is in danger. ♪ >> time for a quick check of the headlines. argentina threw two the world cup semifinals after a tense victory over the netherlands in a penalty shootout. argentina will now face croatia in the last four after they knocked out another south american giant, croatia beat brazil also in a shootout at the end of extra time. russian president vladimir putin says future prisoner swap's with the united states are possible.

an arms dealer is back in russia after the u.s. released him in exchange for best ballplayer brittney griner. we have more. >> brittney griner we believe is still being evaluated at a military hospital in texas. she hasn't spoken publicly yet, but a lot of people are speaking about this. president joe biden getting a lot of criticism, mostly from republican politicians and conservative media. it is twofold. they say this makes vladimir putin look strong and joe biden look weak. the reason for that is the white house was pretty open about what they wanted the swap to look like, they wanted brittney griner and paul whelan in exchange for the arms dealer. we'll did not come home. anchor: there's accusations from russia that weapons supply from ukraine have ended up in the hands of criminal gangs, but moscow is facing allegations

from the u.s. ambassador that moscow is buying arms from north korea. protests in peru after the arrest of the president. rallies have been held across the country. he was detained on wednesday after attempting to shut down congress and rule by decree. u.s. democrats are clinging to their fragile control of the senate after a sitting senator announced plans to leave the party. arizona's kyrsten sinema has registered as an independent, saying she no longer wishes to participate in the bipartisan structure of the u.s. government. those are the headlines. the news continues on al jazeera after inside story. thank you for wahing. ♪

>> peru's president impeached and detained. argentina's vice president convicted of corruption. what is behind this wave of investigation and crimina charges at the highest echons of power in latin american? -- latin america? this is inside story. ♪ hello. welcome to the program. a week ago, he was sitting at his presidential desk, now peru's former leader is in a prison cell. impeached by the same congress he tried to dismiss, he faces charges of rebellion. earlier investigations continue. his removal came the same week as the argentinian vice

president was convicted of corruption. the former president kept her out of jail but unless she wins an appeal, her political career could be over. this just after result elected lula da silva for a second term, a dramatic reversal after he was in jail and his conviction was annulled. how have so many leaders in latin america and under investigation? first, this report on castillo's downfall. reporter: supporters of castillo gather outside where the president is being held. supporters say they want him freed. [chanting] in this latest political crisis, castillo was impeached by congress. when he left the presidential palace, the order to arrest him

had already been issued. he was on his way to the mexican embassy to seek asylum, but his own escorts were instructed to detain him at gunpoint. he was flown to this prison on the outskirts of the capital, where he will stay for at least the next seven days as an investigation into allegations of rebellion and conspiracy gets underway. his lawyer has rejected the charges and says castillo's detention is illegal. outside, angry supporters blamed the new president for castillo's downfall. >> until a month ago, she was saying if they take castillo, they would go with him, now she says she doesn't agree with the coup d'état. reporter: castillo has been -- this has been the six president. she appealed for a political truce but ruled out the

possibility of early elections. >> some voices are calling for early elections, and that is democratically respectable. i think after the assumption of the presidency, it is time for a reorientation of what needs to be done with the country. reporter: opinion polls say 87% of peruvians want fresh elections, frustrated by years of political turmoil. most of the former leaders are being investigated for some form of corruption. castillo is being held at the same prison as former president -- as the former president. he is serving a 25 year sentence for human rights abuses. they are the only two former presidents of peru who closed congress illegally. some say they want to bring an end to the political feuding that has paralyzed the country for years. the new president says she wants to show peruvians they will

not be forgotten. >> further south, argentinia's vice president was convicted and sent to prison for fraud. we have more. reporter: these are supporters of cristina fernandez who came to the federal court building in one a saros -- the federal court building to protest. she was sentenced to six years in prison and given a lifetime ban on holding public office after being found guilty of corruption. it is the first time an argentinian vice president has been convicted while in office. three months ago, she was the attempt of an assassination attempt when a man pulled the trigger of his handgun inches from her face while she greeted supporters. the gun failed to fire.

she is accused of directing millions of dollars of public works contracts to a family friend. the former president denies all charges, accusing the charge as a political witchhunt. >> this is much simpler. it is not law, it is not a judicial party, it is a judicial mafia. reporter: she was argentina's president for eight years, between 2007 and 2015. she is now the vice president. she is a divisive figure in the country. many continue to support her but many others would like to see her in prison. she is expected to appeal the court's decision. despite her conviction, she has congressional immunity and is unlikely to head to jail anytime soon. ♪ >> let's bring in our guests.

