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The centrist MP Francisco Sagasti was elected this Monday by Congress as the new president of Peru, the third to hold office in a week, with the challenge of closing a political crisis that drove thousands of outraged citizens to the streets.
This 76-year-old engineer, who worked for the World Bank, was elected as the new president of Congress, but it corresponds to him to assume automatically and immediately as head of state, according to the Constitution.
He barely exceeded the 60 votes required to be elected, his colleagues in plenary applauded. He was the only candidate in the running.
(Also read: Why is Peru in a political crisis?)
Sagasti will have to complete the current period of government, which ends on July 28, 2021, after the dismissal of the popular president Martin Vizcarra a week ago and the resignation of his successor Manuel Merino, on Sunday.
A first vote to elect the new president of Peru had failed on Sunday with the leftist parliamentarian Rocío Silva Santisteban as the only candidate, who barely garnered 42 votes.
As new President of Congress, the leftist Mirtha Vásquez was elected, which puts an end to the uncertainty that existed in the country since Sunday, by being left without holders in the executive and legislative branches. The crisis closes a week after Congress dismissed the popular Vizcarra for “moral incapacity” and unleashed the worst political crisis in two decades in the country, amid the health emergency caused by the coronavirus and the economic recession.
Two dead
Several citizens joined the celebration for Merino’s resignation, who from their cars or bicycles applauded his departure.
Merino resigned five days after taking office after massive protests against him, which were harshly repressed by the police, leaving two dead and a hundred wounded. On the walls of downtown Lima and in the Miraflores park, a kind of altars were erected in memory of the two killed in the protests on Saturday, Inti Sotelo (24 years old) and Jack Pintado (22). whom Peruvian activists now call “heroes.”
The prosecution opened a preliminary investigation against Merino on Monday for the death of both protesters apparently at the hands of the police, reported the national prosecutor, Zoraida Ávalos.
This case for “abuse of authority and intentional homicide” is also directed against his chief of staff, Ántero Flores Aráoz, and his Interior Minister, Gastón Rodríguez, said Ávalos, who promised that these acts “will not go unpunished.” The centrist Morado Party was the only one who opposed Vizcarra’s removal from office in Congress a week ago.
Court ruling
What was lived the last week in the streets of Peru.
This Monday a ruling by the Constitutional Court on an appeal requested by Vizcarra when he was still president and faced a first motion for dismissal, from which he was successful on September 18, should be heard.
In that occasion Vizcarra requested that the high court define the scope of the “moral incapacity” of a president, because the Peruvian Magna Carta does not define them. The implications that this ruling could have two months after being requested and when Vizcarra was already removed from power are unknown, while some speculate that it could annul his dismissal.
AFP
Other related news
– Manuel Merino announces his resignation from the Presidency of Peru-More than 15,000 Peruvians marched to reject the interim government
