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News > Latin America

Peru: President Kuczynski Faces Impeachment Again

  • Since the first attempt to impeach PPK, his popularity has dramatically dropped.

    Since the first attempt to impeach PPK, his popularity has dramatically dropped. | Photo: Reuters

Published 7 March 2018
Opinion

Last year Kuczynski narrowly dodged impeachment after an alleged political pact with former dictator Alberto Fujimori.

A spokesperson for the Broad Front legislative bench, Wilbert Rozas, announced a multiparty coalition will present a motion for impeachment against Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) on Wednesday.

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Kuczynski faced impeachment proceedings in December when the right-wing opposition party Popular Force charged the president with moral incapacity over links to Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht and involvement in a corruption scandal.

He narrowly dodged impeachment on the day of the congressional vote thanks to ten votes from legislators associated with the Popular Force party led by former dictator Alberto Fujimori’s son, Kenji Fujimori. A few days later, Peru’s president granted a humanitarian pardon to Alberto Fujimori, causing massive protests and legal action.   

“New elements made us present a new multiparty impeachment motion,” Rozas said. The coalition, however, doesn't include Popular Force, which supported the last impeachment vote and is headed by Fujimori’s daughter, Keiko. Support for the motion comes from New Peru, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) and the non-aligned group.

The motion claims Kuczynski “denied or concealed his relation with Odebrecht” on four occasions between March and November 2017, and later “recognized their contractual relation” three times. According to the legislators, this reveals contradictions.

It also cites five visits by Jorge Barata, former executive director of Odebrecht during 2004 and 2005, when Kuczynski was the minister of economy and president of the Council of Ministers. Those visits coincide with the award of three sections of a major highway to Odebrecht, as well as payments by Odebrecht to Westfield, Kuczynski’s consulting firm.

According to Kuczynski supporters, the real motivation behind the Broad Front and New Peru is Fujimori’s pardon. The two parties opposed the measure, and its members have participated in street protests against the amnesty.

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