President of Peru in the context of 1992 Peruvian self-coup d'état

Ramón Castilla y Marquesado (Spanish pronunciation: [raˈmoŋ kasˈtiʝa] ; 31 August 1797 – 30 May 1867) was a Peruvian caudillo who served as President of Peru three times as well as the Interim President of Peru (Revolution Self-proclaimed President) in 1863. His earliest prominent appearance in Peruvian history began with his participation in a commanding role of the army of the Libertadores that helped Peru become an independent nation. Later, he led the country when the economy boomed due to the exploitation of guano deposits. Castilla's governments are remembered for having abolished slavery and modernized the state.

He began his military career in the royalist army, participating in the Battle of Chacabuco. Taken prisoner after the battle, he was taken to Buenos Aires where he obtained permission to leave the country and returned to Peru. Reinstated in the Royal Army of Peru, he joined the independence cause in early 1822. He organized and served in the cavalry of the Peruvian Legion distinguishing himself at the Battle of Ayacucho. He continued his military and political career, holding high public offices such as sub-prefect of his native Tarapacá and prefect of Puno during the administrations of Agustín Gamarra and Luis José de Orbegoso.

Felipe Santiago Salaverry del Solar (1805 – February 18, 1836) was a Peruvian soldier and politician who served as the Supreme Chief of Peru. He supported anti-liberalism.

The Political Constitution of the Republic of Peru (Spanish: Constitución Política del Perú; Southern Quechua: Perú Suyu Hatun Kamay Pirwa 1993) is the supreme law of Peru. The current constitution, enacted on 31 December 1993, is Peru's fifth in the 20th century and replaced the 1979 Constitution. The Constitution was drafted by the Democratic Constituent Congress that was convened by President Alberto Fujimori during the Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992 that followed his 1992 self-coup and dissolution of Congress, and was promulgated on 29 December 1993. A Democratic Constitutional Congress (CCD) was elected in 1992, and the final text was approved in a 1993 referendum. The Constitution was primarily created by Fujimori and supporters without the participation of any opposing entities.

The 1993 Constitution of Peru differed originally from the 1979 Constitution in that it gave greater power to the president. For example, it allowed for reelection, reduced the bicameral 240-member congress to a unicameral 120 Congress of the Republic, not only affirmed the president's power to veto found in the 1979 Constitution, but also gave him the power to use a line item veto, and mandated that all tax laws receive prior approval by the Ministry of Economics and Finance. While the Constitution of 1979 allowed the president to dissolve congress after congress censured prime ministers three times, the 1993 constitution allows the president to do so after only two censures. The Constitution allows the president to decree laws as long as they first informs the Congress of their intent to do so. If the president dissolves Congress, the Constitution gives them the power to rule until the election of a new Congress within a four-month timeline, during which time the Standing Committee of the dissolved Congress will remain functioning. Following the ouster of President Alberto Fujimori, the Constitution was amended to bar the president from immediate re-election, a status quo that had prevailed for most of the time since the Great Depression. Subsequent constitutional amendments, laws of Congress, and Constitutional Court rulings have further changed the rules of interaction among branches of government.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard (Latin American Spanish: [ˌpedɾo ˌpablo kuˌtʃinski‿ɣoˈðaɾð]; born 3 October 1938), also known simply as PPK (Spanish: [pepeˈka]), is a Peruvian economist, public administrator, and former politician who served as the president of Peru from 2016 to 2018. He served as prime minister of Peru and as minister of economy and finance during the presidency of Alejandro Toledo. Kuczynski resigned from the presidency on 23 March 2018, following a successful impeachment vote and days before a probable conviction vote. Since 10 April 2019 he has been in pretrial detention, due to an ongoing investigation on corruption, money laundering, and connections to Odebrecht, a public works company accused of paying bribes.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was born in the Miraflores District of Lima to parents who fled from Germany after the Nazis came to power. Kuczynski worked in the United States before entering Peruvian politics. He held positions at both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before being designated the general manager of Peru's Central Reserve Bank. He later served as Minister of Energy and Mines in the early 1980s under President Fernando Belaúnde Terry, and as Minister of Economy and Finance and prime minister under President Alejandro Toledo in the 2000s. Kuczynski was a presidential candidate in the 2011 presidential election, placing third. For the 5 June 2011 runoff election, Kuczynski supported right-winger Keiko Fujimori over leftist Ollanta Humala, but Humala was elected nonetheless. Kuczynski went on to stand in the 2016 election, where he narrowly defeated Fujimori in the second round. He was sworn in as president on 28 July 2016.

