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News > Latin America

Peruvian Congress Looks To Oust Kenji Fujimori

  • Peruvian Vice President Martin Vizcarra (L) and Mercedes Araoz talk to the press outside his house in Lima, Peru, June 8, 2016.

    Peruvian Vice President Martin Vizcarra (L) and Mercedes Araoz talk to the press outside his house in Lima, Peru, June 8, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 21 March 2018
Opinion

Peru's Congress is taking steps to impeach five senators, including Kenji Fujimori, in light of the videos showing Kenji and Kuczynksi lawyers trying to buy the vote of a fellow legislator to not impeach the president last December.

Peru's Congress is taking steps to eliminate five senators, including Kenji Fujimori, in light of secretly recorded videos released last night showing Kenji and Kuczynksi lawyers trying to buy the vote of a fellow legislator in exchange for kickbacks.

A series of videos began circulating last night on the internet showing Kenji with the lawyer of recently resigned President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and the National Superintendent of Security and Arms, Freddy Aragon, offering legislator Moises Mamani five percent in kickbacks for future public works projects if he voted against impeaching Kuczynski last December.   

RELATED:
 Disgraced Peru President Kuczynski Resigns After Vote-Buying Scandal

"We’re making a constitutional move to impeach (congressional members) Kenji Fujimori, Bienvenido Ramirez, Guillermo Bocangel, Mercedes Araoz and Carlos Bruce", said right-wing opposition legislator, Luis Galarreta of the Popular Force (PF) party.

"We’re initiating the process … to impeach these five parliamentary members involved in the videos," added Galarreta, who is also congressional president. Local media sources say at least 100 of the necessary 87 legislators are supporting their removal.

Galarreta was also influential in convincing Kuczynski to step down today in light of the scandalous videos that directly implicate the head of state in the bribes, and because of several accusations of corruption he has dodged for months. Today's presidential resignation came a day prior to a second scheduled vote by Congress to decide if Kuczynski was morally fit for the post.

Congress still has to accept the resignation before being able to transfer power to Vice President Martin Vizcarra, Peru's current ambassador to Canada.

"Congress is clearly and emphatically defending the democratic order and ensuring that these incidences don’t contaminate democratic order," Galarreta said in a press conference.

Family Affair

The video shows Kenji, Ramirez and Bocangel, dissidents of the PF - led by Kenji’s sister and fellow congressional member, Keiko Fujimori - bribing Mamani with promises of public projects in his district with the ability to skim five percent off the top were he to vote no on Kuczynski's near-impeachment last December.

When the highly unpopular president escaped the ousting it was widely believed that Kenji defied his sister to salvage the president in exchange for a pardon for their father, former President Alberto Fujimori imprisoned on a 25-year sentence for crimes against humanity, a pardon that Kuczynski granted days later.

Legislators Araoz and Bruce are mentioned, though they don’t appear in the videos.

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