Peruvian President Finally Resigns Amid Corruption Scandal

On Wednesday, the President of Peru Pedro Pablo Kuzcynski (PPK) presented his resignation in a press conference, after videos showcasing his government’s corrupt practices were leaked. In these videos, Congressman Kenji Fujimori, son of former dictator Alberto Fujimori is shown trying to buy votes from member of the opposition to block the impeachment of PPK in December. And just three days after he narrowly avoided impeachment, on December 24 the President granted a ‘humanitarian pardon’ to former dictator Fujimori, who oversaw targeted executions of left activists and dissenters in the 1990s. The pardon led to massive protests across the country.

PPK and Odebrecht scandal

This is not the first corruption scandal that the President has been involved in. In December 2017, PPK was accused of having accepting illegal payments from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for government contracts. He was one of several other Latin American politicians who have been accused of accepting bribes from Odebrecht, the company spent at least $800m in payments to politicians just in Latin America.

Initially, the President vehemently denied having received any payments from Odebrecht but later admitted to having received ‘advisory fees’ from them. Due to this discrepancy, politicians from the Fuerza Popular (Popular Force, a populist right-wing party led by Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the Peruvian dictatorship Alberto Fujimori) submitted an impeachment motion on December 15, 2017 citing that he lacks “moral capacity” to lead the country because he lied about the Odebrecht payments.

It is important to note that Keiko Fujimori is also under scrutiny for receiving campaign financing from Odebrecht in 2011. She lost the Presidential elections in 2011 and In 2016, when she lost by a very slim margin to PPK.

On December 21, following 11 hours of debate, Congress held a vote on whether or not to impeach PPK and he was saved by a mere eight votes with 87 votes in favor, 15 against, and 15 abstentions. This outcome was largely credited to Kenji Fujimori who rallied a “rebel” faction of Fuerza Popular to abstain from voting. Subsequently, Kenji was dismissed from the party.

PPK’s pardon of dictator Fujimori

For the people of Peru, the worst part of the impeachment crisis came after the vote. On December 24, just three days after he narrowly avoided impeachment, the President granted a ‘humanitarian pardon’ to former dictator Alberto Fujimori.

Alberto Fujimori ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000. During his term he passed harsh neoliberal IMF-style economic reforms, carried out a coup with support of the military where he shut down Congress, suspended the constitution and vacated the judiciary. He also carried out a harsh anti-insurgency campaign with both the Armed Forces and death squads, during which countless human rights abuses were inflicted upon the rural peasant and indigenous communities such as the massacre of Barrios Altos perpetrated by members of the Peruvian armed forces which left 15 unarmed civilians dead. Or the massacre of Pativilca when a death squad killed 6 unarmed peasants. Additionally, during his term his government carried out campaign of forced sterilization of around 200,000 indigenous and peasant women. In 2000 he fled Peru to Japan until he was extradited in 2007.

Also Read: Operation Condor: US-backed ‘Anti Communist’ Terrorism in Latin America

In 2009, he was found guilty of killings, kidnappings and serious injuries perpetrated by his subordinates against dozens of people while he was head of state. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.

Social movements, human rights organizations and organizations of victims immediately took the streets to express their outrage to what they called an “illegal and abusive use of the constitutional power”. The constitution stipulates certain requirements be met in order to grant a humanitarian pardon like being terminally ill or not having possibility to get appropriate medical care; which was not the case for Alberto Fujimori.

Instead, the pardon is linked directly to the impeachment vote, in which Fujimori’s son saved PPK from the move. “It is clear that this blatant illegality is the hopeless price that the exhausted president paid to the former dictator, in exchange for votes of some congressmen loyal to Fujimori, and whose abstentions saved him of the moral incapacity impeachment just a few days ago in the Congress of the Republic,” stated the Peru chapter of Social Movements ALBA in a statement.

Also Read: Peru: Pardon to Mass Murderer Fujimori Sells and Poisons the Peruvian democracy as Repression Against Population Continues

PPK and the Lima Group

Another reason for the people of Peru to celebrate the end of PPK’s reign is because of his role in the attacks against Venezuela. He has been a staunch supporter of the United States directed Lima Group founded in August 2017, when Foreign Ministers and Representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru met in Peru’s capital Lima to discuss the situation in Venezuela.

The Lima Group form out of the US agenda to destabilise Venezuela’s socialist government and intervene in the oil rich country’s internal affairs in the name of democracy.

The group issued the “Declaration of Lima” where they denounced the actions of the Government of Venezuela in response to the situation of violence generated by the right-wing opposition in Venezuela from April to June of 2017. Stated that they do not recognize the National Constituent Assembly called for by Nicolás Maduro in May 2017 as an effort in order to engage the protesters on the streets, create a space for dialogue between diverse sectors of the population and build proposals for necessary changes in Venezuela.

Lima group had called for complete international isolation of Venezuela.

Most recently, the Lima Group denounced the decision for Presidential Elections to be held in Venezuela in May. Shortly after the Government of Peru announced that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be barred from participating in the Summit of the Americas which will take place in Lima in mid-April. PPK took to his twitter to back-up the decision.

Social Movements of ALBA released a statement yesterday celebrating PPK’s resignation and relating his actions to those of other right-wing leaders which are currently terrorizing their own countries and attacking Venezuela:

“The corruption and anti-democratic and anti-people nature of PPK is an exact reflection of Macri in Argentina and Piñera in Chile. Also of the coup supporting Temer in Brazil; of the recent electoral frauds in Colombia and Honduras. Of Mexico, converted into an enormous mass grave of students, migrants and journalists. And of the egotistical giant in the North, a climate change denier, racist, and misogynist, addicted to dropping bombs and tanks against peaceful and sovereign people that refuse to be submissive to his dictates and interests.”