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DIKÉ. Revista Peruana de Derecho y Ciencia Política
Fondo Editorial: IDICAP- PACÍFICO
2022 RPDCP, Perú – Vol. 2, Núm. 2, pp. 1-16
EDITORIAL
The last day of president
Martín Vizcarra, Peru 2020:
Losing the crown and power
in a turbulent end
Franklin Américo Canaza-Choque1
CONCYTEC // Perú
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1929-6054
fcanazach@unsa.edu.pe
Recibido: 08-XII-2021/ Aceptado: 20-XII-2021/ Publicado: 01-I-2022
Abstract
This is a brief analysis of the turbulent end of the government of the former Peruvian president,
Martín Vizcarra Cornejo (2018-2020). The latter's ascent to the throne after the imminent
resignation of his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on march 21, 2018, in the midst of a deep
political crisis, would seal his fate. Well, the subsequent presidential resignation would be
followed by a seizure of power brought down by ministerial resignations, of persistent tensions
between the Legislative and the Executive that, to aggravate the panorama of the decisions of the
new Head of State, would be added the high risk introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, natural
disasters and the aroused accusations of corruption against Kuczynski's heir; that, after an
extensive debate in Congress and a grotesque imposition of the number of votes, they would
approve of removing him from power on the night of november 2020. A tragic end that would
provoke sudden reactions and various social marches nationwide on the most difficult day for
Peru.
Keyword: Peru, Martín Vizcarra, Legislative Power, Executive Power, COVID-19.
1 BIODATA: CONCYTEC Teacher-Social Researcher. Master in Higher Education from the National
University of San Agustín de Arequipa [UNSA], with a High Specialization Diploma in
Intercultural Processes: Politics, Law and Education.
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El último día del presidente Martín Vizcarra, Perú 2020: Perder la
corona y el poder en un final turbulento
Resumen
El presente es un breve análisis respecto al final turbulento del gobierno del exmandatario del Perú, Martín
Vizcarra Cornejo (2018–2020). La subida al trono de este último tras la renuncia inminente de su antecesor
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski el 21 de marzo de 2018 en medio de una profunda crisis política, sellarían su destino.
Pues, a la posterior dimisión presidencial le seguirían una toma al poder abatido por renuncias ministeriales, de
tensiones persistentes entre el Legislativo y el Ejecutivo que, para agravar el panorama de las decisiones del nuevo
Jefe de Estado, se sumaría el alto riesgo introducido por la pandemia del COVID-19, los desastres naturales y las
despertadas acusaciones de corrupción en contra del heredero de Kuczynski; que, tras un extenso debate en el
Congreso y una grotesca imposición del número de votos, aprobarían destituirlo del poder la noche de noviembre de
2020. Un trágico final que provocaría repentinas reacciones y diversas marchas sociales a nivel nacional en el día
más difícil para el Perú.
Palabras Clave: Perú, Martín Vizcarra, Poder Legislativo, Poder Ejecutivo, COVID-19.
Cita sugerida (APA, séptima edición)
Canaza-Choque, F. A. (2022). The last day of president Martín Vizcarra, Peru
2020: Losing the crown and power in a turbulent end. DIKÉ. Revista
Peruana de Derecho y Ciencia Política, 2(2), 1–16.
Today I leave the Government Palace. Today, I am going
home, despite the fact that there are innumerable
recommendations to […] prevent this decision…
–Martín Vizcarra Cornejo, then president of Peru
in his last message on the night of November 9,
2020 after being removed from power
I. INTRODUCTION
Peru in 2020 took shape with a major recession caused by prevention and control measures
aimed at neutralizing the awakening and the sudden movement that the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic gave off. An effect that, from one side to the other, would later cause the considerable
loss of formal employment, the collapse of foreign investment and a notable reduction in
national consumption, while severely damaging informal economic activity or causing a brutal
setback with respect to to the levels of poverty and extreme poverty, defining a drastic fall in
income and abruptly increasing unemployment rates and the precariousness of many sectors of
the population (Dargent y Rousseau, 2021; Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática
[INEI], 2021; Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe [CEPAL], 2021).
Indeed, the arrival of the pandemic would also put the medical regime to the test, revealing a
gorge of deficiencies and difficulties in primary care, the little coordination between the different
levels and sectors, the absence of a single public health system, the lack in the supply of resources
and essential inputs in the provision of this right, in addition to the limited research and
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development capacity, and the misgovernance that subtracted the dominant purposes of its
activity during the greatest challenge of the time (Maguiña, 2020; Vargas, Cubas, León-Jiménez
and Cubas, 2021).
