11/09/2020 21:20
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/09/2020 21:29
The president of Peru, Martín Vizcarra, who made the fight against corruption his main banner, sailing against the current of the political class,
was removed by Congress
during a second impeachment trial in two months.
105 votes in favor were reached out of a total of 130 congressmen, when the necessary minimum was 87. This Tuesday the president of Congress, Manuel Merino, must take office.
Invoking adherence to truth and transparency, Vizcarra was the subject of a new lightning impeachment in Congress
for alleged "moral incapacity,"
after denying having received bribes for public works contracts in 2014, when he was governor of the southern region of Moquegua.
"I emphatically and categorically reject these accusations," "I have not collected any bribes," he affirmed, defending himself personally before the plenary, without resorting to a lawyer.
The tenacity and honesty
that he preaches helped him get rid of the first impeachment process, which had him on the ropes on September 18 for apparently inducing two collaborators in investigations of Parliament and the Prosecutor's Office to lie over questioned contracts with a singer.
Although his image was damaged and his power weakened, he survived to face in the eight months that remain in his mandate the problems that mark his agenda:
pandemic, economic recession
, an outbreak of diphtheria and the elections of April 2021, in the who cannot be a candidate.
His opponents in Congress allege that he received bribes when he was governor.
The amounts of the alleged bribes amount to 2.3 million soles
(about 623,000 dollars
), in a case investigated by the Prosecutor's Office since 2018, but which has only now gained notoriety due to press reports.
Vizcarra denies those payments and attributes the motion
to a maneuver to delay the April 2021 general elections
, and extend the term of the current Congress.
The Prosecutor's Office opened a file to Vizcarra but will only be able to investigate it when his term ends, on July 28, 2021, since he now has immunity.
"The allegations of bribes to President Vizcarra are serious, without a doubt, and require rigorous investigation by the prosecution, but the accusation can only occur at the end of his term," wrote political analyst Augusto Alvarez in his column in the newspaper
La República .
Without party but with popular support
With no political party or bench in a Congress
controlled by a populist opposition, Vizcarra has failed to build bridges with parliament.
However, the main reason why he does not step aside is because of the support of the people:
nine out of ten Peruvians
prefer that he complete his term and be investigated later by the prosecution, according to a survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies.
In 32 months in office, the center-right president has had
record levels of approval
for his reforms to prevent corruption in a country where the four previous presidents were under investigation for the scandal at the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.
"We will be very firm in the fight against corruption and against all those actions that are at odds by law," Vizcarra told Congress when he took office on March 23, 2018.
Those words would be a kind of declaration of principles, turned into his main support
to choose his battles appealing to the "indignant"
of the street.
57 years old, this provincial engineer with no ties to the Lima elite took office until July 2021 to complete the five-year term of the resigned Pedro Pablo Kuczynski,
of whom he was vice president.
"He is much more careful in managing his image" and "much more politically located," analyst Fernando Tuesta tells AFP, when comparing him to Kuczynski.
Those who know him highlight the simplicity of Vizcarra
and assure that he is a meticulous manager, careful with public spending and convinced that development begins with education.
Married to Maribel Díaz, a school teacher, the couple have four children.
In 2008, in Moquegua, he led
a protest for ten
days against the mining company Southern, demanding a better distribution of the social funds generated by mining for that region marked by inequalities.
That
removed from anonymity
this graduate of the National University of Engineering, in Lima, who made a living with his construction company.
Three years later he ventures into politics and is elected Governor of Moquegua (2011-2014).
One of its main achievements was to make it one of the regions with the highest GDP investment in education.
In 2016,
Kuczynski invited him to run for the first vice presidency
to attract the vote of southern Peru.
He was born in Lima on March 22, 1963 after a medical emergency from his mother, but grew up in Moquegua.
His parents named him in honor of the Peruvian saint Martín de Porres, to whom they entrusted him when he almost died of a lung complication shortly after birth.
Source: AFP and EFE
PB
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