Embattled Peru leader announces resignation

PERU’S President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced his resignation on Wednesday in an address to the nation, the day beforehewastofaceanimpeachment vote in Congress.

The 79-year-old former Wall Street banker, under fire over his links to Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, has denied he took bribes. Kuczynski is the first president to lose his job over the scandal in which the Brazilian company admitted paying out millions of dollars in bribes and gifts to Latin American politicians and businessmen to secure public works contracts.

“Faced with this difficult situation that unfairly makes me appear guilty, I think the best thing for the country is for me to resign the presidency of the republic,” he said in the televised address. Congress said it would debate the resignation on Thursday and vote on Friday on whether to accept it.

Pressure built on Kuczynski throughout Wednesday after the opposition alleged the president was trying to buy votes ahead of the impeachment ballot.

Lawmakers from Keiko Fujimori’s Popular Force party released recordings of her brother Kenji and others apparently negotiating public works contracts in return for votes, and said it was proof that Kuczynski was trying to buy votes.

The videos, from December, were filmed ahead of the previous impeachment vote, which Kuczynski survived with Kenji Fujimori’s help. Days later, Kuczynski pardoned the Fujimoris’s imprisoned father, ex-President Alberto Fujimori, in what was widely seen as a payoff for support.