The Peruvian public prosecutor’s office announced on Friday that it will open a corruption investigation against President Martin Vizcarra at the end of his term in July 2021.
“After receiving the report from the provincial prosecutor’s office specializing in corruption offenses against officials, we decided that there are reasons to investigate the President of the Republic”, said the general prosecutor’s office in a statement.
Due to the immunity conferred by the constitution on the head of state, “The start of the investigation remains suspended until July 28, 2021, when he leaves his post”, said the prosecution.
The case, for which impeachment proceedings against Mr. Vizcarra had been launched, without success, in September, concerns the hiring of a singer by the Ministry of Culture. Justice suspects this little-known artist, Richard Cisneros, alias “Richard Swing”, of having received about 50,000 dollars of public money under a contract of convenience to give lectures.
During the impeachment procedure before Parliament in September, MPs were able to listen to recordings in which Mr. Vizcarra asked two of his assistants to lie about the number of visits made by this singer to the seat of government. President Vizcarra still escaped impeachment by parliament on September 19, with only 32 of the 87 deputies needed having voted to end his term.
Peru has experienced significant political instability in recent years, with the last four presidents struggling with the justice system. Mr. Vizcarra himself took over the presidency after Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, elected in 2016 and of which he was one of the running mate, resigned in March 2018 after accusations of corruption which led to him being placed under house arrest by the courts Peruvian since May 2019.
