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“I no longer want to list it in my biography,” said former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. “Being the president of Peru is a joke.”

Another Leader Flails in Peru, the Worst Place to Be President

By Carla Samon Ros

April 27, 2026 at 9:00 AM UTC

The job has all of the trappings of power but none of the actual authority. One false move can lead to a public and unceremonious firing — and possibly a jail term.

Peru is earning a reputation as the worst place in the world to be president.

“I no longer want to list it in my biography,” said former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. “Being the president of Peru is a joke.”

The country’s executive branch reached new depths of impotence last week when the military forced through a $2 billion contract for 12 fighter jets over the objections of the country’s interim leader. It was just the latest insult to an office where every person elected over the past three decades has been impeached, imprisoned or targeted in criminal investigations.

Voters will determine in a runoff election in June who will succeed feckless acting President Jose Maria Balcázar, 83, if he’s still in the job by then. The winning candidate will inherit an economy that has continued to expand despite the political turmoil, but he or she will have a short leash from a powerful Congress, limiting the ability to implement real and lasting policy.

“Respect for the presidency has vanished and the state has lost its direction,” said former Prime Minister Mercedes Aráoz. The fighter jet saga, she added, shows how Peru’s revolving-door presidency only leads to one makeshift decision after another.

Balcázar agreed last week to buy the slate of F-16 jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. following pressure from the US, as well as his own military, cabinet and congressional leadership. He had previously announced multiple times that he would defer a decision on the matter to his successor, which led to chatter in Congress that he could be impeached.

Former leaders and experts say the Peruvian presidency has been weakened in recent years on multiple fronts, with impeachment always on the horizon. A constitutional mechanism lets Congress remove presidents if they have shown “permanent moral incapacity.” Whatever that means is up to lawmakers to decide.

“It’s an invention that no one can really define and it creates instability,” said Kuczynski, whose presidency kicked off the current era of rancorous Peruvian politics. He stepped down in March 2018 following two impeachment attempts by the opposition-held Congress over his alleged business with Odebrecht SA, a construction company known for bribing political leaders across Latin America.

Since then, no Peruvian president has lasted even three years, with some that hung on only a few months and one even less than a week.

Under Pressure

Peru’s plans to buy new fighter jets began in 2024 and spanned three presidencies, with Balcázar taking office only in February and set to depart in July, following general elections.

All was set to sign the contract with Lockheed on April 17. But the president canceled the signing ceremony just hours before it started, irking Washington, with US ambassador to Peru Bernie Navarro saying that his country would use “every available tool” against those who “deal with the US in bad faith and undermine US interests.”

Over the next few days, Balcázar went on a local media tour to deny rumors that the deal was a done deed. The lawmaker from a far-left party said such a big decision involving debt needed be made by a president chosen through popular vote, not someone like him just temporarily filling a seat by congressional appointment.

As recently as April 20, Balcázar had proclaimed that “Nothing has been signed.” But Peruvian defense officials signed the contract that same day, despite the role of the president as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The ministers of defense and foreign affairs resigned early Wednesday, while some lawmakers started discussing impeachment motions. Hours later, and following a visit from Ambassador Navarro to the prime minister’s office, the government folded. The Finance Ministry confirmed what the president had denied: it paid $462 million to meet the contract’s first deadline.

Balcázar’s ministers appear to be the ones who stepped in to impose order, beholden to the parliamentary coalitions that confirmed them only two weeks ago, said political analyst Carlos Meléndez.

“Peru is a presidential system on paper, but a de facto parliamentarism in practice,” he said. “Congress ultimately makes the decisions and determines who governs.”

Super Congress

Peru’s Congress appoints the top judges who rule on the constitutionality of laws. It can also pass bills that impose major expenses on the executive branch, a practice that had been banned in the past but was allowed in a 2022 ruling by nation’s top court.

Just in the past few months, lawmakers have passed a dozen regulations that will cost Peru, long lauded for its low debt, more than $3 billion a year, according to the Fiscal Council, a publicly-funded fiscal watchdog.

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The growing influence of Congress, the president’s weakness and constant clashes between the two powers show no sign of ending anytime soon. In a country with deep political distrust, Peru’s next president will have little popular support. Conservative presidential hopeful Keiko Fujimori won the first round of the election with only 17% of the vote. Her still-unknown contender in the June 7 runoff received even less.

Peru’s electoral authority is now reviewing hundreds of thousands of challenged ballots that will decide whether Fujimori faces leftist Roberto Sánchez or far-right populist Rafael López Aliaga.

Read More: Leftist Holds Shaky Lead in Race to Peru Presidential Runoff (1)

The next president will also face a stronger Congress as the nation returns to bicameralism for the first time in more than three decades. The restoration of the Senate is intended to raise the bar for impeachment by requiring support from both chambers. But without a parliamentary majority, the new leader will likely face the same governing difficulties that have affected every leader in Peru’s recent history.

Only a Fujimori victory could usher in a more stable situation, Meléndez said, since her party is set to hold one of the largest minorities in both chambers. Otherwise, “the president will continue to be a hostage to whoever controls Congress.”

— With assistance from Marcelo Rochabrun

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5860984&forum_id=2.#49846350)