Background
Before the impeachment process began, President Kuczynski was accused by the congressional opposition of lying about payments from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. He had initially denied receiving any payments but later admitted that a firm he owned, Westfield Capital Ltd., had received them; he continued to deny any irregularities. [1] Numerous other Latin American politicians had been implicated in the Odebrecht scandal, including Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, and former Peruvian presidents Alan García, Alejandro Toledo, and Ollanta Humala. Others implicated were Keiko Fujimori—chairwoman of Popular Force, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, and Kuczynski's narrow opponent in the 2016 general election.
Upon initiating the proceedings, Congress President Luis Galarreta stated he expected Kuczynski to be removed from office ″within a week.″ Kuczynski's Peruvians for Change party held only 18 of the 130 seats in Congress. The opposition—including the right-wing Popular Force, chaired by Keiko Fujimori, and the left-wing Broad Front, headed by former priest and environmental activist Marco Arana—collectively commanded 81 seats. This was just short of the two-thirds congressional majority (87 seats) needed to remove a president.
According to Reuters, Kuczynski had also lost support within his own cabinet, with some members urging him to resign. On 14 December 2017, the congressional opposition gave him an ultimatum to resign by the end of the day or face impeachment. Kuczynski responded: "It cost us a lot to get our democracy back. We're not going to lose it again. I'm not going to give up my honour, nor my values, nor my responsibilities as president of all Peruvians." [3]
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