In a landmark ruling that concludes a protracted legal battle, former Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has been sentenced to over eleven years in prison for his attempted dissolution of Congress in 2022. The Supreme Court's verdict, delivered on Thursday, January 25, 2024, convicts the left-leaning leader of rebellion, cementing his fall from the presidency to a cell in Lima's Barbadillo Prison, a special penitentiary for former heads of state. The court found Castillo guilty of orchestrating what prosecutors termed a "self-coup" on December 7, 2022, when he announced he was dissolving the opposition-led legislature and ruling by decree. The judges handed down a sentence of 11 years, five months, and 15 days, a term significantly shorter than the 34 years prosecutors had sought. Castillo was acquitted on separate charges of abuse of power and disturbing public order. Throughout the nine-month trial, the former rural schoolteacher turned president maintained his innocence, famously dismissing his televised announcement as merely reading out "a document without consequence." This sentencing is the latest chapter in Peru's profound political turmoil, a nation that has seen eight presidents in a decade. Castillo's own 16-month tenure, following his surprise 2021 election as the "first president of the poor," was defined by relentless conflict with Congress. His fateful attempt to dissolve it came as he faced his third impeachment vote. His subsequent arrest that same day, while en route to the Mexican embassy to seek asylum, triggered a severe political and humanitarian crisis. Widespread protests by his Indigenous and rural supporters were met with a deadly crackdown under his successor, Dina Boluarte, leaving at least 50 dead. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the government's "disproportionate, indiscriminate and lethal use of force." The case has exposed deep domestic and international fissures. While the Peruvian judiciary views Castillo's actions as an unconstitutional power grab, he and his supporters frame them as a necessary pushback against a hostile political establishment. This perspective finds sympathy abroad, particularly in Mexico, which granted asylum to Castillo's former prime minister, Betssy Chávez. Peru labeled this an "unfriendly act," severed diplomatic ties with Mexico, and declared its president *persona non grata*. With the court denying house arrest, Castillo will now serve his sentence alongside other imprisoned former presidents, a stark symbol of Peru's chronic political instability. His successor, Boluarte, was herself impeached in 2024, underscoring that the nation's governance crisis continues unabated, even as one of its central figures is led away to prison.