The vice president of Peru arrived in Lima on Thursday from Canada to be sworn-in as president.

Martin Vizcarra, who was received by hundreds of supporters at the Jorge Chavez International Airport, will replace Pedro Pablo Kuczynski after he stepped down earlier this week. </s> LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's Vice President Martin Vizcarra will be sworn in as president, likely at around 11 a.m. or noon on Friday (1600-1700 GMT), after current President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation ahead of an impeachment vote, the head of Congress said.

Luis Galarreta, an opposition lawmaker who is the current president of Congress, told a press conference on Wednesday that all of the country's legislative blocs had agreed to accept Kuczynski's resignation in a plenary session on Thursday.

 Kuczynski offered to step down earlier on Thursday as it looked nearly impossible for him to survive a vote to oust him after the opposition released videos that appeared to show his allies offering public work contracts in exchange for political support. Kuczynski denied wrongdoing and blamed the opposition for seeking to depict him as corrupt. 

 

 (Reporting by Teresa Cespedes; Editing by James Dalgleish) </s> Martin Vizcarra is new Peruvian president after resignation of Pablo Kuczynski

Peru's congress has voted to accept the resignation of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Sputnik reported.

Martin Vizcarra is sworn in as Peruvian president after predecessor ousted over corruption charges. Martin Vizcarra, a 55-year-old engineer and technocrat who also was Peru's ambassador to Canada, took the oath of office shortly after 1 p.m. and was presented with the presidential sash by congressional president Luis Galarreta.

"With faith and optimism, Peru will always move forward," Vizcarra said in brief remarks.

105 lawmakers voted for the president's resignation, while 11 voted against and 4 abstained.

Earlier, the Peruvian Congress, which has accepted Kuczynski's resignation, stated that it would debate the matter. Peruvian Vice President Martin Vizcarra will likely be sworn in as president, according to reports. </s> Peru's ambassador to Canada is in line for a promotion — to the presidency.

Martín Vizcarra is headed back to Peru today after President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation Wednesday, ahead of an impeachment vote.

Pressure was mounting on Kuczynski to step down after secretly recorded videos emerged showing several of his allies allegedly trying to buy the support of an opposition lawmaker.

Vizcarra, who has been serving as Peru's ambassador to Canada since October 2017, is also the country's first vice president and is now in line to become Peru's next leader.

"He will be finishing his duties as ambassador today and he's on his way back to Peru," said Natalia Santanilla, executive assistant to the ambassador in Ottawa.

Peru's congress is expected to debate Thursday whether to accept Kuczynski's resignation or proceed with planned impeachment proceedings.

In December, lawmakers initiated the impeachment process over Kuczynski's ties to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. He was accused of lying about $782,000 in payments his consulting firm received a decade ago from the company.

If Vizcarra and Peru's second vice president decide to resign alongside him — something they have vowed to do in the past — power would be transferred to the head of congress, who would be required to call new elections.

Santanilla said Vizcarra was asked to return to his country on Wednesday and embassy staff in Ottawa were notified Thursday morning.

"I have no idea what's going to be happening in the next days in Peru," said Santanilla, who admitted news of the ambassador's departure came as a surprise.

On Wednesday night, Vizcarra posted on Twitter that he was outraged by the current situation in Peru but, in keeping with his country's constitution, would return home to fulfil his duties.

Meanwhile, the eighth Summit of the Americas is scheduled to take place in Lima on April 13 and 14. Global Affairs Canada was not immediately able to comment on how the situation may affect Canada's plans to attend. </s> Peru’s center-right President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced his resignation on Wednesday after vote-buying allegations ensnared him in a fresh scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote, capping months of political turmoil in one of Latin America’s most stable economies. Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker who once held U.S. citizenship, promised a “constitutional and orderly” transition of power to end what he described as a hostile political climate that had made governing nearly impossible.

But Kuczynski, who is expected to be replaced by Vice President Martin Vizcarra on Friday, denied allegations of wrongdoing and blamed the premature end of his five-year term on the right-wing opposition party that controls Congress.

“I’ve worked for nearly 60 years of my life with complete honesty. The opposition has tried to depict me as a corrupt person,” Kuczynski said in a pre-recorded video message to the nation that broadcast as he left the presidential palace.

But Kuczynski 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.”

Lawmakers agreed to accept Kuczynski’s resignation instead of moving forward with a vote scheduled for Thursday on whether to oust him on grounds he was “morally unfit” to govern, said the president of Congress, Luis Galarreta.

Galarreta said he would swear Vizcarra in as president at around midday Friday.

A former governor of a mining region who once helped secure community support for Anglo American Plc’s Quellaveco copper project, Vizcarra has served as Peru’s ambassador to Canada since September and is currently in Ottawa.

In recent days, Vizcarra has received public assurances from opposition lawmakers that they will support his government. But he will take office amid a fractured party, widespread disgust for elected officials in Peru and inherit economic growth that slowed to 2.5 percent last year.

