Pedro Pablo Kuczynski está en la mira de la Fiscalía ya que el titular de esa institución, Pablo Sánchez, abrió una indagación previa para esclarecer si el renunciante presidente ofreció beneficios políticos a cambio de evitar su vacancia.

El diario El Comercio informó que con este proceso se investigará las razones que motivaron el indulto humanitario que otorgó Kuczynski al ex mandatario Alberto Fujimori, en la víspera de la Navidad de 2017, y si con ello se incurrió en actos ilícitos.

Incluso ya se habrían programado diligencias con los ex funcionarios que participaron en el proceso de excarcelación de Fujimori. Entre ellos figuran los ex integrantes de la Comisión de Gracias Presidenciales del Ministerio de Justicia, el ex viceministro de Justicia Juan Falconí y el ex secretario técnico, Camilo Santillán Vergara.

También serían convocados los ex ministros Enrique Mendoza (Justicia) y Fernando D’Alessio (Salud). A PPK se le solicitará un descargo por escrito.

En este caso también se analizarán los videos que grabó el congresista de Fuerza Popular, Moíses Mamani, a sus entonces colegas Kenji Fujimori, Bienvenido Ramírez y Guillermo Bocangel, a quienes denunció por intentar comprar su voto de cara al debate de vacancia presidencial.

De acuerdo al mismo medio, la disposición fiscal se sustenta en la denuncia interpuesta por el procurador anticorrupción Amado Enco, quien en abril solicitó al Ministerio Público investigar los hechos en torno al indulto y su relación con los votos que permitieron que Kucyznski se salvara de la destitución en diciembre.</s>LIMA, Peru — Thousands of Peruvians are demonstrating against the medical pardon that freed former strongman Alberto Fujimori from a 25-year prison sentence.

Thursday night’s protest in Lima marks the second time in less than a month that Peruvians have taken to the streets to protest the pardon granted by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Demonstrators carried signs with phrases like “Assassin Fujimori” and held photographs of the 25 Peruvians whose deaths the former president was convicted of playing a role in.

Fujimori was pardoned on humanitarian grounds on Christmas Eve. He was released from a clinic less than two weeks later and in messages on Twitter has urged Peruvians to cast aside their bitterness.

Some Peruvians credit Fujimori with defeating the nation’s Maoist guerrillas, but others condemn him for permitting human rights abuses.</s>LIMA, Peru — Peru’s new president has scarce experience governing but is known as a consensus builder who might have a shot at bridging divides after one of the most-bitter political crises in the Andean nation’s recent history.

Martin Vizcarra is a 55-year-old engineer by training whose four years as governor of a sparsely populated region in southern Peru was his most significant experience in political leadership as he was sworn into office Friday.

What little can be discerned from the new head of state’s thin record in governing indicates he knows how to bring opposing sides to the negotiating table — a skill that could be useful in repairing the administration’s relations with lawmakers who overwhelmingly favoured Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s removal.

But many are skeptical Vizcarra will have any more luck than his predecessor in ruling with a domineering, opposition-controlled congress and fear his local-level experience won’t be enough to resolve a national standoff.

“Taking on the presidency of a country is a lot more complicated than having a role in resolving a mining conflict,” said Jose De Echave, a political analyst and former deputy minister for environmental management. “It’s a crisis of another magnitude.”

Vizcarra is from Moquegua, a department with a population of just over 161,000 known for its homes with trapezoid-shaped roofs and contrasting landscapes of lush agricultural fields and barren highlands.

His father was a local mayor and regional boss for the once-dominant APRA party, a political movement with leftist roots but is now synonymous with corruption for many Peruvians. In interviews, Vizcarra has credited his father as being the most influential figure in his life, someone who instilled in him a social conscience.

The new chief of state studied at Peru’s National University of Engineering and built a career in the construction industry, not entering the political arena until around 2006, when he narrowly lost a race for governor of Moquegua on the APRA ticket.

Two years later he spearheaded a series of protests against the unequal distribution of mining levies to Moquegua residents. Vizcarra has said that experience launched his political career. The two days of protests extended into a general strike that shut down Moquegua’s economy before a resolution was reached with the government.

In an interview with the newspaper El Comercio in 2016, Vizcarra said he knew then that if he entered politics it would inevitably put him on the other side of the negotiating table but felt he could approach the job with special insight.

“I’ll know how to listen,” he said.