However, a large part of this problem not only accounted for the years of delay and the failed
reforms undertaken in one of the main sectors of the Executive Power; They also ended up
locating the turning point in the weak and expressed political commitment or the lack of an
exhaustive debate process on the strong need for a comprehensive reform of the sector, or
because the weakened performance of the first medical line could be due to that key issues such
as the financing of the progressive expansion in terms of infrastructure and human resources
were stopped, which, in any case, are fundamental aspects to maintain sustainability and to be
able to provide effective access to their care (Ponce de León, 2021).
After the impact, the problems did not find an end. Well, two years before the pandemic found
in the national places a structural weakness, both medical and educational. At the institutional
level, the situation would be even more fragile given that the government of the then president
Martín Vizcarra Cornejo had held the highest position of public official of the nation on March
23, 2018 in a country that had been going through a long and deep crisis that involved the three
powers of the State, and where the gigantic corruption scandal derived from the mega-
construction company Odebrecht, had a devastating impact on the main political figures of the
country, reaching in some cases, pulverizing them (Ponce de León y García, 2019).
In this way, the president's route would not look at all pleasant during 2019 and the subsequent
year of his fall. In the first, the so-called “year of the fight against corruption and impunity”
would be marked by different events such as the emergency declaration by the Public Ministry;
the preventive detention ruling of the former Head of State Pedro Pablo Kuczynski; the death of
the two-time non-consecutive president Alan García Pérez from a shot to the head before his
arrest; and the arrest of former President Alejandro Toledo in the United States for an extraction
mandate requested by the investigations led by the Peruvian prosecutor's office in the Odebrecht
Case (Durand, 2019).
However, the peak of institutional instability and political crisis would not be this. The attacks
and counterattacks by the national parliament and the responses slipped from the Executive by
the dispute over control of the Constitutional Court (TC) would end on September 30, 2019 with
the irreversible dissolution of the Congress of the Republic after it refused to suspend a
controversial appointment of new members of the TC, without having previously discussed a
process classified as opaque and having factually denied the second question of confidence
presented by the then President of the Council of Ministers (PCM), Salvador del Solar (Gestión,
2020).
In this way, the imposition of Supreme Decree No. 165-2019-PCM would not only put an end to
what Vizcarra would call the obstruction of a possible agreement between the Legislature and the
Executive (Deutsche Welle, 2019) that would give way to Peru of the 200 years; but also, it would
have the convocation of a new parliament on January 26, 2020. A new chamber of deputies,
which, without any suspicion, would end up removing him from his most precious throne. Thus
opening a 2020 where negative impacts beyond politics would haunt Peru with devouring it.
Along these lines, this brief study aims to analyze the last days of the government of the former
Peruvian president, Martín Vizcarra Cornejo (2018-2020).
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Figure 1. Martín Vizcarra, the figure of the president faced with his own demons and the
slights of the COVID-19 pandemic
Fountain: O`Phelan (2020).
II. DEVELOPING
2017-2018: From decline to the seizure of power
Within the constitutional period 2016-2021, there have been two events that have patented the
tonic of a shortened and never foreseen outcome of government (Bermúdez-Tapia, 2020). The
first had a dominant factor that was impossible to avoid and that made the State ungovernable
after the 2016 elections. This was, without a doubt, the permanent tension and strong rivalry
between the different political forces, especially those that they located and dominated the
interior of the Congress of the Republic and exercised a tireless control of the presidency, which,
finally, increased the probability of making PPK's reign succumb.
The second was also another scenario that in any case increased the magnitude of the
institutional balance disaster, since the huge networks of corruption detached and reproduced by
the construction company Odebrecht implied not only a period of arrests by the head of the
public criminal action ; but in addition to that, it reduced the stay of the top leader of the
Peruanos Por el Kambio party in the position of President of the Republic.
