Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned Wednesday after evidence emerged that that his allies tried to buy lawmakers' votes to avoid his impeachment, sources in the government confirmed to EFE. </s> Peru's president has resigned after 19 months in office. Facing allegations of corruption and vote buying, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (koo-ZIN-ski) stepped down a day before the Peruvian congress planned to fire him. </s> 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 trying to buy off an opposition lawmaker to sway a coming impeachment vote.

Mr. Kuczynski, 79, said in a televised speech he was stepping down. The move comes just 19 months after he took office and in the wake of allegations of wrongdoing over his past business ties with Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht. Mr. Kuczynski was expected... </s> Disgraced former Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who resigned last week in the face of impending impeachment, has been banned from leaving the country while the corruption investigation against him continues.

Judge Juan Carlos Sanchez, a member of the Specialized System for Crimes of Corruption, approved the 18-month international travel ban to allow a probe into PPK’s alleged links with Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to proceed.

The request for the ban, made by the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office, was announced on Saturday after a session held at the Third Preparatory Investigation Court and chaired by Sanchez.

“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.

At the same time, three properties belonging to the former president in the districts of San Isidro and Cieneguilla in Lima were searched as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of money laundering.

Both measures were supported by prosecutor Hamilton Castro, who is investigating transfers of more than US$1.4 million from Odebrecht to the Westfield company, owned by Kuczynski between 2005 and 2007.

On March 21, Kuczynski announced his resignation after the broadcast of several videos in which his allies were seen buying Congressional votes to avoid an impeachment motion against him.

Peru’s Congress accepted the resignation on Friday and swore in former Vice-President Martin Vizcarra as the new head of state. </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 21 (UPI) -- Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced his resignation Wednesday amid an investigation into his connection to the Odebrecht corruption scandal.

Lawmakers have called on the president to step down for months after documents revealed Brazil-based Odebrecht paid $780,000 from 2004-07 to a consulting business set up by Kuczynski.

Last week, Kuczynski said he received a $700,000 payment from an Odebrect affiliate for contacts during a closed-door congressional hearing. The payment came between his time as prime minister and economy minister, and president, something critics said was a conflict of interest.

Even his prior supporters pushed him to resign in recent days amid allegations he attempted to reward members of Congress for their vote against his impeachment.

The 79-year-old is one of the highest-ranking politicians in Latin America to face downfall over the Odebrecht scandal. In a plea deal with the United States Justice Department last year, the construction firm acknowledged it paid nearly $800 million in bribes to secure infrastructure contracts, including $29 million to Peru during 2005 to 2014. The company was fined $2.6 billion over its role in the scandal.

Impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski were scheduled to begin Thursday. </s> Peru’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, has offered his resignation after secret video recordings entangled him in a new corruption scandal on the eve of an impeachment vote, plunging one of Latin America’s steadiest economies into a political crisis.



It was unclear if the opposition-controlled congress would accept his resignation or proceed with a vote on Thursday to force him from office. 



Just 19 months into his five-year mandate Kuczynski would be the first sitting president in Latin America to be forced out due to links to the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which has been at the centre of continent’s biggest corruption scandal.



Kuczynski resigned as lawmakers prepared to vote for the second time in three months on whether to oust the 79-year-old leader from office for “permanent moral unfitness” in a plenary session of Congress. He is accused of repeatedly lying about decade-old business ties to the Brazilian firm.

But the release on Tuesday night of secretly recorded videos allegedly showing the president’s supporters attempting to buy political support ended any possibility that Kuczysnki could survive the attempt to force him out.

The videos released by Peru’s biggest opposition party, Fuerza Popular, allegedly show key allies of the president offering lawmakers a share of public work projects in return for help in defeating a previous impeachment motion against Kuczynski in December 2017.



The video clips shown in a news conference feature a government official explaining to a lawmaker how to make easy money from government projects for his region, while congressman Kenji Fujimori, assures him of government protection.

Government ministers have denied contracts were awarded in exchange for political support and announced they would fire the official. Kenji Fujimori also denied wrongdoing, saying the recordings were a reflection of typical negotiations to get infrastructure projects off the ground.

