Peru, 2022 — auto-coup attempt
Event Summary
On 7 December 2022 President Pedro Castillo of Peru, facing an imminent impeachment vote he was sure to lose, attempted a self coup by announcing on television that he was dissolving Congress, imposing a curfew, and ruling by decree, only to be swiftly abandoned, removed, and arrested within hours. Castillo, a former rural schoolteacher and union leader who had won a narrow, surprise victory in 2021 as a leftist outsider, had governed amid constant turmoil, a hostile Congress, and multiple corruption investigations; by December he faced his third impeachment attempt. In a desperate gambit hours before the vote, he read a message declaring the dissolution of Congress and the establishment of an emergency government that would rule by decree and call a constituent assembly, a move widely condemned as an autogolpe and compared to Alberto Fujimori's 1992 self coup.
But Castillo's bid collapsed immediately: his ministers resigned en masse, the armed forces and police declined to back him, and the Constitutional Court and Congress rejected the dissolution. Congress voted to remove him, and he was arrested as he reportedly tried to reach the Mexican embassy. His vice president, Dina Boluarte, was sworn in as Peru's new president that same day.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
13512072022
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: President Pedro Castillo's December 2022 self-coup collapsed within hours; he was impeached, removed, and arrested the same day.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; arrested or jailed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →