MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru: Unconvincing president deepens political crisis

In a televised address to the nation, Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said that his legal adviser accused of close links with a corruption ring had acted behind his back and insisted that the scandal would not harm his administration.

Speaking late Saturday, Mr. Toledo who has seen his public opinion plunge said that adviser Cesar Almeyda, who is under house arrest and accused of bribery and other crimes, has been removed from all public posts and expelled from the ruling party Peru Posible.

Mr. Toledo called on all political parties and citizens to mobilize against corruption and the ring led by former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos who the president claimed was attempting to destabilize the nation's democracy.

The scandal broke out last Friday with the broadcast of a video giving evidence of negotiations between Mr. Almeyda and General Oscar Villanueva, who committed suicide in September 2002 after being exposed as the "cashier" for Montesinos' corruption ring, which also coincided with news of the abrupt resignation of Vice President Raul Diez Canseco.

Last November 10 Mr. Diez Canseco resigned from his post as Foreign Trade and Tourism minister - but hung on to the vice presidency - in response to press reports that he had abused his office by pushing through tax breaks that favoured the father of his mistress, Luciana de la Fuente.

He was also accused of employing 26-year-old Luciana and two of her cousins at his ministry.

Though Diez Canseco initially denied the charges and any relationship to De la Fuente, photos of the two of them together on a beach in Miami prompted several legislators to call for his resignation from the vice presidency.

The Almeyda scandal and Diez Canseco's resignation came at the end of a week that saw the publication of a poll showing Toledo's approval rating at only 7.2 percent.