The Congress of Peru dismisses President Martín Vizcarra

The Parliament of Peru has dismissed the president, Martín Vizcarra, on Monday in his second attempt, after 52 days of a first motion to withdraw him due to "permanent moral incapacity."

The majority of congressmen have indicated that they voted in favor of the “presidential vacancy” to fight against corruption, because the president is investigated by the Prosecutor's Office for the alleged receipt of bribes, in 2013 and 2014, from contractor companies of the Regional Government of Moquegua when he served as governor of that region.

The president has denied the accusations.

The motion for presidential vacancy was presented on October 20 by 27 congressmen, after the newspaper

published testimonies of collaborators with the Prosecutor's Office on the alleged payment of bribes to Vizcarra, by the construction company Obrainsa and its Italian partner Astaldi , in exchange for the award of an irrigation work called Lomas de Ilo.

According to the evidence provided by the whistleblowers, the amount delivered at the beginning of 2014 would amount to about $ 281,000.

The request to remove the president has the majority of votes from Unión por el Perú, an organization led by Antauro Humala, a former military prisoner because he led the seizure of a police station in 2005 that resulted in the death of four policemen.

According to the audio of a telephone conversation from prison, the politician - brother of former President Ollanta Humala - has encouraged his bench in October to press for Vizcarra's departure.

The other political group promoting the dismissal of the Peruvian president is Podemos Peru, whose founder, José Luna Gálvez is investigated for money laundering and aggravated collusion as a front man for the former mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda, in receiving bribes from the Brazilian construction companies Odebrecht and OAS.

In addition, together with his son, José Luna Morales, a congressman from Podemos Peru, they face another tax investigation for having paid bribes to register their political party in 2018. During the support of the proposal to remove the president, the congressman from Unión por el Perú , José Vega, not only mentioned the alleged illegal payments by Obrainsa and Astaldi, but also another possible bribe to the former regional governor - of about $ 359,000 - by the Peruvian construction company ICCGSA, in 2014. On that occasion, it would be in exchange for awarding the expansion of the Moquegua Hospital.

"There are witnesses to the bribes that have been generated, what more do you want, fellow congressmen?" Exclaimed the parliamentarian.

Two prosecutors investigate

Prosecutor Germán Juárez, from the

Special Prosecutor's Team

, is in charge of both investigations that are part of the case called

, in which the companies -as a cartel- divided public works tenders between 2002 and 2016. Some 15 construction companies are under investigation.

Twenty days ago, the prosecutor Juárez asked the secretary general of the presidency to indicate the way to collect the president's testimony this Tuesday, November 3, however - consulted by the press - Vizcarra said that he had not received the notification.

The official reiterated the request and, last Friday, the president responded that he would send a letter to the nation's Attorney, Zoraida Ávalos, due to "doubts and contradictions" in the tax investigation.

The president has denied the accusations in three television interviews.

"They are totally false," he reiterated on Friday.

This Monday the president has asked Ávalos in writing to define which prosecutor is competent to investigate it, because she ordered on October 16 that a prosecutor specialized in crimes of corruption of officials undertake the investigation of the alleged illegal payments for public works in Moquegua.

Therefore, two different magistrates investigate the same matter.

"This situation could put at risk the proper exercise of the rights and guarantees that the Magna Carta confers on me," says Vizcarra in his letter to the attorney general.