress unanimously voted to impeach her for “moral incapacity,” the same constitutional clause used to oust three Peruvian presidents in the past decade.
JosĂ© JerĂ, the head of Congress, is expected to serve as caretaker president until new elections are held on April 12 next year. Any form of temporary stability in the Peruvian presidency is unlikely, however, as JerĂ himself battles rape accusations.
His ability to govern will likely be tested. A fragmented legislature (JerĂ’s party controls just 10 of the 130 congressional seats) with approval ratings in the single digits all but ensures that erratic policymaking will continue to be the norm in Peruvian politics.
Boluarte declined an invitation to defend herself before lawmakers — an offer that appeared purely symbolic, as she was given only one hour to prepare. Her team denounced the process as unconstitutional, though their protests are unlikely to have any effect whatsoever.
👉 Why it matters. Peru has cycled through eight presidents in the past decade, jailing most of its leaders since the return of democracy — a stark sign of institutional decay. Persistent political fragmentation and widespread mistrust have left the country’s future uncertain. While crime often benefits right-wing candidates politically, public frustration in Peru runs much deeper, fueled by unpopular pension reforms and an amnesty for human rights violations committed under past right-wing governments.
Boluarte first came to power as the running mate of leftist Pedro Castillo, a rural teacher who unexpectedly won the presidency in 2021. His chaotic administration collapsed when he tried to dissolve Congress by decree to avoid impeachment — an act widely condemned as a self-coup.
As vice president, Boluarte rose to the presidency after Castillo’s arrest. But her violent crackdown on protesters and a series of corruption scandals quickly destroyed her legitimacy, leaving her as yet another casualty of Peru’s relentless political turmoil.
NOBEL
Opposition leader MarĂa Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize
Whether Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro manages to cling to power or not, opposition leader MarĂa Corina Machado has already secured her place in history. The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded Machado the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, recognizing her struggle for democracy.
“She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the committee said. “As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
Machado has been in hiding since 2024, when Maduro blatantly stole a presidential election following years of mounting authoritarianism — including banning her candidacy earlier that year, which forced moderate diplomat Edmundo González to run in her place.
Despite widespread unpopularity and polls showing a decisive defeat, Maduro claimed a narrow victory on election night, refusing to release any voting-center receipts and citing alleged “terrorist attacks” on the government-controlled electoral authority.
A few hours later, Machado unmasked the deception. Her team organized a parallel vote count using physical receipts collected from polling stations across the country. Published online days later, the results suggested González had in fact defeated Maduro by a resounding 37 percentage points.
“We have collected receipts from 84% of voting centers so far,” Machado told supporters at a rally shortly before a government crackdown forced her into hiding. As citizens approached the stage to hand her more receipts, she declared: “This is irrefutable proof that we won — and that Edmundo González is our new president-elect.”
A right-wing firebrand, Machado is one of many opposition figures targeted by Maduro. Centrist Henrique Capriles was banned from running for office for 15 years on corruption charges; hard-liner Leopoldo LĂłpez fled into exile after organizing anti-government protests in 2014; and hundreds of lesser-known activists have been detained.
Machado distinguished herself as the most uncompromising of the lot. While other figures, including Capriles, eventually assumed the role of a “controlled opposition,” she continued to lead large street demonstrations and denounce Venezuela’s economic collapse — one of the deepest in modern Latin American history.
Her clash with Venezuela’s left dates back to the Hugo Chávez era (1999-2013), when she met with US President George W. Bush at the height of tensions between Washington and Caracas. She also famously confronted Chávez during one of his last public appearances before his death in 2013.
After Chávez died in 2013, Maduro took over and accused Machado of plotting to assassinate him, citing allegedly intercepted emails as evidence. Google later confirmed that the emails had been fabricated.
As Venezuela’s crisis deepened — leaving nine out of 10 citizens in poverty and forcing roughly one-quarter of the population to flee — Machado’s stature grew, even among disillusioned former Chávez supporters and critics of the traditional right, which lost credibility after staging a failed 2002 coup attempt to oust Chávez.
👉 Why it matters. Machado’s Nobel win gives her an unprecedented international platform and strengthens her domestic legitimacy, at a time when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is openly advocating regime change in Caracas. While Maduro has shown little hesitation in persecuting political opponents, imprisoning or killing a recent Nobel laureate could prove a step too far even for him.
Though Machado has built relationships with leaders from both major US parties, she has drawn closer to Donald Trump since his 2024 election victory. The US president has deployed naval operations off Venezuela’s coast, ostensibly to combat drug trafficking tied to the Maduro regime — a move that has raised concerns among Democrats.
With the Venezuelan military still firmly under Maduro’s control, the opposition’s hopes of foreign intervention remain alive but uncertain. Even Trump — and many of his advisers — appear wary of thrusting the US into another armed conflict in Latin America.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK
MarĂa Corina Machado is the 18th Latin American person to win a Nobel Prize. But which of these countries in the region has never had a winner?
- Argentina
- Brazil
- Guatemala
- Peru
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