“Former Peruvian President Vizcarra and Minister Mazzetti face constitutional complaint for irregular covid-19 vaccinations in ‘Vacunagate’ scandal”

The Attorney General of Peru, Patricia Benavides, presented this Wednesday a constitutional complaint against the former president Martin Vizcarra and his former health minister Pilar Mazzetti for the scandal of irregular covid-19 vaccinations for a group of senior officials and their families.

“(The) Prosecutor of the Nation (general), Patricia Benavides, filed (a) constitutional complaint against former President Martín Vizcarra Cornejo and (the) former Minister of Health Pilar Mazzetti Soler as alleged perpetrators of the crime against the public administration in the form of concussion”, the Public Ministry reported on its social networks.

He added that the complaint corresponds to “the irregular vaccination of State officials”, a case known in the country as “Vacunagate”.

In October 2020, while he was still president, Vizcarra received two doses of the vaccine from the Chinese state pharmaceutical company Sinopharm as part of an exclusive batch of vaccines arrived to immunize personnel directly linked to a clinical trial of this vaccine in the country.

However, this limited batch was used to vaccinate more than one hundred high authorities and close contacts that included their entire families.

These secret vaccinations were given months before the population could access the vaccines, since it was not until January 6 that the Peruvian Government closed an agreement for Sinopharm to be the main supplier of vaccines against covid-19 in Peru with 38 million doses.

Last March, The Peruvian Congress approved a final report that recommended constitutionally charging Vizcarra for alleged irregularities in the acquisition of 1.4 million rapid covid-19 tests during the pandemic.

Vizcarra replaced Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) in the Peruvian Presidency in March 2018 and, during his tenure, he maintained a tough struggle with the Fujimori-dominated Congress, which he ended up dissolving on September 30, 2019.

However, on November 10, 2020, he was dismissed for “moral incapacity” by the following Parliament, which also disqualified him from holding any public office for 10 years due to the Vacunagate case and, therefore, he could not assume his position as congressman. for which he was elected with the highest national vote in the 2021 elections.