Anti-graft prosecutors in Peru have asked a judge to bar president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (pictured) from leaving the South American country hours after he announced his resignation in the face of near-certain impeachment, a source told Reuters.
Kuczynski, a 79-year-old former Wall Street banker who once held US citizenship, is guaranteed presidential immunity from prosecution until Congress formally accepts his resignation and Vice-President Martin Vizcarra is sworn in to replace him.
Luis Galarreta, the president of Congress, said that would probably happen today.
Kuczynski denies wrongdoing and has promised to co-operate with a graft probe into his connections to Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company that has acknowledged bribing officials across Latin America.
The right-wing opposition party that controls Congress, Popular Force, first sought to force Kuczynski from office in December after revealing he failed to disclose payments Odebrecht made to his Florida-based consulting firm while he held public office in a previous government.
Kuczynski had vowed not to resign for months, blaming the right-wing opposition for constant scandals that he said had made it impossible for him to govern Peru, one of Latin America’s most stable markets and the world’s No. 2 producer of copper.
But secret audio and video recordings released this week ensnared Kuczynski in vote-buying allegations that prompted even his staunchest supporters to demand he step down.
Kuczynski said the material, in which his allies are heard offering access to lucrative public work contracts in exchange for political support, had been edited as part of a relentless campaign to malign him.
But the hostile political climate had become untenable, he added.
“I think what’s best for the country is for me to resign ... I don’t want to be an obstacle for the nation’s search for a path to unity and harmony,” Kuczynski said in a pre-recorded video televised as he was driven from the presidential palace to his home in Lima’s financial district.
Prosecutors in a special anti-corruption unit in the attorney general’s office told a judge Kuczynski should not be allowed to leave the country, the judiciary source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Kuczynski said as a candidate in 2016 that he had renounced his US citizenship in order to launch his bid.
Last month, US ambassador to Peru Krishna Urs declined to confirm that Kuczynski no longer had citizenship.
Kuczynski’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Peru has a history of jailing former presidents, and of presidents fleeing.
Former authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori fled Peru for his parents’ native Japan as his decade in power ended in a corruption scandal and protests.
Last year, former president Ollanta Humala, Kuczynski’s predecessor, was ordered up to 18 months in pre-trial detention while prosecutors prepare charges related to Odebrecht.
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