Peruvian first vice president Martín Vizcarra is set to assume office today, after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation on Wednesday amid growing allegations of wrongdoing. Last night Congress was debating whether to accept PPK's resignation, but suspended the debate until this morning, when Vizcarra will be sworn in, reports La República.
In a new twist this morning, a leaked version of the congressional resolution accepting the resignation calls Kuczynski a traitor to his country. PPK said he would not accept such a resolution and would retire his letter of resignation and face impeachment proceedings instead, reports La Mula.
Vizcarra assumes in the midst of a wider political crisis -- nearly half of the electorate supports calling early elections. About 3,000 people marched outside the Congress in Lima yesterday evening, demanding general elections, reports La Mula.
Several parties yesterday called for government focused on unity and targeting corruption, and transitioning to an early election. Fuerza Popular, the main opposition party that is also responsible for undermining PPK's ability to govern, was initially opposed to the call for an early election, reports La República. Vizcarra has received assurances from opposition lawmakers that he will be allowed to govern, reports Reuters.
During yesterday's session, many lawmakers rejected the terms of PPK's resignation, saying he had not apologized to the country nor admitted his role in the political crisis, reports La Mula.
Peruvian anti-graft prosecutors sought to bar PPK from leaving the country yesterday, reports Reuters. He will lose presidential immunity later today.
The Odebrecht scandal has impacted most major Peruvian figures, and some analysts are starting to compare its impact to that in Brazil, reports the Washington Post.
Videos released this week purportedly showing PPK supporters buying votes against an impeachment motion pushed the teetering government over the edge. The videos implicate Kenji Fujimori, and were taken by a supporter of his sister Keiko Fujimori, leader of the dominant Fuerza Popular party. "For many Peruvians, the surreptitious recording brought back painful memories of the corruption and blackmail techniques used by the Fujimori regime two decades ago," notes the WP.
But the crisis also shows the fragility of Peru's democracy say some analysts. Over the past 19 months of the Kuczynski administration, Congress either fired or forced the resignation of three ministers and at one point it fired the entire cabinet, and lawmakers tried to fire the attorney general and four judges of the Constitutional Court, reports the New York Times. Lawmakers twice accepted impeachment motions against Kuczynski.
News Briefs
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- The Miss Venezuela beauty pageant has been suspended as the organization investigates allegations that contestants benefited from government corruption, reports the BBC.
- The International Labour Organization launched a commission of inquiry on Wednesday into complaints that Venezuela is violating standards including freedom of association and workers' rights to organize, reports Reuters.
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- A BBC investigation has found that fake social media accounts and blogs were used to back the candidacy of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil during the 2010 election campaign.
- A Brazilian federal appeals court will make a final ruling next week on a corruption conviction of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, potentially sending the popular leader to jail, reports Reuters.
- Ecuadorean authorities say the a faction of the Colombian ELN guerrillas is responsible for an attack that killed three soldiers, reports the Associated Press.
- The Miami Herald has a critical analysis of the Cuban electoral system, a single party list for National Assembly members who will soon choose a new president, likely Miguel Díaz Canel.
- Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico will be among several allies exempt from steel and aluminium tariffs to be implemented by the U.S., reports the BBC.
- A tiny humanoid mummy found in Chile's Atacama dessert was so malformed that it fueled theories of alien life-forms. Instead, DNA analysis has revealed it to be the remains of a baby girl, who was likely stillborn or died soon after birth, reports the Guardian.
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