Peruvian President Pedro Castillo dissolved the nation's Congress on Wednesday and called for new legislative elections, but the Congress rejected the decree and voted to replace him with the vice president.
Castillo had tried to beat lawmakers to the punch as they prepared to debate a third attempt to remove him from office. The national ombudsman's office called it a coup.
Castillo also installed a new emergency government, and called for the next round of lawmakers to develop a new constitution for the Andean nation. Meanwhile, Castillo said in a televised address that he would rule by decree, and ordered a nightly curfew starting Wednesday night.
Castillo took action hours before Castillo's opponents in Congress moved toward a third vote to remove him from office, claiming he's shown a "permanent moral incapacity" to lead the Andean nation. It wasn't clear if they had the 87 votes among 130 lawmakers necessary to remove him.
The Ombudsman's Office, an autonomous government institution, said in a statement that after years of democracy, Peru is in the midst of a constitutional collapse "that can't be called anything but a coup."
