Introduction

Political instability persists in Peru. This week, Prime Minister Alberto Otarola resigned and Congress is expected to decide if it will remove the members of the Junta Nacional de Justicia, a body that helps select the composition of the judiciary. This is just the latest in a crisis that has been running for years – Peru famously has had six presidents in seven years. Some Peruvians say their democracy is under threat. What’s the best framework to think about the kind of democratic backsliding we are witnessing there? What are the forces driving this? And what are the real risks of such instability’s for Peru’s economy? This week we take a broad look at these trends with Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.