Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra’s job is on the line as opposition lawmakers push through an impeachment hearing criticized as a hasty and poorly timed ouster attempt in one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
A police officer stands guard one block away from the Constitutional Court building in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. The court rejected a request by President Martin Vizcarra Thursday to halt impeachment proceedings being pushed by opposition lawmakers who contend he tried to cover up ties with a controversial ally.
His ability to carry forward the anti-corruption agenda he has sought to make the hallmark of his short but eventful administration could be further jeopardized if Vizcarra is perceived as having engaged in influence peddling himself.“His credibility in carrying through that agenda is already problematic,” said Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow with the Washington Office on Latin America. “This really hangs in the balance.
A covert audio recording shared by Edgar Alarcón — 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.Though Vizcarra is entitled to speak to Congress in his own defense, it was widely expected that he would be represented by an attorney.
Vizcarra, at the time a vice president serving as Peru’s ambassador to Colombia, is an engineer by training and was considered an unknown political novice. But he has managed to become a highly popular president, recently getting a 57% approval rating in a poll despite Peru’s severe economic fallout from the COVID-19 crisis and the high infection rate.
Steve Levitsky, a Harvard University political scientist, said Vizcarra has made “some modest steps forward” when it comes to corruption.
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