Regarding the first moment, the Kuczynski government had a starting point where his
permanence depended on an accumulation of opportune incidents that caused his promotion and
subsequent victory against the leader of Fuerza Popular (FP), Keiko Fujimori (Arce and Incio,
2018). Since, after the defeat and the denial of the latter to recognize the result of the 2016
general elections (Canaza-Choque y Huanca-Arohuanca, 2019; Canaza-Choque, 2021a; Canaza-
Choque, Escobar-Mamani y Huanca-Arohuanca, 2021). Kuczynski's political program began with
a diminished presence of the party in Congress, where the main political opposition led by FP
carried out an enormous control based on its legal attributes that impeded the regular
development of the government agenda. Since this, when being audited, had to spend most of its
government management in the process of accountability, focusing on issues related to poverty
reduction, citizen insecurity or alleviating the revived economic slowdown (Huayana, 2019) .
Therefore, it should not be surprising that during this first period of reluctance, it has been
difficult to forge and promote large projects, plans and changes in public policies that seek to
empower areas and sectors with a strong requirement for their development.
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However, this unfortunate and bad relationship between the Legislature and the Executive found
its breaking point and gained strength with the controversial removal of the Minister of
Education, Jaime Saavedra (Tola, 2016). The reasons behind all this is that the head of the
education portfolio represented for the majority in favor of Congress not only the success of
Humala's last administration (2011-2016), but also, for the opposition congressmen this He was
involved in alleged irregularities during the promoted reform of the educational system (Arce and
Incio, 2018). An opportune moment of friction that would be used in the best way by the FP
bench to make its superior force notice like never before before the Executive Power (Tola,
2016).
Along these lines, the intention would not end there. Since the departure of the so striking and
popular former minister was followed by repeated interpellation and censorship mechanisms
brought by Fujimori (BBC Mundo, 2016). Of the most remembered is the dismissal of three
ministers of State for accusations of corruption or inefficiency deployed in their sector, as is the
case of Martín Vizcarra, then Minister of Transportation; Alfredo Thorne, from Economy; and
Marilú Martens, from Education; Along with this entire first bloc of high command, they would
be followed by the devastation of the entire cabinet that operated until the moment when
Kuczynski ruled the country amid strong pressure (Arce and Incio, 2018; Bel, 2018). The above
was a perfect scenario where the opponents were powerful and capable of creating a weak State
with stagnant functions and, in the worst case, that made the primary decision to back down
rather than be annihilated (Dargent and Urteaga, 2016).
To all this, another fact that worsened the panorama was that in an extraordinary way on
December 24, 2017, President Kuczynski granted a pardon for humanitarian reasons to Alberto
Fujimori (Bermúdez-Tapia, 2020). Decision that generated an aura of whether this was a gift for
supporters or a bitter pill for naysayers before Christmas Eve. In reality, the controversial pardon
was given three days after having survived a vacancy process for accusations related to the
Odebrecht Case, where the abstention of Kenji Fujimori and nine other dissident congressmen
and related to the FP party were decisive to prevent such dismissal raised by the national
parliament (BBC Mundo, 2018c).
However, for a second vacancy request drawn up in March 2018 by the then congressman César
Villanueva of Alianza para el Progreso (APP), nothing could prevent his departure after on
March 20 and 21 of the same year a group of videos and audios that dismantled the negotiation
carried out by Kenyi Fujimori and others involved in offering Congressman Moisés Mamani
privileged budgets and public works for his region in exchange for his abstention or voting
against that first request for presidential vacancy made in December 2017 (BBC Mundo, 2018a;
Fowks and Cué, 2018; Ponce de León and García, 2019). In this way, on the eve of March 22, the
date on which the removal of the president due to permanent moral incapacity would be
discussed, and where he should also exercise his right to defense before the report developed by
the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF-Peru) on the movement of money to Westfield Capital, a
company with an address in Miami (United States), and exclusively owned by the Peruvian
president (for the chronology, See Figure 2) (BBC Mundo, 2018a). A scandal that, added to the
complex scenario he was going through, would end up cornering him and end Kuczynski's
patience and political career on March 21, 2018 (Fowks and Cué, 2018), the day of his unfailing
resignation (BBC Mundo, 2018b) , and that would mark the subsequent rise of Martín Vizcarra to
the seat of the Golden Palace, promising thirteen hours after the dispossession of his
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predecessor, to irrevocably defend "the physical and moral integrity of the State and the
independence of democratic institutions" (Fowks, 2018).
Figure 2. Timeline of the first and second vacancy requests against former president Pedro Pablo
Kuckzynski
Fountain: Own elaboration, 2021.
