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Peru’s Congress on Monday elected Francisco Sagasti as the new leader of its Board of Directors, which at the same time makes him the new successor of the former president, Manuel Merino, who heads the country’s presidency, Telesur reports on its website.
Together with Sagasti are the deputy of the Broad Front, Mirtha Vásquez, of Popular Action, Luis Roel and of Somos Perú, Matilde Fernández, respectively in the first, second and third vice presidencies.
This is the second vote to determine Merino’s succession, once the proposal led by Congresswoman Rocío Silva Santisteban failed to get the necessary votes.
In this way, Peru accumulates seven days of political crisis marked by popular protests calling for Merino’s removal and where two people were killed following police repression during the national march on November 14.
The congressional council of spokespersons has urged Merino to resign from the presidency, while the Peruvian prosecutor has opened an investigation into alleged crimes of abuse of authority and intentional murder.
Francisco Sagasti was born in Lima (capital) and is an industrial engineer, researcher and author of numerous texts. He is a member of Congress of the Purple Party and is not included in the list of congressmen who voted in favor of the vacancy of former President Martín Vizcarra.
Until now, Sagasti has been chairman of the parliamentary committee on science, innovation and technology, as well as being the main spokesperson for the purple bench. During his professional life he also obtained important positions.
He has been a member of Congress since March 2020 for the Purple Party. After the dissolution of Congress by the former president, Martín Vizcarra, on September 30, 2019 and the call for new parliamentary elections, the 76-year-old politician was invited to join the purple party list. His motto within this party was “make decent politics, fight corruption and political reform”.
Between 1972 and 1977, Sagasti was Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Technological, Industrial and Technical Standards Research of Peru and advisor to the Minister of Industry during the military government of Francisco Morales Bermúdez.
From 1985 to 1987 he was advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Allan Wagner, during the first government of Alan García. In addition, he was a member of the Advisory Council of the National Planning Institute. Subsequently, he left the country from 1987 to 1992, where he became head of strategic planning at the World Bank and an advisor to the policy evaluation and external relations departments in the same international organization.
He also had a stint in Alan García’s second government, when between 2007 and 2009 he was president of the Board of Directors of the Science and Technology Program. The same assignment took place during Ollanta Humala’s government between 2011 and 2013.
In the academic field Francisco Sagasti has an extensive career. He was a professor at the Universidad del Pacífico and at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú; Visiting Professor at the Instituto de Empresa of Madrid, at the Silberberg Chair at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University for Peace in Costa Rica. From 2009 to 2014 he was Principal Investigator of FORO Nacional / Internacional, an entity dedicated to promoting debate and consensus on issues critical to national and international development.
He distinguished himself with the United Nations Organization Peace Medal and the Paul Hoffman Award, awarded by the Society for International Development, for his contributions to national and international development. In 2012 he also received the Governor-General of Canada Medal for his contribution to strengthening relations between Peru and that country.
According to Prensa Latina, Sagasti’s election was a way out of the institutional crisis generated by the massive rejection of Merino, considered to be without academic qualifications and the beneficiary of a plot by the coalition of conservative minorities that control Congress.
A deciding factor in Sagasti’s election was the preliminary agreement of all the banks that Merino’s replacement should not be any of the lawmakers who voted to free Vizcarra, which left few options.
Yesterday the consent of the spokesmen of the banks endorsed Rocío Silva-Santisteban, of the environmentalist Frente Amplio (FA), but the agreement was not respected and the majority of the legislators present did not reach the majority.
Sagasti was an FA-elected member of the Andean Parliament, but in last January’s congressional elections he was elected by the Purple Party (PM), a conglomerate of right-wing progressives, as a congressman for Lima.
The new president faces the challenge of consolidating the détente achieved by his election, addressing the crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the serious economic and social situation that emerged in the great protests against Merino.
Merino’s resignation
The political crisis in Peru led this Sunday to the resignation of the president, Manuel Merino, after five days of protests against him that resulted in two deaths and a hundred injured.
