Peruvian president faces probe in scandal
Impeachment bid fails, but bribery claims unabated
LIMA, Peru — Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s troubles are far from over, despite having dodged impeachment over ties to the Brazilian construction giant implicated in Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal.
Peru’s leader faces a distracting criminal probe into his involvement with Odebrecht, potentially opening another chapter in the bribery scandal that has ended the careers of some of the region’s most prominent politicians. Kuczynski is due for questioning at the chief prosecutor’s office next week.
Opposition legislators, who control Congress, fell eight votes short of the two-thirds threshold needed to oust the president Thursday night following a halfday of impassioned debate.
The impeachment attempt left Kuczynski weakened, but it also revealed divisions inside the opposition Popular Force party, which led the impeachment drive. Lawmaker Kenji Fujimori, brother of the party’s leader, abstained from the impeachment vote. Both Kenji and party leader Keiko Fujimori are children of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori.
Keiko Fujimori, 42, has tried to push a conservative political agenda. Her brother has maintained amicable relations with Kuczynski and other opponents as he presses for the release of their father from prison.
Some lawmakers said Kuczynski won support in Congress by agreeing to free the former strongman, a charge the president and his supporters denied. Kuczynski has said he is evaluating Alberto Fujimori’s sentence based on such factors as the former president’s health.
Kuczynski is one of several politicians in Latin America to be dogged by allegations of taking illicit money from Odebrecht. The Brazilian firm admitted in a 2016 U.S. Justice Department agreement to paying nearly $800 million US in kickbacks to politicians, their campaigns and political parties to secure lucrative public-works contracts.
In Ecuador, Vice-President Jorge Glas has been sentenced to six years in prison for orchestrating an Odebrecht bribery scheme. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is appealing his conviction on charges of corruption and money laundering related to the plot. In Peru, two former presidents stand accused of accepting money from Odebrecht. One is behind bars and the other in the U.S. seeking to avoid extradition.
Kuczynski came under fire after an opposition-led investigative committee revealed documents last week showing Odebrecht made $782,000 in payments to his private consulting firm more than a decade ago.