Peru’s President Jose Jeri ousted after ‘Chifagate’ scandal tied to Chinese contractor

Name: Uncertainty surrounds Peru’s new Chinese-built Chancay megaport
Uploaded: 2026-02-17T20:09:22.000Z
Duration: 8 min 2 s
Description: Uncertainty surrounds Peru’s new Chinese-built Chancay megaport

Late-night meeting with Chinese businessman at a restaurant in Lima fuelled a probe and created major cross-party revolt

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Peru’s Congress ousted President Jose Jeri on Tuesday after just four months in office, following a scandal over undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman, continuing a revolving door of leaders in the South American nation. Photo: AFP

Igor Patrickin Rio de Janeiro

Published: 4:09am, 18 Feb 2026Updated: 5:22am, 18 Feb 2026

Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to remove President Jose Jeri from office following a series of undisclosed late-night meetings at a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese state contractor, setting off a political scandal dubbed “Chifagate”, a reference to the country’s Chinese-Peruvian fusion cuisine.

Lawmakers voted 75-24, with three abstentions, to censure Jeri over the unregistered encounters with businessman Zhihua Yang, whose companies have supplied the state and who owns the restaurant and a wholesale outlet in Lima.

The vote took place during an extraordinary session in which seven censure motions, filed between January 21 and January 27, were admitted and debated together.

An attempt by Jeri’s party, Somos Peru, to argue that only a presidential vacancy procedure could remove him was defeated 71-34.

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Uncertainty surrounds Peru’s new Chinese-built Chancay megaport

Jeri did not attend the debate, maintaining that the censure process denied him the right to mount a defence.

Peru’s President Jose Jeri ousted after ‘Chifagate’ scandal tied to Chinese contractor

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Late-night meeting with Chinese businessman at a restaurant in Lima fuelled a probe and created major cross-party revolt

Late-night meeting with Chinese businessman at a restaurant in Lima fuelled a probe and created major cross-party revolt