The Democratic Bloc (), also called simply The Bloc () or The Pact (), was the main Peruvian political coalition in the Peruvian Congress during the and which has held the Presidency of Congress and the between 2021 and 2026. One of its members, José Jerí, held the presidency following the vacancy of Dina Boluarte until his censure in February 2026. This coalition is known derogatorily by its critics and political opponents as the "Corrupt Pact", the "Mafia Pact", the "Congressional Pact" or simply "the Pact".
It is composed of the parliamentary blocs of the parties Fuerza Popular, Avanza País, Perú Libre (from 2023), Acción Popular, Somos Perú and Alianza para el Progreso. Until 2023, Podemos Perú was part of this bloc. Renovación Popular, for its part, was part of it until 2024, when it separated from it. It originally emerged as an opposition bloc to the Presidency of Pedro Castillo, and remained as parliamentary support for the Presidency of Dina Boluarte. With the arrival of José María Balcázar, replacing José Jerí, the parties began to accuse each other of alleged secret pacts and internal betrayals.
Ideologically, it emerged led by right-wing political parties, although the participation of the conservative left-wing party Perú Libre modified this characteristic. It has been described as "conservative", "authoritarian", "centralist" and "". Furthermore, it has been considered responsible for deciding which figures to protect or remove from political life, as well as for carrying out legislative and judicial reforms in the country. Among these reforms, sociologist Indira Huilca has highlighted the promotion of the so-called "", the and the rollback of women's rights.
History
Government of Pedro Castillo (2021–2022) The Democratic Front (BD) emerged in opposition to the government of Pedro Castillo in 2021, when Fuerza Popular (FP) issued a statement accusing him of being communist. The party had already conducted an anti-communist campaign during the of Keiko Fujimori in the 2021 Peruvian general election and continued to insist on presenting itself as the "democratic option," calling on "democratic forces to confront this threat to our homeland in a cohesive manner". Lourdes Flores Nano, a member of FP's legal team, stated that "what is interesting in the current moment is the emergence of this democratic front in defense of freedom and democracy, in which we must make the effort so that what happened to the Venezuelans does not happen to us". Hernando "Nano" Guerra García stated that Fuerza Popular had approved the proposal to create a bloc with a parliamentary agenda that would "defend democracy," "freedoms," the Fujimorist 1993 Constitution, and the free market economy.
The first Board of Directors (MD) of the Congress was elected through an agreement between right-wing and anti-communist political parties before Pedro Castillo took office. The list was originally called the "Coalition for Democratic Governance" and was presented by Avanza País. According to lawyer Hugo Amanque Chaiña, they presented a joint center-right list to prevent the left-wing candidates' list from controlling Parliament and from having a narrative in favor of the legacy of the 1993 Constitution. Fujimorist spokesperson, Luis Galarreta, confirmed that six parliamentary blocs agreed to run on a single list "in defense of democracy and freedoms". Finally, Norma Yarrow asserted that a faction of Renovación Popular, which had a separate list to run for the MD, supported the "democratic board".
In its first few months, the bloc developed the against the then-president, although it failed to coordinate the votes. By 2022, the BD almost lost the MD elections because there was little coordination among its constituent blocs, mainly due to Popular Renewal. Alejandro Cavero (Avanza País) suggested that there was a split between "opposition" factions (determined to impeach) and "democrats" (flexible on impeachment), the latter including a faction of Acción Popular and Podemos Perú. However, for the third impeachment of Pedro Castillo against Castillo after the president's self-coup attempt, the BD showed greater unity. In an interview with the newspaper Expreso, Ángel Delgado, one of the promoters of Castillo's removal, pointed out that the Democratic Bloc had the opportunity to in time, but the fact that it did not do so ended up discrediting and damaging the image of the coalition in the eyes of the public.
Government of Dina Boluarte (2022–2025) The lawyer has described this parliamentary period as a "de facto pact", in which the coalition prevented the Executive Branch—which she refers to as "an ally and a puppet"—and other institutions, such as the Public Ministry of Peru under Patricia Benavides, from investigating her. Journalist Gustavo Gorriti has noted that the coalition abandoned anti-communism and increasingly aligned itself with the political left, thanks to "the common interest in preserving their positions and, among other things, in being able to halt the anti-corruption investigations that affect them".
A PUCP study from June 2024 indicated that the parliamentary groups that achieved the greatest legislative success were Acción Popular, Alianza para el Progreso, Avanza País, Fuerza Popular, Renovación Popular and Somos Perú. Free Peru and Popular Force were the parties that interacted most with each other in Congress.
The Democratic Movements of José Williams (Avanza País), Alejandro Soto (APP) and Eduardo Salhuana (APP) aligned themselves with the government of Dina Boluarte. Throughout Boluarte's administration, until her removal from office on 10 October 2025, all the parliamentary groups of the Democratic Bloc (with the exception of the communist Perú Libre) rejected and shelved seven motions of impeachment filed against her. On occasion, the parliamentary groups also rejected investigating Patricia Benavides.
