page_title: Presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
section_title: Interpellation of Minister Martin Vizcarra
hierarchical_section_title: Presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski / Political climate / Interpellation of Minister Martin Vizcarra
caption_attribution_description: Português: Martín Vizcarra em julho de 2016.
context_page_description: The presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in Peru began with his inauguration on Peru independence day and ended with the president's resignation following a corruption scandal on March 23, 2018.
  In June 2016, Kuczynski won over Keiko Fujimori of Popular Force with 8,596,937 votes, 50.12 percent of the votes. However, in those same elections, she achieved a majority in the Congress while that the ruling group of Peruanos Por el Kambio drew a few congressmen.
  From the beginning, the relations between the Legislative and the Executive were strained, and on September 15, 2017 the Congress denied the vote of confidence to the then president of the Council of Ministers Fernando Zavala, with which Kuczynski had to appoint a new cabinet. This included five new ministers, and was chaired by the second vice president and also congresswoman Mercedes Aráoz Fernández. His government has also been marked by the Odebrecht case. Kuczynski himself was the subject of a vacancy request in Congress for its conflicts of interest with that company, which in a first attempt did not prosper.
context_section_description: After months of study, the government decided to carry out the project of the construction of the International Airport of Chinchero, signing on February 3, 2017 an addendum to contract modifications with Kuntur Wasi, the consortium had won the award the project in 2014. This was a work that had decades of waiting and was longed for by the people of Cusco, who threatened to get up if it were paralyzed; it seems that the political and social solution prevailed more on the part of the government than on technical issues.
  President Kuczynski and the Minister of Transport and Communications Martín Vizcarra defended the addendum, stating that it was the best option for the State and citizens. It was argued that the State saved $590 million (which was the amount of debt that was held with the company).
  However, since the Congress, specifically on behalf of Congressman Víctor Andrés García Belaunde, a vehement opposition arose, considering the addendum as harmful to the interests of the State. A photo published in the Correo newspaper, dating from June 2016, showed Vizcarra in a thankful meeting of the Peruanos Por el Kambio party for the contributors to his campaign, where Carlos Vargas Loret de Mola, president of the Kuntur Wasi consortium, appears.
  For Garcia Belaunde, that would be the link that would explain the alleged government favoritism toward consortium, so it Vizcarra branded as a "traitor" and demanded his resignation. Harassed by critics, Vizcarra said that the state would no outlay of money to Kuntuhuasi to wait for the final report. On March 1, 2017, Popular Action presented a statement against Vizcarra, seconded by representatives of Popular Force, Frente Amplio and the APRA.
  However, following the onslaught of El Nino, in which some parliamentarians moved to the affected areas to care for the victims, Congress decided to suspend "until further notice" the interpellation to Vizcarra, which was scheduled for March 23 and consisted of 83 questions. Amended the El Niño phenomenon, on May 5, a group of 35 congressmen presented a new motion to question the minister.
  On May 11, the motion was approved with 71 votes and the interpellation was scheduled for May 18, 48 in which the minister answered a list of 83 questions for more than three hours. In the Congress, it was agreed to wait for the report of the Comptroller's Office, indicated for Monday, before proceeding to the vote of censorship.
  But before that happened, Vizcarra submitted his resignation as minister, after announcing in a television interview that he was going to cancel the contract and the addendum for the construction of the Chinchero airport, in view of not having had acceptance in the Congress or the Comptroller's Office. Indeed, moments later, the comptroller general Edgar Alarcon presented his report on the contract Chinchero where recommended legal action against ten officials (six of MTC, two of the MEF and two Ositran) for alleged irregularities in the addendum for the company Kuntur Wasi.
  With Vizcarra, there were already two ministers who left office by Congress in less than a year, after being questioned (the other was Saavedra in Education); What's more, it was the most prestigious government ministers. For this reason, Zavala criticized the majority caucus in the Congress (of Fujimorism), arguing that "one thing is political control, another is the abuse of power. It is one thing to control, another is to obstruct. "
  Succeeding as the First Vice President of Peru and following after Kuczynski's resignation, Vizcarra assumed the Presidency of Peru. Vizcarra has mentioned that he will get his revenge soon.
caption: Minister Vizcarra
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