former president Martin Vizcarra banned from political office for ten years

Getting vaccinated in secret will have had serious political consequences for Martin Vizcarra. The Peruvian Congress decided on Friday April 16 to ban the former president from exercising public office for ten years. The decision was adopted during a virtual session of more than five hours of Congress, by 86 votes with no votes against and no abstentions.

Mr Vizcarra will therefore not be able to occupy the deputy seat he won in the legislative elections which were held last Sunday at the same time as the first round of the presidential election.

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Before the opening of the Congress session on Friday, he denied any validity to the process initiated against him. “Congress is committing an abuse of authority by continuing its session without allowing me to exercise my right to defend myself, by violating the normal process. Congress is not above the law and the Constitution ”, wrote the former president on Twitter.

After the announcement of the decision against him, Mr. Vizcarra showed himself determined to fight it. “We have no doubt that this situation will be reversed. This Congress is delegitimized. We will appeal to national and international bodies, he told reporters outside his home in Lima. We have already lodged an appeal with the judiciary, and a petition has been lodged with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. “

“Vacunagate”: two former ministers sanctioned

Besides Mr. Vizcarra, Congress has sanctioned two former ministers of the current interim president Francisco Sagasti, accused like the former president of having been improperly vaccinated. Pilar Mazzetti, who was Minister of Health, and Elizabeth Astete, who was Minister of External Relations, were denied the opportunity to hold public office, the first for eight years and the second for one year.

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Both had resigned last February when it was revealed that they were part of a group of 470 people who had been secretly vaccinated against the coronavirus before the official start of the immunization campaign.

The scandal, dubbed “Vacunagate” (“Vacuna” means “Vaccine”), involved among others officials, diplomats and businessmen.

The prosecution opened in February an investigation into Mr. Vizcarra and other personalities in this case. The former president denies having been vaccinated irregularly. He claims he and his brother, his wife volunteered for a clinical trial before the vaccination campaign was officially launched.

Dismissed by Congress

Having become president in 2018, Mr. Vizcarra remains, moreover, implicated in an investigation into accusations of corruption dating back to the time when he was governor of the region of Moquegua, in southern Peru, from 2011 to 2014. He says these accusations are unfounded.

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It is in this context that Congress dismissed him in November 2020. The dismissal of this popular president who had undertaken a crusade against corruption had then provoked violent demonstrations during which two people were killed and a hundred injured.

The World with AFP