YURIMAGUAS, Peru
Far from the seat of power in Peru’s capital, Lima, Emerita Napo sits on a plastic stool selling cigarettes and candy in the sweltering Amazon city of Yurimaguas.
Like millions of Peruvians working in the informal economy, the 52-year-old street vendor and mother survives on small daily loans from unregistered money lenders to keep her kiosk stocked with goods.
“If I don’t borrow, I can’t work. There’s so much corruption in Peru,” she said.
Emerita Napo works informally as a street vendor in Yurimaguas, a city in Peru’s northern Amazon. Corruption and political dysfunction in Lima have left many like her in Peru’s provinces feeling disenfranchised. (Neil Giardino - Anadolu Agency)
Napo’s struggle is one echoed throughout Peru, where seven in ten people work informal jobs without contracts, benefits, or safety nets.
“We’re completely ignored out here. We need a leader who governs for the people in the provinces. The way things are in Lima right now, we hardly even know who’s running the country,” she said.
Blocks away, in Yurimaguas’ bustling market, Gilmer Lingan weighs bags of dried beans, grains, and spices at his dry goods stall.
Gilmer Lingan, 60, a dry goods vendor in Peru’s Amazon city of Yurimaguas, sells beans, grains, and spices from a market stall. (Neil Giardino - Anadolu Agency)
“I live hand to mouth, working to feed my family. Out here, we suffer because our politicians in Lima don’t represent us,” said Lingan, 60. “Our only hope is to kick out this corrupt congress,” he added.
Political turmoil in Lima
Nearly 700 kilometers (435 miles) away in Lima, a new chapter of political turmoil is unfolding after Peruvian lawmakers impeached President Dina Boluarte earlier this month for failing to rein in a wave of violent crime.
In her wake, Jose Jeri, a 38-year-old former lawyer and member of the conservative Somos Peru party, was hastily sworn in earlier this month, becoming Peru’s eighth leader in less than a decade.
Here in Yurimaguas and across the country’s historically marginalized provinces, the latest power shuffle in Lima has deepened long-standing frustration toward a political class widely seen as detached from the daily struggles of Peruvians in the Andes and Amazon regions.
Jeri, a political newcomer who briefly served as president of Congress before ascending to the presidency, is now tasked with steering the country toward national elections slated for next April amid rising crime, political turbulence and protests.
The corruption scandals, criminal allegations and civil unrest that toppled his predecessor, Boluarte, now threaten his own presidency.
Boluarte took office after her predecessor, Pedro Castillo, was impeached and arrested for attempting to suspend Congress and rule by decree. A populist hailing from the country’s Andean region, Castillo’s removal triggered political violence unseen in decades.
Deeply unpopular, with an approval rating that dipped below 3%, Boluarte’s tenure was tainted by scandals, including allegations she accepted Rolex watches in exchange for bribes, as well as accusations of abandoning her post for cosmetic surgery.
Surviving eight prior impeachment attempts, lawmakers finally vacated her post on grounds of “permanent moral incapacity” earlier this month.
Jeri now enters office with his own controversies, including a 2021 sexual assault accusation and separate allegations of corruption for illegal enrichment. He has denied wrongdoing in both cases.
Public anger and political distrust
“The people are furious with the current political parties, which are viewed as a corrupt, improvised, and indifferent political class,” said Alonso Cardenas, political science professor at Lima’s Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University.
Cardenas told Anadolu that a coalition of far-right and left-wing political parties in Peru’s unpopular Congress has gained significant control over the executive branch – reshaping state institutions to serve political and financial interests while limiting corruption probes.
As a result, he said, impunity has grown, enforcement against criminal enterprises has weakened, and institutional checks have been eroded.
“They don’t care about the people, they don’t care about the country, they don’t care about politics. It’s all about power and their ability to benefit from illegality,” he said.
Daily life in Yurimaguas, Peru, a port city in the Amazon department of Loreto. Despite the distance from the capital, residents said they feel the impact of political turmoil in Lima. (Neil Giardino - Anadolu Agency)
Analysts said that the weakening of Peru’s judiciary and law enforcement has allowed criminal networks to flourish, particularly in the country’s remote areas, where police presence is limited and drug trafficking, illegal logging, and mining are widespread.
While the central government’s absence has long defined life for millions in Peru’s provinces, in Lima, mounting anger over surging crime, extortion rackets, and economic instability has reached a tipping point.
In the first eight months of this year, small-scale extortion, often targeting business owners and bus drivers, has surged, with 18,385 complaints registered nationally – a rise of nearly 30% from last year, according to police data.
Gang violence and killings by hired hitmen have also increased. Since January, more than 1,684 homicides – over six per day – have been reported.
Protests and state response
Earlier this month, thousands of protesters led by student organizations, transportation workers, and civil groups held nationwide strikes to denounce worsening security conditions and corruption.
In Lima, violent clashes with security forces near the Congressional palace left more than 100 injured, including police officers. Prosecutors are now investigating the fatal shooting of 32-year-old rapper and protester Eduardo Ruiz, killed by an officer during the demonstrations.
Ruiz’s death has angered many Peruvians in the capital and beyond, who accuse the security forces of excessive use of force after 50 anti-government protesters – mainly in the country’s interior – were killed during demonstrations under Boluarte in 2023.
Jeri has refused calls to step down. In an address to Congress shortly after taking office, he pledged to “declare war on crime,” and in a post on US social media company X, he blamed violence on agitators “who infiltrated a peaceful demonstration to sow chaos.”
Jeri’s administration declared a 30-day state of emergency in Metropolitan Lima last week, allowing the Armed Forces to assist police operations in efforts to combat criminal networks.
Beyond securing his own political survival, analysts said Jeri’s main tasks now are to maintain public confidence in his transitional government, demonstrate independence from Congress, and safeguard stability over the next six months to avoid deeper unrest.
“Peru is not just any country. It has unique resources that are being destroyed by corruption, incompetence, and by a weakened political system. The world should be paying attention to what’s happening here because sooner or later, there will be global implications,” warned Cardenas.
Voices from the Amazon
As political crisis grips Lima, in the remote Amazon department of Loreto, many experience firsthand the corruption fueling neglect and insecurity as illegal mining and logging encroach on their territories.
Halber Huinapi, an Indigenous Shawi farmer from Peru’s Amazon, decries political instability in Lima and hopes to see an end to corruption and more government representation in his remote region. (Neil Giardino - Anadolu Agency)
In the Indigenous Shawi village of Louis Terry, farmer Halber Huinapi, 33, has followed the political unrest roiling Lima – a city he has never visited – by listening to the radio.
“The Peruvian government has never given us anything. We’re abandoned out here. We want politicians who aren’t thieves, we want to live in peace and harmony, is that so much to ask?” said Huinapi.