Three years later Vizcarra was elected governor of Moquegua, and once again a mining dispute thrust him into the centre of conflict. He earned high marks for mediating dialogue between officials from the London-based Anglo American mining company and residents concerned that a copper mine project would contaminate local waters.

Overall, Vizcarra’s tenure as governor is held up as one of the rare examples in the Andean nation of a regional leader who managed to both improve social indicators like education levels — his wife and his mother were primary school teachers — and avoid the stain of corruption so invasive in Peru. Aides said his daily habit of playing tennis and eating lots of fruit keep him even-keeled under pressure.

“He’s one of the few governors with a positive history,” said Steve Levitsky, a Harvard University political scientist.

But outside tiny Moquegua, Vizcarra is largely unknown in Peru. A March survey by international polling firm Ipsos found that 81 per cent of Peruvians didn’t even know the vice-president’s name.

He joined Kuczynski’s 2016 presidential campaign as an adviser and struck up a rapport with the former Wall Street investor that eventually led to his being selected as vice-president.

Kuczynski appointed Vizcarra as the minister of transport and communication in 2016, but he lasted less than one year in the post. He resigned amid questions over a delay in the building of an airport in Cusco. Shortly thereafter he was appointed Peru’s ambassador to Canada, keeping a low and distant profile.

In a television interview at his home shortly before the election, Vizcarra described his political ascent as “gradual” and declined to address any presidential aspirations.

“I always go step by step,” he said. “That’s what’s given me results.”

Analysts expect Vizcarra to largely continue Kuczynski’s pro-business agenda, which enjoys broad consensus in Peru. A bigger challenge is dealing with the snake pit that has become the nation’s politics. Congress is dominated by politicians loyal to Keiko Fujimori, who is the daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori and who narrowly lost to Kuczynski in the last presidential election.

Two of Peru’s former presidents stand accused of accepting bribes from Odebrecht, the Brazilian construction company at the centre of Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal. A third is under investigation and Kuczysnki is likely to face continued scrutiny following revelations his private consulting firm accepted $782,000 in payments from Odebrecht a decade ago, some at a time when he was a government minister.

Those and other scandals have made Peruvians so distrustful that about half say they want to see early elections for both congress and president, according to a Gfk poll taken this month before the revelation of secretly shot videos showing Kuczynski allies allegedly trying to buy the support of an opposition lawmaker to block his impeachment.

Still, there may be some reasons for Peruvians to be hopeful.

In a recent interview, Keiko Fujimori told a local television station that Vizcarra “knows provincial Peru, the deep Peru” and has the political experience to do a better job than his predecessor. Her Popular Force party has also lost some of its influence since the splintering off of a small faction of legislators led by her brother, Kenji.

In his first remarks as president, Vizcarra urged Peruvians not to lose faith in the country’s institutions and vowed to fight corruption.

“The time has come to say, ‘Enough!”‘ he said, draped in his new red-and-white presidential sash.

Vizcarra’s allies say the former construction impresario will quickly prove his mettle.

“How will he confront congress?” asked Hugo Espinoza, who worked with Vizcarra during his time as governor. “Building bridges, as he’s always done.”

Associated Press writer Franklin Briceno reported this story in Lima and AP writer Christine Armario reported from Bogota, Colombia.</s>President Martin Vizcarra said that the Peruvian government will enforce a “zero tolerance” policy against corruption amid a spreading bribery scandal that has involved at least three former presidents.

Speaking at a press conference, Vizcarra said corruption, which currently costs Peru some 3 billion U.S. dollars a year, will be fought wherever it comes from, whatever the cost will be.

Vizcarra, Peru's former vice president, took office in March after his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski stepped down amid corruption allegations.

Vizcarra said he has asked and encouraged provincial authorities to support and join the anti-graft move. Peru announced recently that anti-corruption teams have convicted thousands of officials at different levels and sectors.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into allegations that three former presidents, Alejandro Toledo, Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala, took money from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.

Kuczynski is also under investigation for allegedly receiving money from Odebrecht through one of his consulting firms.
The Prosecutor's Office of Peru opens a preliminary investigation to determine if there were alleged political benefits – among them the humanitarian pardon granted to former President Alberto Fujimori – offered by former President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to avoid being removed from his office during the first impeachment process against him in December 2017. Three months later, in the middle of a similar scenario, Kuczynski resigned, seeing that Congress would no longer favor him.