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A kind of déjà vu is what Peruvians have experienced since Thursday, when a new scandal broke out in local politics after three audios were revealed in Congress in which President Martín Vizcarra is heard agreeing with two advisers on the version that would deliver on the links with the singer Richard Cisneros, better known as “Richard Swing”, investigated for irregular contracts. The accusations led to the filing of a vacancy motion for “moral incapacity” against the President, which was finally approved by 65 votes in favor, 36 against and 24 abstentions. This, further stressed the country, as it is the first step to eventually remove Vizcarra in the coming days.
“A plot against democracy is ratified,” Vizcarra said this Friday. On Thursday night, the president addressed the country on a television network in which he assured that he would not resign from the position that keeps him in power until July 2021.
The plot about “Swing” dates back to May, when the local press revealed that the singer had received payments of US $ 50 thousand for a series of presentations and motivational talks, in the middle of the pandemic.
“The unknown singer who could leave Peru without a President.” This is what the newspaper Gestión called it. “Swing” and Vizcarra would have met in the 2016 presidential campaign and the singer-songwriter has boasted of his supposed closeness to the President. Despite not having any kind of experience, Cisneros was hired by the Ministry of Culture in 2018.
According to the newspaper Gestión, one of the most striking points that caused doubts to explode was that two of the contracts were generated in April, in the middle of the health crisis as a result of the pandemic and that the country is one of the most affected of the world, with 710 thousand cases and 30 thousand deaths.
Faced with suspicions, the Congressional Oversight Commission called the singer to testify, who on that occasion rejected the closeness that he once claimed to have with Vizcarra and assured that after the campaign “unfortunately” he had no further communication with the head of state.
However, in the audios presented by the congressman and president of that commission, Edgar Alarcón, Vizcarra’s advisers deal with the singer’s visits to the Pizarro Palace registered on the Transparency portal.
“Have I met with Richard Swing? Yes. How many times? Five times definitely not. What I remember will be a couple of times, ”the Peruvian president is heard saying, who then gives instructions to the two officials on what they should answer on the subject.
In a third audio, the singer himself is heard with former presidential assistant Karen Roca, to whom “Swing” points out that he has taken selfies with Vizcarra and the first lady, Maribel Díaz Cabello, emphasizing the closeness with them, and accuses that if something happens to him will be the fault of the president, about whom, in addition, he is writing a book that would be entitled The friend in the shadows.
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“Vizcarra is a very suspicious person. He surrounded himself with a very small circle called the Moqueguana wall, which they worked with him since he was governor. The audios would have been recorded by one of his assistants and everything indicates that he has betrayed Vizcarra. In other words, now who can the President trust ”, says Martin Riepl, author of the book Vizcarra, a short story of loyalty and betrayal.
The political bomb caused the anti-corruption Prosecutor’s Office investigating the Swing Case to request that the audios be sent to the office and reiterated the request to take the statement from the head of state and the officials involved.
In a turn to the accusations, the singer – who was supposed to testify this Friday – opened a new edge. “They have not wanted to receive me. Now I’m going to get everything out, he wanted to talk about audios, I’m going to get a lot of audios “, threatened” Swing “, who defended that he always knew they were recording it in the audios and that is why” he exaggerated and lied. “
In this way, Cisneros said that “they are using me for a coup disguised as a vacancy”, since in his opinion Congress would have “orchestrated” the new political crisis, for which he would publish 178 audios in which Congressman Alarcón allegedly appears with the president of Congress, Manuel Merino, trying “to put on the presidential sash.” This, because if they go to Vizcarra and due to the resignation of the second vice president Mercedes Aráoz, Merino would be the one who takes over the government.
“In the debate on the vacancy, what they accuse is that there has been an obstruction of justice by Vizcarra. The government does not have a bench in Parliament. Now the President must go to defend himself in Congress, which can take a week. The actions of almost all the benches were in doubt. There are only two or three parties that add 35 seats out of 130 that are very much at stake due to the vacancy, ”says Peruvian political analyst Augusto Alvarez Rodrich to La Tercera.
In the afternoon, the Purple Party and the Popular Agricultural Front of Peru (FREPAP) had refused to adhere to the motion. Congress and Vizcarra have had a strong dispute for months (see secondary). All this, moreover, has occurred in the midst of some complaints of an alleged “coup” attempt by sectors disgusted with Vizcarra.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s successor reached up to 80% approval after leading the “fight against corruption” that had a referendum with high social support to promote political reforms, which, among others, limit re-election and deliver party financing protocols politicians.
According to the latest polls, Vizcarra maintains a 60% approval and a 35% disapproval, the same indices, but in reverse, from Congress.
The publication of audios or videos are not new tricks in Peruvian politics. The first major scandal broke out on September 14, 2000 with the “vladivideos”, a series of hidden videos recorded by the then adviser to Alberto Fujimori, Vladimiro Montesinos, within the National Intelligence Service (SIN), which revealed the bribes that politicians and businessmen received to align themselves with the government. Shortly after, and after a fraudulent election, Fujimori resigned from Japan, where he went into self-exile. In turn, Congress declared the presidential office vacant due to “permanent moral incapacity,” on November 21, 2000.
Another similar scandal took place in 2018, with the “kenjivideos” in which then-congressman Kenji Fujimori is observed negotiating with his peers the votes to avoid the vacancy of Kuczynski, in exchange for his father’s pardon. This led to the departure of PPK and Martín Vizcarra had to assume power in his capacity as Vice President.
Just two years ago, Congress opened a second vacancy motion against PPK. The first was in December 2017 after the disclosure of alleged payments from Odebrecht between 2005 and 2006 to consulting firms linked to Kuczynksi, which did not have the necessary votes. The second was in March 2018 after the “kenjivideos”, who forced PPK to resign a day before the legislative session against him.
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