Peru's new president under fire for child sex comments

Balcazar was on Wednesday named Peru's interim leader, for a period of just over five months until the next election, after predecessor Jose Jeri was impeached on graft allegations. He became the South American country's eighth president in a decade. But Balcazar's nomination has angered rights and women's groups. In 2023, he told a congressional debate about ending child marriage that "early sexual relations aid a woman’s psychological future." Peru that year passed a legal reform to ban marriage for anyone under 18.