in london, a journalist and analyst on latin american affairs. in argentina, we have a reporter . and in nicaragua, an investigative journalist and founder and editor of an independent news website. a warm welcome. thank you for joining us on inside story. there has been a lot that has happened in latin america in the last few days. i want to start in peru. castillo has made decisions that have lost him a lot of allies and landed him in prison. i want to take a step back and look at the corruption à la gary's -- corruption allegations. >> it is difficult to determine if they are fair, because in

latin america and in peru, the line is blurry. in the case of mr. castillo's allegations, i had a chance to read the indictment by the attorney general, and although the attorney provides evidence that numbers of the inner circle were involved in corruption, there is no link between them and president castillo. it is very tricky. many say it would be difficult for that to stand up in court because the only reason why the attorney general linked mr. castillo to these cases is because these people were part of his inner circle. but there is no evidence it is linked. i'm not saying it is not linked, but there is not legal evidence it is linked between president castillo and the corrupt people being indicted. he has been accused of being a

head of a criminal enterprise, but the attorney general did not provide enough evidence to link him with the corruption. many people accuse him of being neglectful, careless, not looking after the interests of the presidency, but the link is very fragile, and it will be difficult to prove in court unless they provide complete evidence he was directly involved, directly benefited, promoted or encouraged this. >> turning to argentina, we have heard similar accusations from cristina kirchner. she says part of the case is an attack by a parallel mafia state. sebastian, who is she talking about? >> it is related to a tycoon who used to be a close friend of the president's late husband, who

became a contractor in the south. there is certain ground at least to investigate why this person has dozens of millions of dollars in bank accounts in switzerland, for instance. at the same time, the prosecutor didn't find evidence of a connection between the fortune of this tycoon and cristina kirchner and her family. she said she is a victim of a judicial mafia. it is a political allegation.

there are reasons to think that there is a connection between leaders of the opposition party, conservative alliance, the judiciary, spies, and the main media group in argentina. >> there is a bit of speculation there. i know you've done some digging into this. i want to understand how what cristina kirchner is alleging could be possible. surely this is a strength of the question of institutions, not only the strength of them, but their integrity as well. >> we need to understand argentina until recently in the 1980's was a dictatorship. there were no democratic institutions until 1983. many of those are really weak. the judicial system is an

example of this. it is weaponized by political opposition. since 2004, there have been 654 judicial cases filed, almost all of them frivolous, against cristina kirchner, by the right wing opposition. six individuals, just those individuals, have filed between 20 and 74 lawsuits against her. what we see is a constant concerted political attack using the judicial system against her as a weapon. it is called lawfare, legal warfare. we have leaked messages and photos and videos showing prosecutors and judges were conspires sing -- conspiring with the right wing opposition, and with large media corporations, including the main conservative media out with, like the fox news in argentina that supports the right wing president. there are photos showing some prosecutors in an airport meeting with members of this company.

when she says there is a parallel mafia state that is not elected, that is not wrong. the reality is we have evidence showing these compromised prosecutors were directly collaborating with the opposition and flying on their planes and going to their mansions. >> i want to talk alone bit more about institutions. the weakness and strength of them. as he tried to dissolve congress, castillo was accusing parliamentarians of destroying the rule of law and trying to establish a congressional dictatorship. some might argue a congressional dictatorship led by elected officials is a form of democracy, right? i want to look at a graphic. i believe peru has had 10 presidents in the last two decades. two were interim officeholders but the other eight were ousted, jailed or detained. one of them died via suicide. 10 presidents in two decades and

four in the last two years. how has that level of instability contributed to the situation we are facing now? >> the political system in peru is broken. no question about that. you have mentioned the presidents that have been indicted. one committed suicide. others under house arrest. in the case of mr. castillo, the announcements he made on wednesday, the seventh of december, took everybody by surprise. according to the constitution, he cannot close down congress by himself. he cannot do that. that violated an article of the constitution. second, when congress -- the day before, he was still discussing his defense against impeaching him in congress. the opposition in congress had gotten enough votes to debate the issue but not to sack him.

he probably would have survived the vote. tuesday evening, he announced he was going to go to congress to defend himself. on wednesday, he announced he was closing congress, that he was reorganizing the judiciary, which he is not allowed to do, and the constitutional tribunal. he caught everyone surprise. all of his ministers resigned. you cannot conduct a coup without the support of the armed forces. after the announcement was made, the armed forces they would not -- said they would not support this because it was not in the constitution. after this announcement, the position managed to get enough votes to indict and impeach. >> sorry to interrupt, it sounds to me like a real triumph of institutions. it shows the strength of the constitution and the process. i want to throw this to ben, i

see mexico is standing by castillo and considering offering him asylum. the president described this as a soft coup. is this solidarity or is mexico concerned -- or as a mexican president concerned this could happen to him? >> it was a congressional coup. what castillo did in dissolving the congress was legally a gray area, but in the constitution, which we can talk about in a second, it is deeply compromised, and he wanted to change it to prevent these coups in the future, but it does present the opportunity for the president to dissolve congress in cases of obstructionism. the congress in peru, the perfect description is obstructionist. it has taken every step to prevent castillo from governing. that's why there's been six presidents in five years. there is an article in the

