Hello again! As I mentioned in my last post, today we’ll go more in-depth on the presidents Peru has had in the last five years. The first president on the list is Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard, or as Peruvians know him, PPK.

PPK is the son of Maxime Kuczynski, a german doctor who immigrated to Peru and served as Head of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, and Madeleine Godard. After Kuczynski finished secondary education in Lima, he studied composition, flute, and piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He also graduated with a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford University.

Pedro Pablo worked in the World Bank as a regional economist for Central America but returned to Peru in 1966 to serve as an economic advisor to Fernando Belaúnde Terry (The president at the time). After Belaúnde was deposed in a coup d’etat PPK was accused by the new government of unethical contracts with a petroleum company and corruption, he was ‘exiled’ to the United States but absolved of the charges eight years later.

Kuczynski was first appointed as Minister of Energy and Mines in 1980, then served as Minister of Economy in 2001, and lastly, he was the President of the Council of Ministers until 2006. In 2011 Pedro Pablo ran in the presidential election but lost.

His presidency began in 2016 when he won the general elections with a narrow majority (50.1%) against the far-left candidate, Verónika Mendoza. As president, PPK had the approval of the elite class of the capital, but the majority of provinces greatly opposed him due to xenophobic comments he made (PPK stated in 2006 that indigenous populations ‘did not have enough oxygen in their brains’).

His cabinet of ministers was initially nicknamed the ‘golden government’ due to their academic and political trajectories. This cabinet did not achieve the vote of confidence so multiple ministers were replaced. (Fun ‘not so fun’ fact; One of those ministers was Martín Vizcarra, who would later become his vice-president and subsequently president in 2018.)

Furthermore, the cabinet did not have the organization to go against the congressional opposition; no new policies were implemented. Besides this massive failure, his term was plagued with political misconduct; his presidency only survived five scandals.

First, the construction company Odebrecht revealed that it had paid two advisory firms controlled by PPK 4.8 million dollars for contracts in Peru. Secondly, he granted a pardon to Alberto Fujimori, a past president serving time in prison for corruption and violations of human rights. Following this, it was discovered Kuczynski received payments of 3 million dollars during his presidency from Westfield Capital and First Capital. In fourth place, it was exposed that he would claim to pay his domestic employees exorbitant amounts (With money from the government) to later transfer to personal accounts. Finally, when PPK’s vacancy was being debated by congress, multiple videos came to light of his supporters attempting to bribe other ministers to buy votes against the vacancy.

The very next day, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation letter; his vice-president, Martín Vizcarra, assumed the presidency. In 2019, after investigations and a trial, he was condemned to three years in prison but after some medical emergencies, he only served 36 months of house arrest and is currently on provisional release awaiting trial for new corruption claims.