Peru’s new chief vows to fight corruption
LIMA, Peru — Peru’s new President Martin Vizcarra promised to fight corruption head-on as he took power Friday and vowed to heal the bitter wounds left by a vote-buying scandal that abruptly forced his predecessor from office.
In his first address as president, Vizcarra, the relatively unknown former governor of Peru’s secondsmallest state, appealed for national unity and urged young Peruvians not to succumb to cynicism.
“Let us show you that Peru is bigger than its problems,” he said.
Vizcarra’s 15-minute speech was short on specifics. Other than vowing to form a new Cabinet, he gave little insight into how he would attack Peru’s endemic corruption.
But he received warm applause from lawmakers weary of the monthslong effort to oust Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, whose resignation was approved overwhelmingly hours earlier.
Even the leader of that campaign, Keiko Fujimori, whose opposition party dominates Congress, wished the soft-spoken engineer success in his new job and echoed his call for unity and optimism.
Vizcarra received something of a hero’s welcome shortly after midnight Friday when he arrived from Canada, where he had served as ambassador.
Supporters greeted him at the airport with a large birthday cake in the red and white colors of Peru’s flag.
A last-minute hitch Friday had threatened to delay the transition of power.
Kuczynski said in a tweet that the proposed language of a congressional resolution approving his resignation was “unacceptable,” and if lawmakers press forward with the wording he would reverse his decision to quit, forcing congress to go forward with plans to try and impeach him.
In the end, the language was removed.