Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otarola on Tuesday resigned amid allegations of influence-peddling to help a young woman he is said to have addressed lovingly in recordings released by news media.
Otarola told reporters in Lima that “in conversation with the president of the republic I have announced my decision to present my resignation.”
Otarola is a seasoned politician and lawyer who acted as chief of staff to Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, who ordered him home from an official trip to Canada after the scandal erupted.
Photo: AFP / Peruvian Presidency / Juan Pablo Azabache
Otarola, 57, is married and has five children.
Over the weekend, the television program Panorama released what it said were recordings of Otarola in conversation with a woman named Yazire Pinedo, 25, who landed two contracts this year worth a total of US$14,000 to do archive and administrative work for the government.
In one of the recordings, a man alleged to be Otarola says to her: “Tell me, then, my love, so we can talk. You know these things are annoying, they are a pain, but you also know that I love you,” apparently referring to the red tape involved in bidding for a government contract.
Otarola has denied any violation of Peruvian labor laws or other wrongdoing.
“I understand the gravity of the political circumstances, but I repeat that I did not do anything illegal,” he wrote on X on Monday.
The president’s office had said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that it would hear Otarola out before deciding what to do.
On Tuesday, Pinedo said the leaked conversations with Otarola were from 2021, before he was a Cabinet minister, but she acknowledged having had a brief, “perhaps sentimental relationship” with him.
Opposition parties on the right and left have demanded that Otarola resign. Prosecutors said they would investigate him for possible conflict of interest and “illegal sponsorship.”
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