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THE PRESIDENT OF PERU, MANUEL Merino, has resigned just five days after taking office, sparking celebrations in the capital, Lima, following street protests against him and the overthrow of his popular predecessor.
Merino, 59, resigned shortly after a congressional crisis session asked him to resign before 6pm (11pm Irish time) or face censorship.
“I want the whole country to know that I am resigning,” Merino said in a televised speech, the day after a police crackdown on protesters left at least two dead.
Congress failed to agree on a new president in a vote last night. Left-wing legislator and former human rights activist Rocío Silva Santisteban, supposedly a consensus candidate, needed 60 votes but only got 42, with 52 against and 25 abstentions.
“Congress had in its hands the solution to this political crisis that they generated. However, today they have turned their backs on the country ”, tweeted the former Minister of Economy, Vizcarra Maria Antonieta Alva.
Then the party whips held a meeting behind closed doors while thousands of protesters remained peacefully in the streets, undisturbed by the police.
Thousands of people have taken to the streets in days of protests against Merino after the overthrow of his predecessor Martín Vizcarra, who was indicted by Congress on Monday for corruption charges.
Elections are scheduled for April 2021 and Merino was due to leave power in July, when Vizcarra’s term was ending.
The congressional ultimatum came after the Health Ministry said that two protesters were killed on Saturday during a massive and peaceful march in Lima, which was put down by police who fired pellets and tear gas.
Merino said that to avoid a “power vacuum,” the 18 ministers he was sworn in on Thursday would remain temporarily in office, although almost all had resigned following the crackdown on Saturday’s protests.
His resignation was greeted by noisy celebrations in Lima, with protesters taking to the streets honking horns and banging pots.
“We were successful. Do you realize what we are capable of? The midfielder of the Peruvian soccer team, Renato Tapia, wrote on social networks.
Some lawmakers questioned the wisdom of eliminating Vizcarra amid the coronavirus pandemic and a crippling recession.
The pandemic has hit Peru hard, and the politically fragile country has the highest per capita death rate in the world with almost 35,000 deaths, and GDP plummeted more than 30% in the second quarter.
Police stand guard as people demonstrate refusal to recognize Peru’s new government
Source: AP / PA Images
Police criticized
Vizcarra, 57, welcomed the resignation of his rival, having questioned the legality of his dismissal last week.
“A dictatorship has left the palace,” he told reporters in front of his home in Lima, adding that Merino “was breaking our democracy.”
The popular former president did not rule out returning to his mandate and urged that a constitutional challenge to his November 9 dismissal be promptly pronounced.
“It is essential that the Constitutional Court pronounce itself urgently and say if what the congressmen did on the 9th is legal,” said Vizcarra.
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Thousands of protesters, mostly young people, took to the streets on Saturday to oppose what they called a parliamentary coup against Vizcarra.
A police crackdown left at least two dead and 94 injured, according to Health Ministry officials. But the National Human Rights Coordinator said 112 were injured and warned that a dozen had also “disappeared” during the protests.
The violent crackdown on the protests eroded any political support Merino had, and the head of Congress called for his immediate resignation.
The police tactics have been criticized by the UN and rights organizations such as Amnesty International since the protests began on Tuesday.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights lamented the death of the two protesters and demanded “an immediate investigation of the events and the establishment of responsibility.”
Vizcarra had broad support since he succeeded Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the former Wall Street banker who was forced to resign under threat of impeachment over corruption allegations in 2018.
Congress indicted and removed Vizcarra on Monday over allegations that he received bribes from developers when he was governor of the Moquegua region in 2014, charges he denies.
– © AFP 2020
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