Even Lady Camones (APP), former president of the MD, supported Boluarte on the grounds of "governability". Between 2022 and 2025, a project was coordinated to allow Congress to establish its "trusted staff module" and hire multiple people autonomously (without the need for a public competition), without limit and without technical requirements. This project was developed in secret in agreement (no. 072–2022–2023) between the legislative presidencies of Williams and Salhuana.
In May 2023, members of Congress organized against the representatives of the National Board of Justice, the institution investigating Patricia Benavides. The JNJ, which represented the Judiciary of Peru, was one of the few autonomous institutions resistant to the influence of the Democratic Bloc. Diego García-Sayan described how, as an institution that appoints judges, "it was no coincidence that the corrupt Congress targeted the JNJ". Fernando Vivas noted that the bloc's discussion focused less on whether to remove the members and more on how to do so elegantly while maintaining the guarantees of the right to a defence. The impeachment proceedings did not achieve the expected success, and only one person was sanctioned for a few months toward the end of that year, although Congress had the option of appointing new members to the JNJ in 2025.
In June 2023, César Acuña confirmed his intention to relaunch a "center-right democratic bloc" for the MD in alliance with Fuerza Popular, Alianza para el Progreso, Renovación Popular, Avanza País, and Somos Perú. The following month, in July, the members of the BD presented a list for the MD elections with the tentative name "Bloque País" (Country Bloc). The list consisted of Alejandro Soto (APP) as President of the Congress of the Republic of Peru, Hernando Guerra (FP) as first vice president, Waldemar Cerrón (PL) as second vice president, and Roselli Amuruz of Avanza País as third vice president. The decision to integrate PL—now without Pedro Castillo or Dina Boluarte as members—into the BD came after PP's withdrawal from the bloc and the investigations into AP members belonging to "Los Niños" (The Children), Pedro Castillo's congressional faction involved in . However, this decision led to the resignation of the Peru-Liberal congressmen , Alex Flores, and Alfredo Pariona from their party. Alejandro Soto stated that he did not know how Cerrón Rojas had been added to the list.
Vladimir Cerrón, leader of PL, defended his party's inclusion in the BD instead of ceding it to "Los Niños" (The Children). Following criticism from other leftists, he published on X that "we must abandon the culture of a left born only to oppose; the left must prepare to govern. Participation in the MD is just as valid as participation in a Commission, in Parliament, or in the political party system, where all forms of representation exist." Cerrón explained that the congressmen who resigned from PL did so because they aspired to be candidates for the MD and that the decision to join the BD was made in a party vote, rejecting the option of joining a "" formula. , of PL, declared that PL's integration into the BD was not an alliance in itself but a multi-party pact through which the left wing of PL could have representation in the MD. For her part, Martha Moyano, of FP, declared that "I prefer this table as it is formed [with Perú Libre] to having a 'caviar' or a 'Niño' as president of Congress". Congresswoman Patricia Chirinos, then with Avanza País, also supported the Democratic Bloc's list and Roselli Amuruz as her party's representative on that list. In that sense, Eduardo Salhuana emphasized that the Democratic Bloc's caucuses supported Alejandro Soto because they considered him "a person who has conducted himself correctly".
In October 2023, the newspaper Correo reported that the bloc held 13 seats on the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations, compared to 12 for the "left". That same month, a police incident involving a party hosted by Roselli Amuruz had a detrimental effect on the image of the Democratic Bloc. According to Patricia Juárez and Rosangella Barbarán, Fujimorists confessed that they hoped Avanza País would convince Amuruz to resign, thus avoiding the dilemma of either saving or censuring her.
In July 2024, Popular Renewal withdrew from the bloc after not being included on the Board of Directors, following disagreements about the viability of Congresswoman Norma Yarrow, from that party, as its president. Yarrow confirmed the news and referred to the Democratic Bloc as "Dina Boluarte's candidate".
At that same juncture, in mid-2024, BD launched its re-election bid for the Board of Directors. Idelso García (APP) commented that there was "an interest in dividing APP and Fuerza Popular with the aim of taking over the Congress of the Republic". Congresswoman Silvana Robles questioned whether that coalition had "seized control" of the Board of Directors since 2021. Congresswoman stated that the Magisterial Bloc of National Concertation was interested in joining the coalition. Ultimately, the list, headed by Eduardo Salhuana, emerged victorious. Patricia Juárez, elected vice president of the Board of Directors, acknowledged that the political coalition needed the votes of the left to win the election against its opponent, .
In June 2025, negotiations began with other parliamentary groups outside the bloc to include them on the list for the Board of Directors elections, given that the previous year they had committed to incorporating representatives from other groups to lead the Board. Subsequently, members of the bloc stated that they had decided to run separately.