Peruvian Parliament to Vote on Whether President Has 'Permanent Moral Incapacity'

The Peruvian parliament will vote today on whether Peru’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, has a “permanent moral incapacity,” and is unfit to hold office. Before the vote, he will have 60 minutes to defend himself. If found “morally incapable,” Kuczynski could be removed from office as early as Friday.

Last week, Peruvian opposition leaders voted to proceed on an impeachment hearing following a congressional committee’s finding that Kuczynski received money from the Brazilian conglomerate, Odebrecht, while in government. The findings go as far back as 2005, during Kuczynski’s tenure as minister of finance. Kuczynski had in the past issued statements denying any relationship with Odebrecht.

The charges against him, though not yet public, surround his honesty and forthrightness in the statements he has made about his dealings with Odebrecht. Kuczynski now acknowledges making “some money” from Odebrecht through his company, Westfield Capital Lltd, but claims he did nothing wrong. He says that he did not have any management role in Westfield while in government, and simply received “dividends.”

The vague charge of moral incapacity makes it difficult for Kuczynski to defend himself. On Tuesday morning, Kuczynski submitted a request for all files relevant to Thursday’s hearing with a stern plea for due process. La Republica, Peru’s largest newspaper, published an editorial calling for the facts of the case against the president to be made clear to him and to the public. Others have warned that without due process, the opposition’s proceedings may been seen as a “congressional coup.”

The charges against Kuczynski come amid a graft probe sweeping the South American continent with Odebrecht at its center. The conglomerate admitted last year that it had been paying bribes to South American ministers for decades. It plead guilty to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in U.S. courts, with penalties payable to the U.S., Switzerland, and Brazil. Court filings from this case show that Between 2005 and 2014, Odebrecht paid nearly $29 million in bribes to Peruvian government officials. It would seem others are implicated, too, including the fugitive former president, Alejandro Toledo.