A month after his resignation from the bench, the youngest of the Fujimori announced his decision

Peruvian congressman Kenji Fujimori announced on Thursday, March 1st that he was no longer a member of the Fuerza Popular party, which is led by his sister Keiko. His decision comes the day after former Odebrecht representative in Peru, Jorge Barata, told a court hearing that the Brazilian company had contributed money to Keiko's presidential campaign in 2011.

"With great sadness, I have the duty to renounce to the Popular Force Party. The sacrifice of so many people for Fujimori in all of Peru, today is marred by a few. I do not doubt my sister, but the party no longer has moral authority. The dawn, however, will come", that was the announcement of the youngest son of former president Alberto Fujimori and with which he finally clarified the month of suspicion about his future in the game.

According to the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, Barata told the Prosecutor's Office that Odebrecht contributed approximately US $ 1,200,000 to the Fuerza Popular presidential campaign, which at the time was called Fuerza 2011.

Discrepancies with the party

Kenji Fujimori was subjected to two suspensions of his work as congressman, imposed by Fuerza Popular, due to the repeated clashes with the decisions and actions of his bench.

The first suspension was of 60 days and took place in July 2017, when the party's disciplinary tribunal found him guilty of violating Article 21 of the Fuerza Popular Regulation, by committing actions "against unity, against fraternity and against the principles and values ​​of the party”.

The second sanction was imposed for 120 days in November 2017 as a result of the statements made by the congressman in a well-known Peruvian media outlet, in addition to some comments on twitter and covering his mouth with a patch during the debate as a sign of disagreement.

In addition to these problems, the confrontations were on a daily basis with the also Popular Force congressman Hector Becerril who described Kenji Fujimori as the "son" of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on twitter and endorsed the corruption for having made the decision to give up the Popular Force party. Becerril and Fujimori had already presented differences when the latter decided to abstain from voting in the legislative trial against Kuczynski.

However, Becerril to know the announcement of Fujimori maintained that Kenji's departure from the party is positive, since he considered illogical his presence in a party he criticized in each decision.

Kenji Fujimori has been the most voted congressman in the last two legislative elections had resigned from the Popular Force bench at the end of last January, along with 9 other congressmen, all of them had abstained in the vote to dismiss President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

When the president decided to pardon Alberto Fujimori, who was imprisoned for corruption and human rights violations, some Peruvians interpreted that decision as a way to repay Kenji for having avoided his exit from power.

Latin American Post | Carlos Eduardo Gómez Avella

Translated from "Kenji Fujimori renunció al partido Fuerza Popular por el escándalo Odebrecht"