Peruvian Congress sacks Alberto Fujimori

Paniagua said Congress would meet again on Wednesday for a formal vote that would make him the interim president until next July 28, following the election scheduled for April.

Congress voted 62-9, at the end of a 12-hour session Tuesday, not to accept Fujimori's resignation but to dismiss him. Nine members abstained from voting. The question before Congress was whether it would accept the resignation or dismiss Fujimori.

Fujimori and Vice President Ricardo Marquez resigned on Monday, following years of public disillusionment with Fujimori's increasingly dictatorial style. The discontent reached a peak when videotapes showed a high-level Fujimori adviser accepting a bribe.

The way was cleared for Paniagua to become interim president when Congress on Tuesday finally accepted the resignation of Francisco Tudela, Marquez's predecessor as vice president.

Tudela had tried for weeks to resign in protest against Fujimori's heavy-handed rule. But his resignation, until Tuesday, had not been formally recognized. The election last week of Paniagua, a respected member of the opposition, as the president of Congress was a final sign that Fujimori had lost his grip on power.

Seven other representatives of the government alliance, Peru 2000, also resigned on Monday. They tendered their resignations on the grounds that Fujimori resigned while out of the country and has not returned to admit his faults.

Fujimori left Peru at the beginning of last week to take part in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Brunei. Following the summit he travelled to Japan, the land of his parents, from where he informed his country he would resign.

(la/news.ch)