Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Peru’s bishops have called for Peruvians to work together to root out corruption in the wake of the resignation of the country’s president, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, amid accusations of corruption.
The country is suffering from “a systemic process of corruption caused by the divorce between ethics and politics, reinforced by personal and group ambitions, exacerbated by impunity and abused by a system that sidesteps justice”, the bishops said in a statement read at a news conference by Trujillo Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte, president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference.
The bishops called for the “ethical and moral recovery of the country, because high levels of corruption steal hope, especially from the poor and the young”.
They urged politicians and “all social forces” to create an “agreement for governance” of the country, which has been wracked by a corruption scandal involving bribes and kickbacks to politicians from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht and its Brazilian and Peruvian partners.
Kuczynski announced his resignation in a brief televised address on March 21, the day before he was to face an impeachment vote in Congress.
On March 20, opposition leaders released videos apparently showing government allies attempting to bribe legislators to vote against impeachment.
The president claimed the videos had been doctored.