Peruvian politicians remove president over alleged graft and Covid response

Peruvian politicians have voted to remove President Martin Vizcarra from office, accusing him of taking bribes years ago and poorly handling the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The president announced he would not try to fight the decision, while analysts called the action by legislators an overt and risky power grab in a country where Mr Vizcarra is highly popular but Congress is not.

“Today I am leaving the government palace,” Mr Vizcara said. “Today I am going home.”

The president’s removal was supported by 105 legislators — far more than the 87 votes needed for the two-thirds majority required to remove Peru’s president. Many said they were casting their vote for his removal in the name of dead loved ones.

“Because of his negligence and incapacity we’ve lost thousands of compatriots,” politician Robinson Gupioc said during more than five hours of debate.

Thousands gathered on the streets of Peru’s capital after the vote to denounce Congress, with some chanting: “Get out coup plotters.”

The president denied any wrongdoing in a forceful speech before Congress but politicians said they did not believe him.

They also lambasted his response to the virus, pointing to rising poverty, deadly oxygen shortages and the country’s misguided use of rapid antibody tests.

Prosecutors are investigating the allegations but have not charged Mr Vizcarra.

Mr Vizcarra rose to the nation’s highest office in 2016 after then-president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned amid allegations that he had failed to disclose payments from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to his private consulting firm.

He has identified defeating corruption as his principal mission and is one of the nation’s most popular leaders in recent history.

But he has also repeatedly faced off with Congress, where he has few allies, and Peru’s laws allow legislators to dismiss a president on the vaguely defined grounds of “moral incapacity”.