2019: alerts and alarms on
Amid protests, shouts and applause from parliamentarians, the inauguration and development of
the plenary session on July 28, 2019 had a strong and clear message: Peru first! Were the words
used and with which President Martín ended Vizcarra Cornejo in his annual message for the
198th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Peru. All this, in a tense atmosphere of
national vigil, but at the same time, of great hope for an approximate of more than 32 million
inhabitants that delimited the Peruvian territory.
That day, in the midst of balances and imbalances, an institutional crisis, collapsed
representativeness and the questioning of the democratic system by millions of Peruvians, the
president, recognizing unrestricted respect for the Political Constitution of Peru (1993),
announced and presented before the Congress of the Republic and the national citizens inside
and outside the country, the constitutional reform project to advance the general elections to July
28, 2020 (elections that would normally be held in March or April 2021), considering in this, the
shortening of the presidential and congressional mandate (Fowks, 2019a).
Precisely in this scenario, the President of the Peruvian State declared: "Peru cries out for a new
beginning, Peruvians must be able to choose their destination to make way for Peru's
Bicentennial" (El Peruano, 2019). This, and among others, were some facts that remained
encapsulated in the repertoire of the history of the Republic of Peru during the already advanced
2019. Opening an account of it, at least from the beginning, may turn out to be one of the tasks
more difficult, not only because of the complication that each date deserves; but, of the detail
that must be provided for each particular case. However, this does not mean that some
achievements can be made of the period that Peru had to go through during those months.
After this date, a series of earthquakes and aftershocks were felt in various regions of the country,
the emergency and systemic crisis of the Public Ministry and the Judiciary not only demonstrated
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the gross weaknesses of one of the most privileged institutions in terms of making the State of
Law, but also suggested implementing a series of reforms at the institutional level (Domínguez,
2020); In the Odebrecht case, it decisively continued to insist on being one of the most critical
problems of supranational and national corruption that compromised a series of politicians and
ex-presidents, the same that would lead to the escape of former President Alejandro Toledo to
the United States, the prison preventive action of PPK and the unfortunate death of two-time
President Alan García (1949-2019) after shooting himself in the head in an environment of his
home in Miraflores (Lima), a situation that led many Peruvians to doubt and suspect about his
strange passing away.
In this way, and with other annexed events such as the eruption of two volcanoes (Ubinas and
Sabancaya) in southern Peru, they set fire to the red alert for those affected by a hell that had
awakened in the towns of Moquegua (Peruvian Agency News, 2020); not being exempted, the
socio-environmental conflict of domain and defense for the land in Valle de Tambo by the Tía
María project (Arequipa) (Ugarte, 2020), which, without a doubt, were events that enlarged the
national emergency within the Peruvian territory. However, with a series of difficulties, problems
and shared emotions, Peru ended the month of July as if it were a last-breath race and with a
golden final for national holidays that the athlete Gladys Tejeda achieved at the Lima 2019 Pan
American Games (RPP, 2019a). Magical moment that he recovered and awakened some guarded
feelings of continuing to love Peru, despite his tirades.
Figure 3. Reaching the goal has never been easy: Gladys Tejeda, the woman who, despite
not having running shoes, was happy in her own way
Fountain: Redacción Lima 2019 (2020).
The clash of powers on the longest day of the fall
In the hopeful, difficult, rare and energetic road of 2019, the political confrontations between the
Executive and the Congress did not stop. Well, the days after July 28, somehow, explosives were
made. The president had not only proposed that date a constitutional reform that implied
advancing the general elections to April 2020, and thus, shortening the mandate of his power and
of the Congress of the Republic (Fowks, 2019a; El Peruano, 2019); Rather, that speech
undertaken in the hemicycle and in front of the entire nation was a clear challenge to put an end
to the open divisions, the armor and the institutional anxiety caused by its main political
opponents. Given this, the prompt reply was that many parliamentarians were dissatisfied with
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the presidential proposal, claiming that it could not be made a matter of confidence, despite the
fact that on two previous occasions they expressly supported initiatives of this type (Eguiguren,
2019).
In this way, resorting to delaying measures that prevented the immediate development of the
debate and the subsequent vote of the bill, the Constitutional Commission of Congress, in charge
of the study and the opinion, finally rejected the constitutional reform initiative. Decision that
would cause the impossibility of at least reaching a question of trust deployed from the
Executive; and, imminently, it allowed Congress to speed up the election process of six new
magistrates of the TC, in order to take advantage of the party majority status and have greater
weight and control in jurisdictional decisions. For such purposes, without a moderate public
debate and doubtful transparency, the selection of candidates was resorted to by direct invitation,
a vote that would take place on Monday, September 30. Faced with this, the reaction was swift,
since on the 29th of the same month the Executive sent a new question of confidence to
parliament regarding the transparent procedure of the appointment of the magistrates of the
highest interpretive entity of the supreme law of the State (Eguiguren, 2019).
