Peru’s staggeringly incompetent far-left coup

For the last 17 months, Peruvians have been wondering what it would take to see the back of Pedro Castillo, their staggeringly incompetent and deeply unpopular far left president.

On Wednesday, they got their answer — when Castillo made a botched attempt to metamorphise from an elected head-of-state into an even more inept version of that trope of Latin American history, the caudillo or authoritarian strongman.

Cornered by anticorruption prosecutors and facing an impeachment vote that evening, the 53-year-old former rural schoolteacher and wildcat strike leader decided to take the bull by the horns.

In an unannounced televised address to the nation shortly before noon, Castillo, his hands visibly shaking, declared that he was dissolving congress, restructuring the judiciary, imposing a national curfew and, for good measure, would be ruling by decree.

Normally, wannabe dictators confirm with the generals and admirals that they have the support of the armed forces before taking such a drastic and flagrantly unconstitutional step.