Mercedes Araoz on Tuesday resigned as Peruvian vice president one day after being sworn in by lawmakers as the country’s interim president, easing a standoff with Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra over his decision to dissolve Congress.
Araoz said she was unable to exercise the position of interim president given to her by Congress after the Organization of American States called for the Peruvian Constitutional Court to determine on the legality of the dissolution, she said in a letter she shared on her Twitter account on Tuesday.
Vizcarra on Monday dissolved the opposition-controlled Congress and called a parliamentary election to try to end the political gridlock over his plans to stamp out corruption in the Andean country.
Photo: AP
Lawmakers said the move was unconstitutional, and voted to suspend him and swear in Araoz.
Araoz’s decision to quit has dealt a blow to the opposition and opened a path for the country’s highest court to resolve Peru’s worst political crisis in decades.
It has also bolstered Vizcarra’s high-stakes move to shut a Congress elected by popular vote, even if with an 87 percent disapproval rating it is among the least regarded institutions in the country.
One of the most stable economies in Latin America, Peru has been gripped by political turmoil since the 2016 general election when Pedro Pablo Kuczynski scraped through a runoff vote for the presidency while his opponent, Keiko Fujimori, won a majority in Congress.
A former vice president, Vizcarra took office about 18 months ago when Kuczynski resigned on the eve of an impeachment vote. He repeatedly clashed with lawmakers over plans to clean up public life.
Araoz said she was quitting as vice president because there had been a rupture in the constitutional order.
She said she hoped the move would allow Peru to hold a general election “for the good of the country.”
Speaking in an interview with Lima-based Canal N network on Tuesday, Vizcarra’s Cabinet chief, Vicente Zeballos, said a general election was out of the question, as a parliamentary election had already been called for Jan. 26.
Zeballos said Vizcarra, who has not commented publicly on the situation since announcing Congress’ dissolution, would name a new Cabinet within the next two days.
That would include a new minister of economy and finance to replace Carlos Oliva, who is among several ministers who decided to leave government.
Zeballos pledged continuity in economic policy.
As Vizcarra’s proposals to fight corruption in the political and judiciary systems made no progress in Congress, he suggested early presidential and parliamentary elections next year, saying he wanted to give the country a fresh start.
As lawmakers did not support that idea either, Vizcarra made a bold move, calling a vote of confidence on his Cabinet.
Peru’s constitution entitles the president to dissolve the unicameral Congress if lawmakers vote against two Cabinets.
Then-Cabinet chief Fernando Zavala lost a confidence vote in September 2017.
However, lawmakers rebuffed his request for a confidence vote and instead proceeded with the election of justices to the country’s top court — in a process that Vizcarra denounced as lacking legitimacy and transparency.
The decision to elect the first of six new justices on Monday was a de facto rejection of the Cabinet’s confidence motion, Vizcarra said in a televised address, adding that he was using his constitutional right to dissolve Congress.
He called the measure a “democratic solution” to Peru’s political gridlock.
Opposition parties have dragged their feet on government reforms designed to stamp out corruption, which come at a time when many parties and their leaders are implicated in a continent-wide bribery scandal uncovered by the so-called Carwash probe.
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