Drive to impeach president fails amid virus pandemic

LIMA, Peru — President Martin Vizcarra survived an impeachment vote Friday night after opposition lawmakers failed to garner enough support to oust the leader as the country copes with one of the world’s worst coronavirus outbreaks.

The decision came after long hours of debate in which legislators blasted Vizcarra, but also questioned whether a rushed impeachment process would only create more turmoil in the middle of a health and economic crisis.

At the center of the ordeal is Vizcarra’s relationship with a littleknown musician known as Richard Swing and nearly $50,000 in questionable contracts that he was given by the Ministry of Culture for activities like motivational speaking.

A covert audio recording shared by Edgar Alarcon — a lawmaker himself charged with embezzlement — appears to show Vizcarra coordinating a defense strategy with two aides, trying to get their stories straight on how many times the musician had visited him.

In remarks before Congress Friday, Vizcarra asked for forgiveness for the upheaval the audios have generated but insisted he has committed no crime. He called for a proper investigation and urged lawmakers not to aggravate the nation’s already precarious situation by rushing through an impeachment proceeding.

“Let’s not generate a new crisis, unnecessarily, that would primarily affect the most vulnerable,” he said

During a long day of debate, many lawmakers expressed frustration with Vizcarra, blasting his apology as a weak attempt to make amends and demanding a thorough investigation. But numerous legislators also said they couldn’t support an impeachment that itself was rushed and full of flaws, held before an official probe reaches any conclusions.

“It’s not the moment to proceed with an impeachment which would add even more problems to the tragedy we are living,” lawmaker Francisco Sagasti said.

Vizcarra became president in 2018 after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned the presidency under pressure by Congress after the discovery of payments to his private consulting firm by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which is at the center of a broad corruption scandal.