Peruvian police raided the homes of the most sensitive government officials in Lima on Saturday as part of an investigation into allegations that President Martín Vizcarra obstructed a registration investigation that would confront him with a political trial next week.
Meanwhile, Vizcarra accused Congressional President Manuel Merino of seeking to involve the country’s army to overthrow him.
Merino, as president of parliament, would act as president if Vizcarra was charged.
Prime Minister Walter Martos and Defense Minister Jorge Chavez, retired generals, said Merino called the army chiefs when he filed the impe trial procedure and accused him of “recklessness” at a news convention on Saturday.
“We witnessed a very event,” Martos said.
The role of the armed forces is seen as the key to stability in this resource-rich South American country if Vizcarra were to be removed from office.
Merino in turn accused the government of “trying to sow confusion among the population by making them believe there is a conspiracy. “
The government has already accused the head of the Vizcarra lawmakers of organizing a “coup d’state. “
Congress voted Friday night to open a process of political trial against Biscay on “moral incapacity” on accusations that it prompted collaborators to lie to investigators.
“Raids were carried out at 8 investigated and witness homes in the event of alleged irregularities in the recruitment of Richard Cisneros Carballido as a representative to the Ministry of Culture,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Vizcarra, in force since 2018, has been criticized after the leak of audio recordings in which he heard his assistants hide the main points of the contract through his workplace of Cisneros, a popular singer, as a paid cultural advisor.
The presidents of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador – a component of a regional political organization with Peru called the Andean Community – have called on lawmakers to dismiss Biscay amid an economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We call on his government to avoid movements that could simply jeopardize the valid exercise of force and the democratic institutional political process” in Peru, said a signed through Bolivian Jeanine Anez, Colombia’s Iván Duque and Lenin Moreno of Ecuador.
The political crisis has rocked an economy that has already noticed a GDP cut of the second quarter of 30% due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, Peruvian soil was the worst performing currency in emerging economies, wasting 0. 8% against the dollar and forcing the Central Bank of Lima to interfere twice with the currency.
– ‘Conspiratorial democracy’ –
One of the houses sought is the home of a senior presidential civil service company, Miriam Morales, and the home of another key assistant of Biscay, Karem Roca, also registered.
Both appear on leaked audio tapes listening to Vizcarra talk about the scandal and urge them to cooperate fully with investigators.
Cisneros’ house was also registered, along with five officials from the Ministry of Culture, who hired the singer between 2018 and this year for about $50,000.
Fourteen other people have been being investigated lately as part of the investigation, led by provincial prosecutor Janny Sánchez Porturas.
All are investigated for “aggravated collusion and incompatible negotiation to the detriment of the State,” according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Vizcarra, 57, denied intervening in the main points of the singer’s contract, which he said he fulfilled in the 2016 election campaign.
Vizcarra then ran for vice president along with Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, his predecessor forced to resign in March 2018, after prosecution proceedings were initiated against him over a corruption scandal.
After Friday’s vote, the 130-member Congress is scheduled for a political trial vote on September 18.
Opponents of the president want 87 votes to impeach him.
Vizcarra said he had done nothing and had been the victim of an “conspiracy opposed to democracy” in the South American country.
The president gained popularity through an anti-corruption crusade that brought him at odds with the parties to the conflict in Congress, adding a reform that prohibits convicted criminals from running for public office.
ljc / fj / db / st