Vizcarra, who turns 55 years old on Thursday, appealed to the public to pull through the crisis on Twitter. “I’m outraged by the current situation like the majority of Peruvians. But I’m convinced that together we can show that we can once more push forward.”

Kuczynski had been scheduled to welcome Donald Trump on the U.S. president’s first visit to Latin America next month, where many of the region’s leaders plan to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to enact democratic reforms.

A White House official, speaking on background, said Trump still plans to attend the summit.

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

Markets that had cheered Kuczynski’s rise to power rallied on news of his resignation on Wednesday, amid expectations it would end the political uncertainty that has shadowed Peru since the opposition first sought to oust Kuczynski in December.

Popular Force – the country’s most powerful opposition party – tried to impeach Kuczynski in December after revealing his company received money from Odebrecht – a Brazilian company at the center of Latin America’s biggest graft scandal – while he held public office more than a decade ago.

Kuczynski unexpectedly stayed in power in December with the help of former autocratic Alberto Fujimori, whom he pardoned from a human rights sentence days later in what was widely seen as political payback.

Ahead of the new impeachment vote on Thursday, Popular Force released a raft of video and audio that appeared to show Kuczynski’s allies offering lucrative public work contracts to lawmakers in exchange for political support.

Kuczynski said the recordings had been edited unfairly as part of a campaign to discredit his government and stressed that no corruption allegation had been proven. </s> A Peruvian judge on Saturday imposed travel restrictions on former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who resigned this week while facing near-certain

 impeachment over ties to a construction firm at the heart of a graft investigation.

The order by Judge Juan Carlos Sanchez bans Kuczynski from leaving Peru for 18 months while his links to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that has acknowledged bribing officials across Latin America, are investigated.

"The legal argument is well founded to impede citizen Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from exiting the country," the order said.

The ex-president's lawyer, Cesar Nakazaki, said Kuczynski would abide by the order and cooperate with the investigation.

State security agents, meanwhile, searched two houses belonging to Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker.

Kuczynski, who denies wrongdoing, resigned on Wednesday. Two days later his vice president, Martin Vizcarra, was sworn in as Peru's new leader, promising to fight corruption "at any cost."

Vizcarra said he would form a completely new cabinet and asked for lawmakers to help him restore the public's trust in institutions damaged by the political crisis </s> March 24 (UPI) -- Martín Vizcarra is the new president of Peru, having been sworn on Friday.

He stepped into a role left vacant when former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned this week amid a corruption probe into the Odebrecht scandal that revealed a pattern of illegal behavior by the veteran politician. The 79-year-old admitted accepting $700,000 from an Odebrecht affiliate for contracts.

Vizcarra brings relatively little political experience to Peru's highest office. Prior to serving as an ambassador to Canada and first vice president, Vizcarra was a one-term governor of a small mining state.

During his swearing-in ceremony, Vizcarra said he would bring Peru's political parties together to fight corruption.

"The moment has arrived to say enough," Vizcarra said. "We are a country with a future, but that future depends on our behavior."

Last year, Odebrecht, a construction firm, told the U.S. Department of Justice that it shelled out some $800 million in bribes to secure infrastructure contracts. Between 2005 and 2014, the company paid Peruvian officials $29 million.

The Odebrecht corruption scandal has spanned the entirety of Latin America, but Kuczynski is the first president to be forced from office.

Protesters lined the streets of Lima, Peru's capital, on Thursday night to deride Kuczynski and challenge Vizcarra's ascension, a longtime ally of the disgraced president.

"Get rid of them all," activists shouted.

But while many citizens see the country's political class as corrupt, few know anything about their new president. A poll conducted earlier this month found 81 percent of Peruvians failed to recognize Vizcarra's name. </s> LIMA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra swore in actor and former Culture Minister Salvador del Solar as his new prime minister on Monday in a cabinet shuffle that may help shore up his slipping approval ratings.

Vizcarra opted to keep Finance Minister Carlos Oliva and Energy and Mines Minister Francisco Ismodes in their posts, but changed eight other ministers, including the production and agriculture ministers.

No major policy changes were expected under del Solar, who has degrees in law and international relations but is best known for his starring roles in Spanish-language films.

Del Solar, 48, served as culture minister for about a year under former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who resigned in a graft scandal a year ago.

Vizcarra, Kuczynski’s former vice president, took office to replace Kuczynski and won broad support for pushing measures aimed at fighting corruption and taking a tougher stance with the opposition-controlled Congress.

But Vizcarra’s approval rating fell seven percentage points to 56 percent this month, according to a Datum Internacional poll last week, after reaching a high of 66 percent in January.

Presidents in Peru often reshuffle their cabinets when their approval ratings fall, though all recent presidents have ended their terms widely unpopular.

Despite occasional bouts of political turmoil, Peru has been one of Latin America’s most stable and fastest-growing economies this century. </s> Vizcarra was both vice president as well as his country's ambassador to Canada. (AFP)
Vice President Martín Vizcarra is sworn in to replace Kuczyski.