Law & Justice, Lima, Politics

Former president of Congress goes to Venice

Former president of Congress goes to Venice

Pedro Olaechea, president of Congress at the time of the dissolution 10 days ago, is scheduled to be in Italy this week for the plenary session of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.

The Commission, which sees democracy issues now for nations worldwide, is to issue its draft opinion Oct. 12 on President Vizcarra’s proposal to amend the constitution to allow for early general elections.

The Commission sent a delegation to Lima on Sept. 23 and 24, at Olaechea’s request. It met members of Congress, the Executive, the Constitutional Court and specialists in constitutional law to discuss the early elections reform, which was Vizcarra’s proposal to solve the three-year confrontation between the congressional majority and the government that has blocked any significant judicial and political reform legislation to combat endemic corruption.

The Constitution Commission in Peru’s Congress, however, did not wait for the Venice opinion and the day after the delegation had returned to Europe, rushed a majority vote to shelve Vizcarra’s proposal, refusing to take it to the floor for a debate or vote.

The Venice Commission’s suggestions are not binding, but Olaechea hopes he can use the opinion if Peru’s Constitutional Court accepts to hear his argument that Vizcarra has overstepped his jurisdictional limits.

Olaechea, who remains as president of the Permanent Commission — the 27-member body in Congress that oversees its administration until the new Congress is elected January 26, 2020 — has refused to accept the dissolution and believes there is a conflict of jurisdiction between the Executive and Legislature that needs to be settled by the Constitutional Court.

Whether the Venice opinion is favorable to Olaechea or not, it is of little more than academic value now that Congress has been dissolved.  President Vizcarra’s decision, which includes parliamentary elections in three months’ time, is considered to be within the Constitution by most constitutional lawyers and specialists, and also by international organizations such as the Organization of American States and the United Nations. Also, Vizcarra has been acknowledged by the armed forces as their commander-in-chief,  and has more than 87% approval nationwide.

Ex-lawmakers of Keiko Fujimori’s Fuerza Popular party continue to seek ways to remain, however, doing the rounds of radio and TV shows to call the President a Venezuelan-style “Chavez-Maduro communist” and a dictator who has overstepped his presidential limits.  But a protest march organized by Fuerza Popular on Monday gathered only a few handfuls of supporters in the Parque Universitario downtown, despite calls from lawmaker Hector Becerril for congressional colleagues to encourage their staff and relatives to take time off without pay to join the march.

2 Comments

  1. This is an appeal for more objective professional journalism. The proposal to amend the constitution and forward elections a year early in Peru was not only ‘unconstitutional,’ but due to the fact that law cannot be applied retroactively it cannot possibly be applied to the current term. The ‘rule of law’ of any state prohibits such conduct because such proposals in effect nullify prior election results and allow for either anarchy or dictatorship. It means that contracts could be broken unilaterally at any time by any party involved, be it in the private or public sectors of the economy. It means that regular citizens are no longer obligated to abide by the ‘rule of law’ since even a president is willing to trample the law or the constitution. Neither the United Nations nor OEA has ever supported such measures and the statements in this article alluding to that fact are a total farce. Politicians cannot simply take advantage of a temporarily favorable political moment achieved through populist rhetoric to conveniently advance or delay election terms – that is simply illegal.

    Vizcarra clearly has been trying to take control of the legislative and judicial branches of the state, since inheriting the presidential office from Kaczynski, in order to eliminate his political opposition and because both him and his brother have over 40 charges pending against them linked the Odebrecht scandal, much like all his predecessors; although, as long presidential immunity remains, those charges of course cannot move forward. In fact, Vizcarra’s political party while he was a provincial governor was an affiliate party to former Humala’s socialist coalition during 2011 and his allies in congress and even his newly appointed council of ministers are all members pulled from those same ranks. That is why congressional members from Kuczynski’s party abandoned him and left him with less than a handful of congressmen still affiliated to the same party that brought him to office. That is why he continues to forcefully and unconstitutionally prevent congress from continuing functioning. That is why he is attempting to illegally and unconstitutionally block the normal election by congress of a renovated Tribunal Court membership. He realized that once a new TC was elected and both him and his political allies lost much control of it the new TC would allow investigations against him to proceed or even accelerate, which would not give him enough time to escape prosecution by immediately fleeing overseas once he left office, much like Toledo today. However, even slowed investigations against him also posed a risk for him, if they succeeded eventually and he did not leave office prior to 2021; thereby his motive to move elections forward. He realizes now that once the Tribunal Magistrates declare his actions illegal, he will be vacated from office and arrested along with all those who supported his criminal conduct and his attempt to illegally dissolve congress.

    How does the corrupt propose any political reform to combat endemic corruption? How could reforms against corruption derive from an executive branch of government that has all its presidents elected since 2001 facing corruption charges or jailed or soon to be jailed with links to the same Odebrecht scandal? The reforms and prosecution MUST derive rather from the legislative and judicial branches. That is just common sense. Vizcarra’s excuse to dissolve congress using a motion of confidence was also illegal and unconstitutional, not only because this motion like all previous others was approved by a consenting congress (Vizcarra cannot legally inherit a motion denied to Kuczynski’s government and even if he could it would still be nonsensical due to Vizcarra’s own government and his congressional support having no ties to Kuczynski’s original party), but also because the constitution does not allow the interference of the executive in the TC elections and the fact that once again he cannot attempt to change the rules retroactively on the election of Tribunal Magistrates.

    Indeed, doing so would once again mean nullifying prior election results and allowing him along with his minority support in congress to obstruct normal TC election proceedings, influence its renovated membership after illegal advanced legislature elections are held, and gain control of both the legislative and judicial branches all along while keeping their main political opponent in jail unable to campaign against them. It would be the equivalent in the US to a president getting a chance to renovate a good number of the members of the Supreme Court, but suddenly finding that the opposition-controlled US congress wants to obstruct his appointment of supreme justices by proposing a law that changes the rules to not only block his ability to do so in the future, but also during the current term. It would be unthinkable and something that in the US, with such strong democratic institutions and civilian respect for the ‘rule of law,’ would never be possible. It is what separates the US and much of the industrialized developed world from South America, and what condemns Peru and many of its neighbors to perpetual third-world status. Vizcarra’s actions are unconstitutional and outright criminal and this English-speaking journal along with the rest of the civilized world that believes in the rule of law should be clearly attesting to that.

  2. The majority knows most are corrupt and half doesn’t even show up but their friends sign them in to get paid. That alone is corruption. To not pass bills to stop corruption they admit they are part of the problem. The people do not want the present Congress and deserve to have the people elected that will actually work for them. With the amount of taxes they receive there should be good roads, electricity, sewers and good education for all

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