Lima (Peru), Nov 18,2020: Peru’s political crisis appeared on the verge of resolution as Congress cleared the way for an elder statesman and consensus candidate to become the country’s third president in a week.
Jubilant people waved the nation’s red-and-white flag and blared horns on the streets of Peru’s capital as Francisco Sagasti of the centrist Purple Party was selected as the new president of Congress.
The 76-year-old engineer has not yet been sworn into office, but as head of Congress becomes the nation’s chief of state by default. Peru currently has no president or vice president, making him next in line.
It will now fall on Sagasti to heal a nation bruised by a week of upheaval.
What’s at stake is taking a first step toward rebuilding confidence between the people and the state, said Samuel Rotta, president of the Peruvian chapter of Transparency International.
Applause erupted in the legislative palace as Sagasti clinched the required majority vote. A respected academic, he has also spent decades consulting government institutions and held a post at the World Bank. Shortly after the vote, he took an oath to become Congress’ president.
We will do everything possible to return hope to the people and show them they can trust in us, he said in his first remarks.
Many in the Latin American nation are hopeful Sagasti’s appointment will mark the end of a tumultuous week in which thousands took to the streets outraged by Congress’ decision to oust popular ex-President Mart n Vizcarra.
During the upheaval, two young men died and dozens were injured. Peru also spent more than 24 hours with no designated chief of state.
Sagasti could steer the country back toward stability because he is in a position to win the support of both Congress and demonstrators.
He and his Purple Party bloc were among just 19 of 130 lawmakers to vote against Vizcarra’s removal. That will earn him credibility among protesters who condemned the ouster as a power grab. Unlike Vizcarra, he also has a party in Congress representing him.
Sagasti is someone who inspired confidence among a lot of people, said Jo-Marie Burt, a senior fellow with the Washington Office on Latin America.
He’s an accidental president but I wouldn’t say he’s someone without a plan.
Peru has much on the line: The country is in the throes of one of the world’s most lethal coronavirus outbreaks and political analysts say the constitutional crisis cast the country’s democracy into jeopardy.
The protests that rocked Peru were unlike any seen in recent years, fueled largely by young people typically apathetic to the country’s notoriously erratic politics. They came a year after a wave of anti-government demonstrations around Latin America demanding better conditions for the poor and working class.