constitution that goes back to a dictatorship that ended in 2000. peru had a far right dictatorship until 2000. there was genocide, sterilization of indigenous women, and the dictators children are prominent in the opposition. he left behind this tutorial constitution that allows the congress to remove an elected president with a majority vote if the president is deemed to have moral incapacity. that means nothing. basically it opens the possibility for the political opposition to constantly try to launch a legal coup against the president, and yes, you could say it was a very unwise move for castillo to dissolve the congress, but the reality is this was the third time in just over a year that the congress was trying to overthrow him. he was tired of obstructionism so he dissolved it. let's not forget, the congress,

according to the latest poll, has 11% approval in peru. these are undemocratic actions taken by a vicious of right wing opposition, and includes the daughter into the son of the former far right dictator. >> taking a step back, we are talking about two countries with leftist leadership in a region that is notoriously plagued by corruption, i think we can agree. population struggling with vast inequality, deep disillusionment with public officials. these narratives are not just confined to peru and argentina. we seen a big shift toward the left in latin america. this coming january i was looking at the numbers, and i believe for the first time, all of the seven most populous countries will have left of center governments. it seems like the public has a preference for big personalities. given the rise in populism across the region, do you think it makes these kind of attacks on individuals specifically more

effective? >> it is difficult to tackle this issue in latin america as a whole. countries are very different from peru and argentina, for instance. there has been a decisive figure in argentine politics, she is still supported by about one third of the population. her approval ratings are pretty safe to weather the storms she has faced in the last decade. she is still a competitive leader. one third of the population would vote for her.

the left-leaning front alliance is decisive. this is an ongoing situation. [indiscernible] -- working past his support of her. what brazil says his certainties are not a lot regarding politics. >> it can go either way and we've seen left and right wing

governments in power across latin america in the last century and last few decades. both governments on the left and right have been accused of corruption. if you ask the left or right who is most corrupt, they say each other. is this an attack we are seeing on the left or simply cyclical power politics that happens to be there are a large number of leftist politicians in power at the moment and they are being attacked by the right? >> it depends very much on what country you are talking about. in peru, mr. castillo was elected on a left wing ticket. when he became president, nobody knew exactly where he stood. that was a problem he had politically speaking. the current president that was just appointed is more to the left of mr. castillo. the prime minister until recently once defended hitler

and mussolini, which you would not expect from the left. there was a lack of political identity. in relation to the political side, parliament has been trying to oust mr. castille's government and get rid of him. they wanted to accuse him of treason which was ridiculous. they never had enough votes to impeach him. when castillo decided to close congress, many people in congress didn't have any choice but to vote in favor of impeachment. he gave ammunition to the position to get rid of him. he didn't inform any of the members of his cabinet about his prime minister. they were caught by surprise, his loyal's workup by surprise.

he could have won the vote against impeachment. that's the irony. this decision, he gave ammunition to those who want to get rid of him. >> ok, i -- i'm going to stop you there because i want to take a moment to look at what lies ahead. the main trend from recent elections it seems in latin america has been anti-incumbency. an opponent has won the last 16 free presidential elections in the region. should we expect a swing to the right in the coming months and years? >> it depends on the country. in argentina it is difficult, especially economically, largely because the country is trapped in unpayable debt owed to the international monetary fund. that 40 $4 billion was taken by the previous right wing president. it has trapped the current

government, the centerleft government. it is likely in the 2023 elections coming up, especially considering that cristina said she would not run for president, it is likely the right wing will win argentina, and that will throw a wrench into the project of regional integration. when lula comes into brazil on generate first, he's said he wants to economically integrate latin america, wingback institutions -- bring back institutions, create a new currency. and it's likely the right will come back to power in argentina. it depends on the country, but certainly argentina is one where i think the left, their control of power is limited. >> and it will be interesting to see how the various corruption allegations aimed at various leaders across the region also play out in upcoming elections. we have to leave it there for

today. get to our guests. and thank you for watching. you can see the program any time by visiting our website. for further discussion, go to our facebook page. remember you can also when the conversation on twitter. for me and the whole team, goodbye for now. ♪

woman: we need gender equality, and we need this reflected in national priorities. narrator: it's been a century since the suffragettes, ter 70 years of struggle, finally wothe rit to vote. and yet, at current rates of change, we are still decades away fm globalender equality. in some countries, women are overcoming barriers to leadership. news anchor: women in egypt are exercising their political power. anchor 2: 18 women have won seats in the municipal polls. male news anchor: women can finally take to the roads. woman: they are all aiming to become prime ministers.