Peru names new PM after spying scandal
4 April 2015 1:04 AM GMT
In a surprise move, the president also named a new foreign minister. The now ex-prime minister, Ana Jara, was deposed in a no-confidence vote late Monday after media reports that the powerful National Intelligence Directorate, or DINI, spied on politicians, journalists, business leaders and thousands of everyday citizens.
Jara had been under fire since March 19, when news magazine Correo Semanal published a sweeping list of Peruvians who had allegedly been targeted by the now-suspended intelligence agency.
Summoned to Congress, Jara, 46, said the spying dated back to at least the previous two governments, and told lawmakers she had ordered an investigation.
But opposition parties attacked her for failing to end the practice, and succeeded in getting the votes needed to remove her from office -- 72 to 42, with two abstentions. With one year to go in his term, Humala had been dealing with his worst crisis since taking office in 2011, faced with the challenge of finding his seventh prime minister in four years.
The new foreign minister is Ana Maria Sanchez, who only a day earlier had been named ambassador
to France.Â
Jara had been under fire since March 19, when news magazine Correo Semanal published a sweeping list of Peruvians who had allegedly been targeted by the now-suspended intelligence agency.
Summoned to Congress, Jara, 46, said the spying dated back to at least the previous two governments, and told lawmakers she had ordered an investigation.
But opposition parties attacked her for failing to end the practice, and succeeded in getting the votes needed to remove her from office -- 72 to 42, with two abstentions. With one year to go in his term, Humala had been dealing with his worst crisis since taking office in 2011, faced with the challenge of finding his seventh prime minister in four years.
The new foreign minister is Ana Maria Sanchez, who only a day earlier had been named ambassador
to France.Â
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