https://www.marketwatch.com/story/pr...dal-2018-03-21

LIMA, Peru — President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a market-friendly leader and one of Washington’s allies in Latin America, resigned Wednesday after a secretly recorded video appeared to show his allies offering to reward opponents with public contracts in exchange for not impeaching him.

Kuczynski, 79, said in a televised speech he was stepping down and had submitted his letter of resignation to congress, ending his presidency after just 19 months. His decision came in the wake of allegations of wrongdoing over his past business ties with Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, which has acknowledged to Brazilian and U.S. investigators having paid $800 million in bribes to obtain construction contracts in 10 Latin American countries, including Peru.

Kuczynski denied wrongdoing in his speech, saying his resignation was for the good of the country as the current political crisis has undermined his ability to govern. He said there would be an orderly presidential transition, with Vice President Martín Vizcarra, who is also the ambassador to Canada, taking over.

“This has created enormous damage for the country,” Kuczynski said of the scandal that led to his downfall, speaking as he sat at a desk with his ministers behind him. “For the good of the country, I’m resigning as the president of the republic.” Had he not resigned, Kuczynski would likely have been impeached on Thursday by congress, leading to his removal from office.

https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-03-...ving-country-0

Peru prosecutors seek to bar toppled president from leaving country

Anti-graft prosecutors in Peru on Wednesday asked a judge to bar President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from leaving the South American country hours after he announced his resignation in the face of near-certain impeachment, a judiciary source told Reuters.

Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker who once held US citizenship, is guaranteed presidential immunity from prosecution until Congress formally accepts his resignation and Vice President Martín Vizcarra is sworn in to replace him.

Luis Galarreta, the president of Congress, said that would probably happen on Friday.

Kuczynski denies wrongdoing and has promised to cooperate with a graft probe into his connections to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that has acknowledged bribing officials across Latin America.

The rightwing opposition party that controls Congress, Popular Force, first sought to force Kuczynski from office in December after revealing he failed to disclose payments Odebrecht made to his Flordia-based consulting firm while he held public office in a previous government.

Kuczynski had vowed not to resign for months, blaming the rightwing opposition for constant scandals that he said had made it impossible for him to govern Peru, one of Latin America's most stable markets and the world's second-largest producer of copper.

But secret audio and video recordings released this week ensnared Kuczynski in vote-buying allegations that prompted even his staunchest supporters to demand he step down.

Kuczynski said the material, in which his allies are heard offering access to lucrative public work contracts in exchange for political support, had been edited as part of a relentless campaign to malign him.

But the hostile political climate had become untenable, he added.

"I think what's best for the country is for me to resign. ... I don't want to be an obstacle for the nation's search for a path to unity and harmony," Kuczynski said in a pre-recorded video televised as he was driven from the presidential palace to his home in Lima's financial district.

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Kuczynski's announcement marked a spectacular downfall for a man elected less than two years ago amid hopes he would turbocharge growth while cleaning up government corruption and modernizing the Andean nation of about 30 million people.
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