The President of Peru Refused to Resign, Despite Allegations of Corruption

Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has refused to resign, rejecting the opposition's ultimatum to step down or face impeachment over bribery accusations by the Brazilian company Odebrecht. "I will not give up my honor, my values ​​or my duties as a president," Kuczynski said in a televised speech backed by his ministers.

"I will not run, I will not hide, nor have any reason to do so," he said, promising to cooperate with the investigations of the Congress and the Prosecutor General of the country. The People's Rights Party, which controls Congress, has warned it will begin legal proceedings against him if he does not resign until Thursday. Odebrecht, a Brazilian engineering and construction giant at the heart of numerous cases of corruption in Latin America, revealed on Wednesday that they paid Kuczynski $ 5 million for consultations between 2004 and 2013.

During part of this period, Kuczynski was the economy minister and head of the then-President Alejandro Toledo's office, of whom Odebrecht said they had paid him $ 20 million to win a motorway contract.