Pedro Pablo Kuczynski

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard (Latin American Spanish: [kuˈtʃinski ɣoˈðaɾð]; born 3 October 1938), also known simply as PPK (Spanish: [pepeˈka]), is a Peruvian economist, public administrator, and former politician who served as the 59th President of Peru from 2016 to 2018. He served as Prime Minister of Peru and as Minister of Economy and Finance during the presidency of Alejandro Toledo. Kuczynski resigned from the presidency on 23 March 2018, following a successful impeachment vote and days before a probable conviction vote. Since 10 April 2019 he has been in pretrial detention, due to an ongoing investigation on corruption, money laundering, and connections to Odebrecht, a public works company accused of paying bribes.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was born in the Miraflores District of Lima to parents who fled from Germany after the Nazis came to power. Kuczynski worked in the United States before entering Peruvian politics. He held positions at both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund before being designated the general manager of Peru's Central Reserve Bank. He later served as Minister of Energy and Mines in the early 1980s under President Fernando Belaúnde Terry, and as Minister of Economy and Finance and prime minister under President Alejandro Toledo in the 2000s. Kuczynski was a presidential candidate in the 2011 presidential election, placing third. For the 5 June 2011 runoff election, Kuczynski supported right-winger Keiko Fujimori over leftist Ollanta Humala, but Humala was elected nonetheless. Kuczynski went on to stand in the 2016 election, where he narrowly defeated Fujimori in the second round. He was sworn in as president on 28 July 2016.

On 15 December 2017, the Congress of Peru, which was controlled by the opposition Popular Force, initiated impeachment proceedings against Kuczynski, after he was accused of lying about receiving payments from the scandal-hit Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in the mid-2000s. However, on 21 December 2017, the Peruvian Congress lacked the majority of votes needed to impeach Kuczynski. After further scandals and facing a second impeachment vote, Kuczynski resigned from the presidency on 21 March 2018 following the release of videos showing alleged acts of vote buying, presenting his resignation to the Council of Ministers. He was succeeded as president by his First Vice President Martín Vizcarra. On 28 April 2019, Kuczynski was placed under house arrest while under investigation for allegedly taking bribes from Odebrecht.