Peru's Deposed President Says He Was 'Abducted', Calls for Constitutional Change

Peru's newly-deposed president has accused his opponents of abducting and abusing him

Pedro Castillo made the charges in a series of tweets on Monday, days after he was removed by a vote by congress deputies and installed vice-president Dina Boluarte in his place.

Castillo was arrested in the capital Lima on Thursday while trying to reach the embassy of Mexico, which had offered him political asylum. That was after he attempted to dissolve the congress in a bid to head off a third impeachment vote in just over a year in what his opponents dubbed an "auto-coup".

Addressing the voters who elected him 16 months earlier, the former schoolteacher who won the support of indigenous farmers insisted he was "still invested with your trust and struggle, with the majesty of the sovereign people, but also infused with the glorious spirit of our ancestors."

Castillo said he remained faithful to his "popular and constitutional mandate," and vowed not to resign or abandon his "high and sacred functions" He denounced Boluarte's speeches as "the drivel of the putschist right" and urged the people not to "fall for their dirty game of new elections".

Boluarte announced over the weekend that the presidential election would be brought forward by more than two years from July 2026 to April 2024, following massive protests across the country against Castillo's removal and her appointment.

Castillo also demanded the formation of assembly to draft a new constitution, to replace the existing charter which allows the congress to impeach presidents arbitrarily without even misconduct allegations, along with "immediate freedom".

Meanwhile trade unions, farmers' and peasants' associations and organisations of poor and indigenous people joined forces to call a general strike on Monday to force the closure of congress and echoing Castillo's demand for constitutional change.