Although Kuczynski, known as PPK, was not directly implicated in the alleged vote buying, his increasingly battered credibility could not survive a further scandal.

The Oxford and Princeton-educated former banker who promised to modernise Peru is the first victim of a unfolding corruption scandal which has implicated most of the country’s main political players.

“The parliamentary majority worked against PPK from day one,” said Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist at Lima’s Catholic University.

“But he too must take responsibility for his downfall. His business interests, his lack of transparency, his lack of political manouevring to distance himself from the Odebrecht scandal.

“In many ways, he dug his own grave.” </s> A Peruvian judge on Saturday barred former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski from leaving the country for 18 months.

The ruling by Judge Juan Carlos Sanchez came while police were raiding two of Kuczynski's homes, looking for evidence that could tie him to a massive corruption scheme.

Kuczynski, 79, resigned on Wednesday just hours before a parliamentary impeachment vote amid growing questions surrounding massive payments to his consulting firm a decade ago when he was finance minister.

Watch video 02:16 Share Protests erupt in Peru Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2pvnc Protests erupt in Peru after Kuczynski pardons Fujimori

Anti-corruption prosecutor Hamilton Castro told the court there was a long history in Peru that justified restricting Kuczynski's movements.

"Peru since the 19th century has watched the sad show as presidents and ex-presidents flee the country and justice," he said, in asking the court to bar Kuczynski from leaving the country. "This is the historical behavior that we seekers of justice have to take into account."

Kuczynski was not present in the courtroom Saturday as his lawyer promised his client would fully cooperate with the probe and would abide by the prosecutor's request to stay in the country.

Sanchez agreed with the prosecutor's request in issuing his order.

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

Massive corruption scandal

Former Peruvian President Kuczynski waves as he leaves office after announcing his resignation on Wednesday

Prosecutors are investigating payments of more than $780,000 made to Kuczynski's consulting firm from the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht. Given that some of the payments were made at the same time Kuczynski was a government minister there are suspicions that the money was given in return for political favors.

Kuczynski, a former Wall Street investor, has denied any wrongdoing. He said the Westfield Capital consulting firm was being managed by his business partner at the time and that he paid taxes on all earnings.

But the corruption scandal appears bigger than Kuczynski. Odebrecht has admitted to paying a staggering $800 million in bribes to an array of officials across Latin America, including $29 million in Peru.

Kuczynski is the fourth former Peruvian president to be investigated for taking bribes from Odebrecht. One is currently in jail but another, Alejandro Toledo, has refused to return to Peru from the US to face charges. He is suspected of receiving as much $20 million in bribes from Odebrecht during his presidency.

Martin Vizcarra, the former vice-president, is sworn-in as president in Lima on Friday

Kuczynski was a finance minister in the Toledo government from 2001 – 2006. He had denied all links to the construction giant until the firm revealed it issued the bribes in exchange for contracts in December.

On Friday, Martin Vizcarra, Kuczynski's vice president, was sworn in as Peru's new president.

bik/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)

DW editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> Authorities in Peru raided two houses owned by former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski as part of a money laundering probe, the public prosecutor's office said on Saturday.

Both homes are in Lima, the office announced on Twitter.

Television images showed officials entering the properties with boxes, a day after Congress accepted Kuczynski's resignation.

In another development, Kuczynski's defense team said it accepted a request from the prosecutor's office to ban the ex-president from leaving the country.

The former Wall Street banker, 79, is under investigation over bribes he allegedly accepted from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht to secure public works contracts.

The bribes were allegedly paid to consulting companies linked to Kuczynski when he was finance minister under President Alejandro Toledo, who governed from 2001 to 2006.

Toledo is himself accused of receiving $20 million in kickbacks in return for awarding the Brazilian construction giant a contract to build a road in the Amazon.

Kuczynski offered his resignation Wednesday, a day before Congress was due to vote on impeaching him for lying about his ties with Odebrecht.

He had denied all links with the company until it revealed it issued the bribes in exchange for contracts in December.

On Friday, new President Martin Vizcarra, Kuczynski's vice president, was sworn in to replace him.
Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigns amid a vote buying scandal.