On the morning of the day scheduled for voting and designation of the members of the TC,
against all odds, without waiting to be summoned and in the midst of obstructions, the now
former president of the Council of Ministers, Salvador del Solar towards his abrupt arrival before
the plenary session of Congress, making effective use of the power of article 129 of the Political
Constitution, proposing and sustaining in the time allowed - by whoever was President of
Congress, Pedro Olaechea - the imposition and importance of electing the magistrates who
would make up the largest institution defender of fundamental rights and final arbiter between
the powers of the State, selection that should have according to Del Solar a transparent
procedure, requesting for this term, a last and warned request of confidence to the legislators.
Requirement that, after the minister and the entire Cabinet left Parliament, would be rejected,
giving continuity to the voting and election of future judges of the TC (Eguiguren, 2019;
Peruvian News Agency, 2019a).
The latter would later be interpreted by President Martín Vizcarra as a factual denial by not
prioritizing the request and proceeding with the appointment of the TC holders (Fowks, 2019b;
Deutsche Welle, 2019; La República, 2020a), effect which led to the fall of the Solar Cabinet,
accepting it, his resignation and the immediate appointment of Vicente Zeballos as the new
president of the Council of Ministers (Eguiguren, 2019). Given, at the end, the invocation of the
provisions of article 134 of the Constitution, power conferred on the president who, through the
public issuance of Supreme Decree No. 165-2019-PCM, provided the fatal decision to dissolve
the Congress of the Republic for having denied trust to two Councils of Ministers during the
2016-2021 period, the same that would have to keep the Permanent Commission in function and
give way to the elections to form a new Chamber on Sunday, January 26, 2020.
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Figure 4. Procedure established by the Political Constitution of Peru after the dissolution of
Congress
Fountain: Own elaboration based on RPP (2019b).
In the course, after demolishing the obstructionist behavior of the opposition that dominated the
Congress, this, especially Fujimori and its allies, clung to the idea of suspending the president for
temporary incapacity by infringing the functions of the Legislative Power or having damaged the
constitutional order, proceeding in this way to the swearing in of the then Second Vice President,
Mercedes Aráoz, who assumed the position temporarily in defiance of the provisions of the
president; and, that one day after being appointed as acting president, she would irrevocably
resign from the position stating that the constitutional structure had been broken and that the
minimum conditions to exercise said position did not exist (BBC Mundo, 2019).
Everything said occurred at a time when a large part of the population in the streets manifested
the discredit achieved by the dissolved legislative body, while expressing extensive and strong
acceptance of the measure taken by Martín Vizcarra (Peruvian News Agency, 2019b). By the
night of the same day, the National Police of Peru (PNP) already guarded the entire perimeter of
the Legislative Palace, thus preventing the normal and frequent entry of exiled parliamentarians,
with the exception of the members of the Permanent Commission, the only group of work that
would continue with its attributions until the people can define their destiny in the already
projected election of January 2020, so that in this way, the interrupted constitutional period of
the dissolved Congress is completed (Cairo, 2016).
2020: lose power amidst the storm
It should not be denied that the scenarios that occurred during 2019 played an important role in
being able to build 2020. The new context took place after the Plenary of the TC declared
unfounded the jurisdictional claim filed against the Executive Power when dissolving Congress,
concluding that, this would not have acted incorrectly and contrary to the Constitution. Thus,
with the sky clear and the night calm, nothing could ruin the following days and stop the
Extraordinary Parliamentary Elections on January 26.
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Indeed, since the assumption and seizure of power as a result of the dismissal of his predecessor
PPK, Martín Vizcarra was clear that reaching the Bicentennial implied, in any case, a double
effort by the State, institutional reforms and changes in the order constitutional, in addition to
making viable a path of shared dialogue between the powers of the State, reaching the population
through representation, carrying out those postponed tasks and repairing the structural defects
that still remained and shaped Peru as always. In short, arriving on July 28, 2020 was, without a
doubt, consolidating a democracy in a country heavily damaged by corruption; and thus lay the
foundations for the 200 years of republican independence.