The Congress of the Republic (Spanish: Congreso de la República) is the unicameral body which exercises legislative power in Peru. Due to the broadly interpreted impeachment wording in the Constitution of Peru, the President of Peru can be removed by Congress without cause, effectively making the legislature more powerful than the executive branch. Following a ruling in February 2023 by the Constitutional Court of Peru, the body tasked with interpreting the Constitution of Peru and whose members are directly chosen by Congress, judicial oversight of the legislative body was also removed by the court, essentially giving Congress absolute control of Peru's government. Since the 2021 Peruvian general election, right wing parties have held a majority in the legislature. The largest represented leftist party in Congress, Free Peru, has subsequently aligned itself with conservative and Fujimorists parties within Congress due to their institutional power.

Congress's composition is established by Chapter I of Title IV of the Constitution of Peru. Congress is composed of representatives who sit in congressional districts allocated to each region, as well as two special districts, Lima Province and Peruvian citizens living abroad, on a basis of population as measured by the Peruvian Census in multi-member districts. The number of voting representatives is fixed by the Constitution at 130. Pursuant to the 2017 Census, the largest delegation is that of Lima Province, with 36 representatives.

Martín Alberto Vizcarra Cornejo OSP CYC GColIH (Latin American Spanish: [maɾˈtin alˈβeɾto βisˈkara koɾˈnexo] ; born 22 March 1963) is a Peruvian engineer and politician who served as President of Peru from 2018 to 2020. Vizcarra previously served as Governor of the Department of Moquegua (2011–2014), First Vice President of Peru (2016–2018), Minister of Transport and Communications of Peru (2016–2017), and Ambassador of Peru to Canada (2017–2018), with the latter three during the presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

In the 2016 general election, Vizcarra ran with the Peruvians for Change presidential ticket as Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's running mate candidate for first vice president, narrowly defeating Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force ticket. On 23 March 2018, Vizcarra was sworn into office as President of Peru following the resignation of President Kuczynski. Throughout his tenure, Vizcarra remained independent from political parties, promoted reforms against corruption in the legislative and judicial branches, and vowed to not run for president when his term would end in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru, Vizcarra instituted stay-at-home orders and issued relief funds, but existing inequality, overcrowding and a largely informal economy saw Peru being heavily affected by the pandemic. As a result, Peru's gross domestic product declined thirty percent, increasing political pressure on Vizcarra's government.

The removal of Martín Vizcarra, president of Peru, was initiated by the Congress of Peru on 8 October 2020 under the grounds of "permanent moral incapacity". On 20 October 2020, political factions Union for Peru, Podemos Perú, and Broad Front co-signed a series of articles of impeachment against President Vizcarra for alleged cases of corruption during his term as the governor of Moquegua. Vizcarra was removed from office on 9 November 2020 in a 105–16 vote.

Initially, the vote to start impeachment proceedings was scheduled for 31 October, but it was later extended to the first week of November. Finally it was decided that the vote and debate would be held on 2 November. When the date arrived, impeachment was initiated with 60 votes in favor, 40 against and 18 abstentions. Vizcarra attended the plenary session in Congress on 9 November to defend himself against the accusations.

Manuel Arturo Merino de Lama (born 20 August 1961) is a Peruvian politician who briefly served as President of Peru for five days between 10 and 15 November 2020. He also served as the President of Congress from 16 March 2020 to 15 November 2020. He was a Member of Congress (AP) representing the Tumbes constituency for the 2001–2006, 2011–2016, and 2020–2021 terms.

On 9 November 2020, the Congress impeached and removed President Martín Vizcarra from office on the grounds of "moral incapacity", a vague term dating back to the 19th century, relating to "mental incapacity" or "mental retardation". The move was seen as a coup by many Peruvians, with Vizcarra's removal resulting in the beginning of the 2020 Peruvian protests. The following day, as the President of the Peruvian Congress, Merino became the new president of Peru following the line of succession established in the nation's constitution. Five days after taking office, he resigned from the presidency after two deaths in the protests. Polls showed that 94% of Peruvians had disapproved of Merino's accession to the presidency. He was succeeded by Francisco Sagasti.

Francisco Rafael Sagasti Hochhausler ([fɾanˈsisko rafaˈel saˈɣasti xoˈxawsleɾ] ; born 10 October 1944) is a Peruvian engineer, academic, politician, and author who served as the president of Peru from November 2020 to July 2021.

Sagasti has worked as an advisor for economic development at the International Development Research Centre, World Bank, UNCSTD and the World Economic Forum. After the 1992 Peruvian constitutional crisis, Sagasti left his position at the World Bank to return to Peru. In 2016, he helped found the centrist Purple Party with Julio Guzmán. Following the dissolution of congress in 2019, he was elected into congress in January 2020, serving from March to November 2020 as a Member of Congress, representing the Lima constituency.

José Carlos Fulgencio Pedro Regalado de la Riva-Agüero y Looz Corswarem (Brussels, Belgium, 25 May 1827 – Lima, Peru, 16 August 1881) was a Peruvian politician and diplomat.

He was the son of José de la Riva Agüero, Marquess of Montealegre de Aulestia, first President of Peru, and the Belgian princess Caroline-Arnoldine de Looz-Corswarem.