LIMA, Nov 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Former Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra appeared before a prosecutor on Thursday to testify about his alleged corruption investigation, and ruled out leaving the country.
“As a citizen, I am not going to leave the country, I am not going to go to any embassy or get admitted into a clinic. I am going to be at my home contributing to the investigation,” the former president told reporters outside the office of prosecutor German Juarez.
The former president is under investigation for allegedly accepting 2.3 million soles (about 655,000 U.S. dollars) in bribes from two consortiums seeking public works contracts when he was governor of the southern Moquegua region from 2011 to 2014.
Vizcarra was impeached by the Congress on Monday for alleged corruption, and a day after, Manuel Merino, president of the Congress, assumed the presidency of the Andean country.
Vizcarra has questioned the “legality and legitimacy” of his removal.
“Legality is in question because the Constitutional Court has not yet ruled and legitimacy is given by the people,” he told reporters outside his home in the capital.
He said earlier he was leaving the presidency with his head “held high” despite allegations of bribe-taking that date from when he was governor of his native southern Moquegua region. He denied any wrongdoing.
Vizcarra survived a previous impeachment vote in September charged with “moral incapacity.”
Vizcarra had broad popular support since succeeding Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the former Wall Street banker who was forced to resign under threat of impeachment over corruption allegations in 2018.
Merino is Peru’s third president since 2016, reflecting the institutional fragility which has characterized the South American country since independence from Spain in 1821.
Merino, 59, takes power for the remainder of Vizcarra’s original term through July 2021, and immediately pledged to respect the electoral timetable.
Peru is set to hold general and presidential elections in April 2021. — NNN-AGENCIES