Of course, with a good look to the future and to reach the interior of the country, in less time
than any other president and in the midst of adverse scenarios that began after the taking of the
presidential sash on March 23, 2018, Martín Vizcarra would launch the country's economic boost
through measures aimed at improving the quality of life of Peruvians and building a more just,
equitable and sustainable country, especially for a highly vulnerable sector.
Undoubtedly, the State, while its mandate lasted, had a notorious direction in being able to
provide and reinforce the educational field, health, citizen security, attention to social programs,
while continuing with private investment in large projects with the idea robust to guarantee the
development of all Peruvians equally and with justice. However, the small space of illusion
created after the destruction of parliament and the so-called ballot box to elect new deputies; On
March 6, 2020, nothing would prevent the overwhelming arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic to
the national territory. An unforeseen event that would cause the coming of a powerful storm that
would be difficult to get out of (Canaza-Choque, 2020; 2021b; 2021c).
In this extreme weakness of the runaway year 2020, the Government ordered in a rapid
movement the declaration of a State of National Emergency through Supreme Decree 044-2020-
PCM due to the effects of alteration and danger to the nation derived from COVID-19, giving
rise to to the dominant imposition of legal, management devices and the activation of human,
financial and technological resources that would make it possible to face the impact of the
common enemy (Nercesian, Cassaglia and Morales, 2021).
However, despite the importance of an effective response, nothing stopped the patrimonial
damage produced to the designated budget due to the incidence of corruption and functional
misconduct in the different areas of the State. Well, although the Government had allocated an
approximate of 125 billion soles in the attention of the atypical scenario. The failures within the
public administration and the poor performance of some subnational governments not only
caused the loss of 22 059 million soles, which was equivalent to 12.6% of the budget executed
during the first year of the pandemic; Rather, they caused the arrest of public works, the delay of
important reforms still pending and the slowdown of the prioritized resources for a population
deprived and vulnerable to the greatest problem of the era (Shack, Pérez and Portugal, 2021).
So, framed in a plane that made the capacities and actions of the State inefficient, it was not
strange that the dragged precarious and defective condition of the medical sector prevented the
torrent of damage that would cause the number of infected and the sudden proportion of deaths
due to it. new coronavirus to dissimilar health networks, and with it, the unrestricted right to
primary care. All this critical situation would motivate an untimely episode with a lightning
replacement that would depose the Minister of Health Elizabeth Hinostroza Pereyra for Víctor
Zamora in order to improve the mechanisms to face the spread disease (El Periódico, 2020).
Likewise, at this juncture would be added the fall of the Minister of the Interior Carlos Morán
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Soto, who was displaced by PNP General Gastón Rodríguez Limo, a change that would be
justified by the front-line agents infected in the fight against the pandemic, but that in the end,
the pressure of the now-ex-minister's shooting would come due to the continuous complaints of
corruption in the acquisition and purchase of personal protective equipment for the forces of
order (La República, 2020b).
Along with this wear and tear in Vizcarra's administration, he would be accompanied by political
fragmentation and the lack of a government bench that would allow an immediate response to
the different social demands raised in the most difficult scenario for the country. An effect that
was translated into the discontent of the population due to the ineffectiveness of the measures
that sought to stop the spread of the virus or because the reaction of complaints raised was due
to the absence of the promised bonds to different sectors and the delay in public works, or the
fact of being accused by the regions of not providing the necessary resources to respond to the
state of public calamity. It seems that everything was going against the president, when he would
be questioned by the alleged influence peddling and incompatible negotiation in the public sector
by having favored the irregular hiring of Richard Cisneros, an artistic character who would have
consulted for three years for a value of more than 175 thousand soles to the Ministry of Culture;
At the same time, he was broken by his own trusted environment when audios and journalistic
investigations were publicly disseminated that directly related him to the case of singer Richard
Swing (Mercedes and Gonzales, 2020).
In addition to this turbulent decline, the first vacancy attempt would be approved for September
18, 2020, because eight days before the Audit Commission led by Edgar Alarcón released three
audios referring to a procedural strategy design that tried to obstruct the Investigations opened
against Martín Vizcarra for the irregular hiring of public officials, who, on several occasions,
Vizcarra denied such improper participation. Faced with this, after receiving the right to defense
from the president in the morning, Congress immediately proceeded to debate the motion for
vacancy due to permanent moral incapacity, where this first attempt lost momentum as it was
widely rejected by 78 votes against. , 15 abstentions and 32 in favor. On that occasion, the
president had managed to avoid an abrupt exit amid the greatest challenge motivated by the
pandemic (BBC Mundo, 2020).
