Peru’s president fights impeachment threat
Lima, (MILLAT ONLINE):Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was Wednesday fighting for his political life on the eve of an appearance before his country’s Congress, which wants to impeach him for alleged graft and covering up ties to a disgraced Brazilian construction group.
His departure would make him the highest-profile political figure to be punished in the expanding scandal surrounding Odebrecht, a Brazilian engineering and construction firm that admitted to paying millions of dollars in bribes in several Latin American countries to secure public works contracts.
And the odds appear stacked against survival. The number of lawmakers demanding impeachment on grounds of “permanent moral incapacity” exceed the vote threshold needed in the 130-seat Congress to pass the motion.
In apparent preparation of being forced to hand over the reins, Peru’s First Vice President Martin Vizcarra flew back to Lima on Wednesday from Canada, where he is ambassador.
“The president ordered me to return today and here I am, by the president’s side,” Vizcarra said on arrival.
“President Kuczynski’s luck has run out,” a political analyst, Luis Benavente, told AFP. He predicted the 79-year-old center-right head of state would be impeached on Thursday.