Who is Pedro Castillo?

José Pedro Castillo Terrones (born 19 October 1969) is a Peruvian schoolteacher, union leader, and politician. He is the 130th president of Peru from 2021 to 2022. Castillo was impeached and removed from office on 7 December 2022 after threatening a self-coup.

Since 1995, Castillo has worked as a primary school teacher at School 10465 in the town of Puña, Chota, where he was responsible for cooking, cleaning and teaching for the students in his classroom. He became a well known leading figure in the 2017 teacher strike in Peru. He ran for President in the 2021 general election with Free Peru and defeated Keiko Fujimori in the run-off election in June.

Since taking office, Castillo has distanced himself from Free Peru and became more moderate. His administration has not been able to find a solution to the political crisis and the economic issues the country had.

Peru's Congress approved on 1 December a motion to start impeachment proceedings against Castillo. On December 7, 2022, only hours before Congress was to undertake a third impeachment effort, Castillo attempted to block that action. He announced that he was dissolving the legislature. Congress quickly responded by holding an emergency session the same day, during which it voted overwhelmingly to remove Castillo from office. Congress replaced him with Vice President Dina Boluarte, who became Peru’s first woman president. Castillo was later arrested on charges of “rebellion and conspiracy.”