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Peruvian Congress Sacks Fujimori for Moral Incapacity
Peru's Congress on Wednesday sacked President Alberto Fujimori on the grounds that he is "morally unfit" for the post, thus rejecting his resignation on Monday.
President of Congress Valentin Paniagua is expected to take over as interim president until next year's election as the country's both vice presidents have resigned. Under Peru's constitution, the head of Congress is third in line for presidency.
The decision to remove Fujimori was approved 62-9, with nine abstentions after an extra long debate. Before the voting, parliamentarians from Fujimori's Peru 2000 left the house en masse to protest against the proceedings. They insisted that the assembly should first vote on Fujimori's resignation bid rather than the opposition's motion to remove him.
Fujimori wrote a letter to Paniagua to render his resignation on Monday. His resignation came after the opposition motion was tabled in Congress.
Fujimori's political future became gloomy as the opposition gained control of the Congress last week when Paniagua, supported by the opposition and independents, was elected head of the legislature.
Peru was plunged into a major political crisis in September when a video tape was released showing that Fujimori's close aide, spy master Vladimiro Montesinos, was apparently bribing a congressmen to support Fujimori in May elections.
Fujimori won the elections for a third term, but had to announce after the release of the tape that new elections would be held and he himself would not run. He also pledged to step down in July 2001 to make way for the new president.
Congress overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment bill on November 2 which stipulates that Fujimori's presidency and the terms of office of the parliamentarians should end on July 28, 2001, four years ahead of schedule, thus paving the way for new elections in April 2001.
Fujimori, an ethnic Japanese, traveled to Japan after attending an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Brunei, allegedly for negotiations with Tokyo over economic aid. He said he would stay there for some time.
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