Martín Vizcarra gives farewell speech and leaves the Peruvian government headquarters | World

“Today I am leaving the Government Palace, today I am going home, despite the fact that there are countless recommendations for us to take legal action to avoid this decision,” said Vizcarra, in the courtyard of the Presidential Palace and surrounded by his ministers.

Vizcarra said he accepted the congressional decision. “I am not going to take any legal action, I do not want it to be understood in any way that my spirit of service to the people was only a desire to exercise power. All my life I have acted with transparency and putting all my effort, ability and heart at the service of the people, “he added.

“All my life I have acted with transparency and putting all my effort, my ability and my heart at the service of the people and you know it,” he commented before thanking “the entire team” that accompanied him during his tenure, which began in March. of 2018, as well as to the Peruvian people for their support.

“I leave the Government Palace as I entered two years and eight months ago, with my head held high and ready to face the investigations that correspond to face the falsehood of the complaints in the field of due process,” he said.

Vizcarra considered that, although on Monday morning he went to the plenary session of Congress to present his defense arguments, the parliamentarians did not listen to him: “and if they heard me, they did not understand me,” he said.

“I reaffirm to the Peruvian people that I am leaving with a clear conscience and with my duty fulfilled … let’s hope that Peru always follows the path of good, let’s hope that the future is the best for Peruvians and hopefully, hopefully, we will soon know it what are the reasons behind the decisions taken today in Congress, ”he said.

The president of Congress assumes the government

The Peruvian Congress approved this Monday the removal of President Martín Vizcarra for “moral incapacity”, at the end of his second political trial in less than two months. He was reported for taking bribes when he was governor in 2014.

The motion to remove the popular Peruvian president exceeded the 87 votes needed in Congress. There were 105 votes in favor of the dismissal.

“The resolution that declares the vacancy of the Presidency of the Republic was approved”, declared after the vote the president of Congress, Manuel Merino, who will assume the leadership of the government on Tuesday (10) until the end of the current term, which culminates July 28, 2021.

Vizcarra, 57, had survived an earlier vote aimed at removing him in September, when only 32 of 130 MPs voted to leave, and an attempt to suspend him in 2019.

Vizcarra denied “unfounded” claims that he took bribes from companies that won public contracts when he was governor of Moquegua, a region in southern Peru. Vizcarra accused Congress of “playing with democracy.”

In the previous lawsuit, he was accused of pressuring two government palace officials to lie about a disputed contract with a singer.

“I emphatically and categorically reject these accusations,” Vizcarra said. “I did not receive any bribes,” he added before Congress.

He said that the two contracts in question were designated by an agency of the United Nations (UN) and not by the regional government of Moquegua, and that the complaints against him are based on press reports and not on decisions of the prosecution or the courts.

On Sunday, the president had declared in a statement that he was “systematically attacked (…)”, and already assured that he had not committed any act of corruption. In it, the politician also said that his accusers “are generating political instability.”

The president has popular approval