However, this did not stop there, the attempts to get rid of his government by some
parliamentary groups had not yet finished. Well, in the framework of the investigations of the
Case of the Construction Club and the declaration of the effective collaborators N ° 10-2018 and
N ° 1-2019, the Third Office of the Supraprovincial Prosecutor's Office Specialized in Crimes of
Corruption of Officials, would provide the October 16, 2020 open a preliminary investigation
against Martín Vizcarra for the crimes of aggravated collusion, improper passive bribery and illicit
association to commit a crime, acts committed while the Lomas de Ilo project was being
developed and the improvement of the Moquegua Regional Hospital, where the president, –Then
regional governor of Moquegua during the period 2011-2014– according to the prosecution, he
would have received a total of 2,300,000 soles in exchange for the award of said public works,
unduly favoring the ICCGSA-Incot and Obrainsa-Astaldi consortiums ( Janampa, Gonzales and
Chanjan, 2020; Castedo, 2020; Fowks, 2020a; 2020b).
The latter would finally make Martín Vizcarra succumb to the presidency of the Republic in the
second political trial against him. On November 9, 2020, Congress already had a destiny set for
whoever had led the country during the most critical times. The 105 dominant votes in favor of
the vacancy came from that unexpected legislature forged as a result of the political
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confrontations emanating from 2017. Faced with such a controversial and divisive decision
(Castedo, 2020), the president could do nothing more to say in his last message to the citizens on
Monday night: “I put my effort in front of the Congress, but they did not listen to me, and if they
did listen to me, they did not attend to me […] I only have, finally, words of sincere gratitude to
all Peruvians, who have been by my side, and who have been my main support throughout my
government, thank you very much, and always, my soul and my heart, will be with you. Thanks".
In a scenario like this, after the dismissal of Martin Vizcarra by disposition of the Legislative
Power and the swearing-in of Manuel Merino de Lama as president a day later. From end to end,
the impact of the resounding transition found in the national outrage a moment to open up all
possible scenarios of why this state of democratic fracture, of an overwhelmed citizenship and
the permanent and inexhaustible dispute of powers in middle of the pandemic. However, one can
be sure of one thing, it was impossible to prevent this decision and the route defined by
Congress, but also, it was impossible to stop the social outbreak after having dethroned the
president of the second period of PPK.
III. CONCLUSIONS
The great fall of President Martín Vizcarra may have, as has been noted in this short journey,
various explanations that start from the overthrow of Kuczynski in March 2018; the unleashed
and permanent fury between the Legislature and the Executive which did not end until the
extermination of the first at the end of September 2019. However, the following months of the
beginning of 2020 would have, in a small waiting space, gloomy impacts radiated by the COVID-
19 pandemic, a mega-problem that would challenge the Peruvian State like never before. All this
would lead to a cycle of rapid responses, inopportune events and social and business discontent,
as well as controversial endings invaded by a chain of irregularities that ended up ending the
president in November 2020.
His withdrawal was not entirely pleasant, between the morning and the night of November 9, the
imposition of the number of votes opened the doors for his departure. One, that, in a repetitive
and already known place, the dismissal took place in a country where many other
parliamentarians, ministers and officials of the highest level were implicated in alleged cases of
corruption.
Thus, cornered by inherited limitations, interrupted plans and a strong list of treasured
accusations, nothing would stop the tragic end for the president. When it became known about
what happened, the media exploded at the national and international level about the end of one
of the politicians who buried the Legislature who was doing so much damage when PPK
assumed the presidency; but that later, a new one formed in January 2020, ended up burying the
creator himself, Martín Vizcarra, while causing unstoppable discontent in the forgers, the
population.
This was, a last year where Martín Vizcarra had run out of institutional weapons to defend
himself, and because it seemed that everything was against him, a year that would cause a break in
continuity. In this way, after two years and eight months on the throne, Vizcarra left his post in
the middle of the worst crisis in the Republic, in addition to embedding a last message full of
nostalgia in the hearts of the people of why so soon our family left. "Presi", a letter that did not
subsequently stop the protests released in November of that same year against the actions taken
by the national Parliament.
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