Peru’s Congress voted on Tuesday to remove President Jose Jeri from office following aseries of undisclosed late-night meetings at a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese state contractor,setting off a political scandal dubbed “Chifagate”, a reference to the country’s Chinese-Peruvian fusion cuisine.
According to SCMP, lawmakers voted 75-24, with three abstentions, to censure Jeri over the unregistered encounters with businessman Zhihua Yang,whose companies have supplied the state and who owns the restaurant and a wholesale outlet in Lima.
The vote took place during an extraordinary session in which seven censure motions, filed between January 21 and January 27, were admitted and debated together. An attempt by Jeri’s party, Somos Peru, to argue that only a presidential vacancy procedure could remove him was defeated 71-34.
Jeri did not attend the debate, maintaining that the censure process denied him the right to mount a defense.
In a televised interview last month, he ruled out resigning voluntarily and described the release of videos as part of a political operation aimed at destabilizing the government ahead of elections; of course that's what every politicians embroiled in a career-ending scandal would say.
The “Chifagate” scandal started in late December,when TV shows broadcast footage of the president entering a Chinese restaurant in Lima’s San Borja district shortly before midnight, his head covered, alongside the interior minister Vicente Tiburcio.
Days later, he was filmed inside Yang’s wholesale shop, which municipal authorities had temporarily closed earlier that day for regulatory breaches. Neither visit was recorded on the president’s official agenda as required under transparency rules.
Local media also reported thatYang had expressed interest in a proposed contract to install thousands of surveillance cameras on public buses,a project estimated to cost about US$30 million.
Government officials acknowledged discussions with Chinese business representatives but denied any pressure or irregular conduct.
Separate reports saidanother Chinese businessman, Ji Wu Xiaodong, who faces house arrest over alleged links to illegal logging, had entered the presidential palace several times between December and January. Jeri said he was unaware of Ji Wu’s legal situation and rejected suggestions of wrongdoing.
Source: ZeroHedge News
