Martín Vizcarra

Martín Alberto Vizcarra Cornejo OSP CYC GColIH (Latin American Spanish: [maɾˈtin alˈβeɾto βisˈkara koɾˈnexo] ^ⓘ; born 22 March 1963) is a Peruvian engineer and politician who served as President of Peru from 2018 to 2020. Vizcarra previously served as Governor of the Department of Moquegua (2011–2014), First Vice President of Peru (2016–2018), Minister of Transport and Communications of Peru (2016–2017), and Ambassador of Peru to Canada (2017–2018), with the latter three during the presidency of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

In the 2016 general election, Vizcarra ran with the Peruvians for Change presidential ticket as Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's running mate candidate for first vice president, narrowly defeating Keiko Fujimori's Popular Force ticket. On 23 March 2018, Vizcarra was sworn into office as President of Peru following the resignation of President Kuczynski. Throughout his tenure, Vizcarra remained independent from political parties, promoted reforms against corruption in the legislative and judicial branches, and vowed to not run for president when his term would end in 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Peru, Vizcarra instituted stay-at-home orders and issued relief funds, but existing inequality, overcrowding and a largely informal economy saw Peru being heavily affected by the pandemic. As a result, Peru's gross domestic product declined thirty percent, increasing political pressure on Vizcarra's government.

On 30 September 2019, following what he described as a "factual denial of confidence" against his government, Vizcarra dissolved the Peruvian Congress and issued a decree for legislative elections. This initiated the 2019 constitutional crisis in which Congress unsuccessfully attempted to remove him and resulted in the resignation of Second Vice President Mercedes Aráoz. The snap election for a new congress was held on 26 January 2020, with the legislature elected becoming opposition-led once again. In September 2020, Congress opened impeachment proceedings against Vizcarra on grounds of "moral incapacity", accusing him of influence peddling after audio recordings were released by an opposition legislator, but the process did not receive enough votes to remove him from office.

On 9 November 2020, the Peruvian Congress impeached Vizcarra a second time after declaring him "morally incompetent" and removed him from office. The President of Congress and opposition leader Manuel Merino succeeded Vizcarra as President of Peru the following day. Vizcarra's impeachment incited street protests, as an overwhelming majority of Peruvians and political analysts believed the impeachment was unsubstantiated, with several Peruvian media outlets labeling the impeachment a "coup". President Merino resigned after six days in office following the killings of two protesters by police.

On 16 April 2021, former President Vizcarra was banned from holding public office for 10 years after allegedly jumping the line to get a COVID-19 vaccine in the Vacunagate controversy, by an 86–0 vote in Congress.