LIMA, Peru – Peruvian President Martin Vizcara escaped an impeachment vote on Friday, ending a federal battle that threatened to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis amid a devastating epidemic.
The opposition’s proposal to impeach the president for alleged obstruction of justice was supported by 32 of Peru’s 130 legislators, far short of a two-thirds majority of the 87 votes needed to remove it.
The vote paves the way for the president to complete his term, which ends in July, in light of the political turmoil between supporters and opponents of Mr Vizcarara, who has vowed to step down and defend himself against the allegations. Any malpractice.
But what was revealed by the impeachment hearing is further discrediting Peru’s political class, which has been hit hardest by the epidemic seven months before the Latin American country’s general election.
Opposition lawmakers launched the impeachment proceedings last week after releasing a series of audio dio recordings, in which Mr. Vizcarra appeared to instruct subordinates to lie to lawyers about the secondary influence-pedaling scandal.
But after military leaders backed the centrist former vice president, Mr. Vizcarra, and influential opposition leaders came out against the motion, arguing that the country needed stability at one point, but his bid to overthrow him began to falter within hours. Crisis.
In his defense before Congress on Friday, Mr Vizkara said Peru could not be stopped because of the content of some unrecognized audio recordings. “The management of epidemics and economic reactivation cannot remain in suspense.”
Despite building swift leg-downs and amassing large financial reserves before the epidemic, Peru now has the highest per capita death from coronavirus in the world. Its economy, once the fastest growing in the region, is on track to contract 12 percent this year.
Peru has a similar system, so the vote on Friday was the final word of Congress on the impeachment. It is unclear whether Mr Vizcarra will agree to resign if lawmakers vote to remove him, raising the possibility of a constitutional crisis.
Once the governor of the inaccessible mountainous region, Mr. Vizcara took over two years ago, replacing former President Pedro Pablo Kukizanski, who resigned following a corruption scandal.
As President, Mr. Vizcara promised to root out corruption and clean up the country’s political system, a welcome message for many Peruvians who were fed up with former presidents and dozens of politicians, officials, judges and enslaved political vendors. Businessmen in recent years.
But Mr Vizcara has repeatedly clashed with Congress opponents over his efforts to overthrow Peru’s political system, leading to calls for snap assembly elections last year. This vote returned to the more broken and quarrelsome Congress, forcing the President to rely on an unlikely strategic alliance to rule with the Left.
Mr Vizcara is the sixth consecutive president of Peru to be accused of corruption. He cannot be formally examined until his term expires.
The impeachment crisis has allowed outside political candidates to run in next April’s elections, disrupting the traditional political class, which has been plagued by crucial problems facing Peruvians during an unprecedented health and economic crisis.
“I feel frustrated, frustrated and impotent,” said George Forsyth, a former soccer star who has been at the forefront of the fray of potential presidential contenders since the impeachment proceedings began. “These politicians are robbing us of illusions and hope.”
The impeachment bid stems from local media reports in May that little-known pop singer and political supporter, Richard Cisneros, received about 000 50,000 in government contracts to provide motivational classes for civil servants and other services. The singer had given concerts in the last general election in 2016 to support Mr. Vizcarra’s presidential ticket, but he was rejected or taken in favor of a political party.
In a leaked audio recording, Mr. Vizcara tells government officials to visit the presidential palace by Mr. Cicero, at one point saying that “in the investigation, we are all involved.”
“We have to present a common front,” he is heard saying.
Mr Wizkara admitted that it was his voice in the recordings, but he said they had been edited and showed no evidence of wrongdoing.
