Peru's president removed from office after attempting to dissolve Congress

What happened: Castillo announced he was dissolving Congress as lawmakers debated whether to impeach him.

• The president justified his decree by arguing Congress was overstepping its power.
• Ignoring Catillo's announcement, lawmakers voted 101-6 to remove him from office and named Vice President Dina Boluarte as interim leader. Ten lawmakers abstained from the vote.

Catch up quick: Castillo had previously survived two other impeachment attempts.

• He and his family are being investigated for allegedly taking bribes in exchange for government contracts.
• Castillo's sister-in-law was temporarily jailed in August as part of the investigations, and Castillo, who denies wrongdoing, faces five more criminal cases, according to the attorney general's office.

Between the lines: Peru's national ombudsman’s office denounced Castillo’s move on Wednesday to dissolve Congress as an attempted coup, but Eduardo Gamarra, a professor at Florida International University, told AP that because the country's Congress can remove the president and the president has the ability to dissolve Congress, “technically, it is not a coup."

• “The confusion is in the 15,000 interpretations that exist about who prevails, the Congress or the president,” he said.

Flashback: Peru's Congress has been dissolved before, most recently in 2019 by President Martín Vizcarra, who was eventually removed from office.

• Peru's legislature was dissolved in April 1992 in an act infamously known as "the self-coup d'Etat" of Alberto Fujimori. Congressional leaders were put under house arrest.
• Fujimori went on to entrench himself in power, staying until 2000, while his government carried out mass killings for which he is now serving life sentences.