Peru's Congress declares Fujimori "morally unfit"

Peru's Congress declares Fujimori "morally unfit"
REUTERS

NOV 22: "This motion has been approved," said Congress President Valentin Paniagua, a moderate opposition lawmaker who is now almost certain to take over as interim president on Wednesday and lead Peru into April elections.

The way Fujimori announced that he was stepping down - -from a hotel room in Japan -- incensed the country and opposition legislators proposed a motion to reject his resignation and formally remove him.

It was a dismal finale for Fujimori, who ruled Peru with an iron hand for 10 years, winning praise for defeating leftist guerrillas and licking hyperinflation but whose government gained one of Latin America's worst rights records.

Opposition lawmakers -- many of whom say Fujimori is a dictator who won a third term in May by fraud -- clapped and cheered after the vote. A Peruvian flag was waved from a public gallery.

The motion was passed by 62 votes with nine against andnine abstentions. Another 29 pro-Fujimori lawmakers boycotted the ballot.

The vote was also a step down the road to Congress officially declaring Paniagua interim president on Wednesday. Fujimori's two vice presidents -- Francisco Tudela and Ricardo Marquez -- have both resigned.

Constitutional experts say Congress on Wednesday will formally accept Marquez's resignation -- thus making Paniagua the leader of Peru.

During the debate, Fujimori's defenders -- their ranks depleted by defections of six lawmakers in the wake of his absentee resignation -- were drowned out by contemptuous opposition congressmen shouting "shame", "immorality" and "sin" -- referring to the president.

A passing reference to Fujimori's accomplishments drew only a ripple of applause in a chamber that had kowtowed to him for the past eight years.

Fujimori tendered his resignation on Monday while holed up in a plush Tokyo hotel. He submitted his resignation following growing accusations of government corruption centered on his former spy Chief Vladimiro Montesinos.

The whereabouts of Montesinos, who sparked Fujimori's fall from grace with a bribery scandal, remain a mystery.