Ecuadorian Lawmakers Investigate Alleged Votes Bribery in PeruThree representatives of the Ecuadorian Congress started the investigation on Monday in Peru's denunciations on the supposed purchase of votes to favor the approval of the peace agreement signed by the two countries in 1998.An Ecuadorian legislative delegation headed by Carlos Gonzalez, a Democratic Left Party (ID) member and President of the Commission of Fiscalization of the National Congress, set off for Lima on Monday morning. The group will investigate different videos that were believed to have been recorded by Vladimiro Montesinos, former presidential advisor to the former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori. According to Congress sources, the delegation will analyze the details of the video No.1230, which would have the comments on the Ecuador's situation and the need to assure the Ecuadorian Congress to approve the peace agreement signed by the two governments in Brasilia on October 26, 1998. The video No. 869 will also be analyzed. The delegation was scheduled to return to Ecuador on March 14 to elaborate a report that will be made public at the plenum of Congress. After Montesinos quit his position, a series of videos containing bribing of Peru's public figures appeared. The scandal in Peru spread to Ecuador when one of the videos shows Fujimori dictates a letter addressed to the former Ecuadorian president Abdala Bucaram requesting the legislators of his party, the Roldosista Ecuadorian Party (PRE), to vote in favor of the peace agreement. The peace agreement between Ecuador and Peru was ratified by the Ecuadorian Congress with the support of 96 out of 123 parliamentarians. |
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