Peru’s president makes forceful plea against impeachment

FILE: Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (Photo: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski/Facebook)

LIMA, Peru — President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski made a forceful plea to lawmakers Thursday, insisting he had no involvement in payments by Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to his private consulting firm and saying a rushed impeachment proceeding was a threat to Peru’s democracy.
‘‘I am here to look you in the eye, and tell you that I am not corrupt and I have not lied,’‘ he said, speaking slowly and assertively.
The 79-year-old former Wall Street banker was in a fight for his political survival after an opposition-led investigative committee revealed documents showing the Brazilian construction giant at the centre of Latin America’s largest corruption scandal made $782,000 in payments to his consulting firm a decade ago. Some of the payments overlapped with years that Kuczynski spent as a government minister.
If lawmakers succeeded in removing him, Kuczynski would be the region’s first president ousted over the Odebrecht corruption scandal.
Analysts worried the impeachment vote could usher in a new period of uncertainty for Peru, which is one of South America’s most politically volatile nations. The vote was being held just eight days after the Odebrecht documents were first disclosed and was pushed by the opposition Popular Force party led by Keiko Fujimori, who is the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori. She narrowly lost to Kuczynski in last year’s presidential election.
‘‘That they would impeach the president is not an unthinkable thing,’‘ said Steve Levitsky, a Harvard University political scientist who has spent years studying Peru. ‘‘It’s that they would do it in a week without serious investigation, without a serious process of public debate.’‘
High-ranking politicians across Latin America are being charged and sentenced to jail for taking bribes from Odebrecht. In a 2016 plea deal with the U.S. Justice Department, the construction giant admitted to paying nearly $800 million to politicians, their campaigns and political parties in return for lucrative public works contracts that earned the company some $3.3 billion in profits.
In Ecuador, Vice-President Jorge Glas has been sentenced to six years in jail for orchestrating an Odebrecht bribery scheme. Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is appealing his conviction on charges of corruption and money laundering related to the plot. In Peru, two former presidents stand accused of accepting money from Odebrecht. One is behind bars and the other in the U.S. seeking to avoid extradition.
In a letter to a Peruvian newspaper Saturday, Odebrecht confirmed Kuczynski’s assertion that the payments in question were all handled by his colleague, Gerardo Sepulveda. Though little has been shared regarding exactly what services Kuczynski’s Westfield Capital provided, Odebrecht officials said the money was taxed, accounted for and not part of the corruption investigation.
During his 30-minute testimony Thursday, Kuczynski showed the contracts in question on an overhead screen, pointing out that none contained his signature. He reiterated earlier assertions that he had no knowledge of the payments and that he never favoured any company while minister or president. He characterized the transactions as part of a legal contract between two private companies and said his opponents were trying to force him from power without due process.
‘‘What’s in play here is not the impeachment of a president but the democracy that cost Peru so much to recover,’‘ he said.
On Tuesday, Kuczynski wrote to the Organization of American States requesting that the Washington-based group send an observer to monitor impeachment proceedings. The OAS said it was sending two delegates to Lima for Thursday’s vote.
Kuczynski’s testimony was followed by a two-hour speech from his attorney, Alberto Borea, who urged lawmakers to punish the president only if congress determined he indeed committed of a crime. The legislators accused Kuczynski of ‘‘moral incapacity,’‘ for which no trial was required.
Borea implored the legislators to conduct a thorough investigation first.
‘‘If afterward you conclude this man is guilty, crucify him,’‘ Borea said, pointing to the stoic president dressed in a grey suit beside him. ‘‘But don’t crucify him before.’‘
The president’s detractors contend that he should have disclosed the payments before taking office and that, at the very least, as a high-ranking government minister when the money was paid he should have done a better job to shield himself from potential conflicts of interest.
Polls within Peru had suggested a majority of Peruvians wanted the already deeply unpopular president out of office.
As a senior business leader and statesman with many ties to the private sector, Kuczynski was ‘‘sort of Trump-like in not clearly breaking those ties. And he’s paying a price for it,’‘ Levitsky said.
In order to oust Kuczynski, opposition lawmakers needed to secure 87 of 130 votes. The Popular Force party holds 71 seats in congress.
Lawmakers began debating Kuczynski’s removal Thursday afternoon, one-by-one stating their case on why the president should or should not be removed.
Opposition lawmaker Milagros Takayama questioned why the president repeatedly insisted until recently that he had no ties to Odebrecht and agreed to go before the investigative commission only after the documents showing the payments were released.
‘‘We deserve a Peru free of corruption and ineptitude,’‘ she said.
Hundreds of the president’s supporters gathered outside congress during his testimony, waving giant posters with the bespectacled leader’s photo.
If Kuczynski should be removed, First Vice-President Martin Vizcarra would be next in line. The former engineer has relatively little political experience at a national level and it is likely he would face many of the same difficulties Kuczynski has encountered in governing.