In a televised message to the nation, Merino announced his irrevocable resignation following the resignation of more than half of the government and under heavy pressure from citizens in the streets, local media RPP Noticias reported.
Hours earlier, Congress President Luis Valdez had urged Merino to make the decision to calm things down, according to that Twitter case.
The outgoing president replaced Martín Vizcarra as head of state on Monday for his alleged involvement in corruption when he was governor of the Moquegua region (south-east).
The national coordinator for human rights specified that the demonstrations resulted in two deaths, more than 100 injured and 41 missing, Prensa Latina reported.
Removal of Vizcarra
On Monday, November 9, Peru’s Congress approved the removal of the nation’s president, Martín Vizcarra, after a debate in the legislative assembly that lasted more than four hours.
With a total of 105 votes in favor, four abstentions and only 19 against, the parliamentarians supported by a majority the immediate dismissal of Vizcarra, the notification should reach the executive council of ministers within minutes, Telesur reported.
The second request for dismissal was promoted in Congress by the “moral incapacity” of the Peruvian president, in the same way the Prosecutor’s Office continues in the investigation against Vizcarra for an alleged corruption case in the construction of a hospital when he was governor (2011-2014) from the region by Moquegua.
During the debate in Parliament, the Head of State stressed that there is no evidence of the charges against him, “there is no reliable evidence of any crime, and there will be no, because I have not collected bribes,” he added.
The alleged crimes for which Vizcarra is accused coincide with the receipt of $ 660,000 in bribes from two companies investigated for corruption and ties to the Brazilian multinational Odebrecht, which carried out irrigation works, and the construction of a hospital in the southern region.
The Peruvian media last Sunday released the contents of the phone of the former Minister of Agriculture, José Hernández (2016-2018), near the political circle of Vizcarra, where alleged conversations on the concession and distribution of public works are revealed. However, the judicial authorities continue their investigations in order to clarify the facts.
Investigation in progress
According to Prensa Latina, on Monday, the prosecutor of the Peruvian nation, Zoraida Ávalos, opened a preliminary investigation into former president Manuel Merino for manslaughter of two young demonstrators in the police crackdown on a protest.
At the same time, it announced a detailed plan to locate an undisclosed number of allegedly missing youth.
In a video message broadcast on the Internet, the prosecutor said the investigation includes the prime minister, Ántero Flores Aráoz, and the head of the interior, Gastón Rodríguez, in the deaths of Inti Sotelo and Brian Pintado.
“I can assure you that these deaths will not go unpunished,” Avalos said.
During the protests, Merino and Flores-Aráoz tried to downplay or discredit them, until the deaths of Sotelo and Pintado, which rocked the country and led to Parliament forcing Merino to resign under the threat of being removed from office.
The three indicated by Ávalos will be investigated for the serious and minor injuries suffered by over one hundred injured during the protests that began a week ago against Merino’s rise to the presidency, forced to resign yesterday due to widespread indignation.
The prosecutor also opened another investigation into the disappearance of people to be ascertained, because an unknown number of demonstrators have not returned to their homes or are with their relatives.
He reported that the investigation will include the recording of security cameras in the areas of the protests against Merino and the geolocation of the phone numbers of the missing to locate or track them.
Solidarity
The Puebla Group, a progressive alliance made up of personalities from 17 countries, condemned the repression and indiscriminate use of force by the police in demonstrations in Peru and sent its solidarity to that people.
Following the events that led to the removal of President Martín Vizcarra and the inauguration of Manuel Merino, who announced his resignation the day before amid protests, the Group expressed its support for the Peruvian people and reaffirmed its commitment for human rights and democracy.
The Ibero-American organization, represented by 49 leaders, stressed this Monday in a statement that what happened in Vizcarra was caused in a context of profound health, social and economic crisis, with a high number of members of Congress also accused of corruption. less than six months after the next general elections.
All this while ignoring the popular will and installing Manuel Merino in power, who, a few days after taking office, was forced to resign after the strong and massive mobilizations against his government that spread throughout the country, says the group. , Review by Telesur.
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