in the
Oval Office.
Involvement in politics In 1980, following the election of
Fernando Belaúnde Terry as president, Kuczynski was invited to return to Peru to serve as
Minister of Energy and Mines. In this position, he sponsored Law 23231 which, through
tax exemptions and other incentives, promoted oil and gas exploration and exploitation after a period of relative neglect. Kuczynski resigned in 1982 and returned to the private sector in the United States. During the second round of the
2016 presidential campaign, he claimed that he had left Peru due to the threats and attacks from the
Shining Path insurgent group: "Let's remember that the terrorists not only hung my
effigy on the
zanjón (a local denomination for
Paseo de la República avenue in Lima) and in
San Martín square, but they attacked my apartment. Just as 3 million Peruvians, I left the country". This was in response to an attack by election opponent
Keiko Fujimori (daughter of then-imprisoned former president
Alberto Fujimori and main rival of PPK in the second round of elections) who claimed that Kuczynski did not "have moral authority to
speak of terrorism". During the rest of the 1980s and 1990s, Kuczynski was mainly involved in the private equity and fund management business in the United States. He made small personal donations to the presidential campaigns of
George H. W. Bush and of
George W. Bush, and to the state-senator campaign of his wife's cousin in
Wisconsin. He additionally made donations to
New York Senator Chuck Schumer and
New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley. In 2000, Kuczynski joined the presidential campaign of
Alejandro Toledo, then an economics professor at the
ESAN University in
Lima. After Toledo was elected president in the
2001 Peruvian general election, Kuczynski served as
Minister of Economy and Finance from July 2001 to July 2002, and again from February 2004 to August 2005. In August 2005, he was appointed as
prime minister, a position he held until the end of Toledo's presidential term in 2006. In 2007,
Manuel Dammert, a sociologist and politician, alleged that Kuczynski was involved in facilitating the activities, in various projects in Peru, of a financial entity known as First Capital Partners, in particular in relation to the
Olmos diversion project, the
Jorge Chávez International Airport, the
Transportadora de Gas, and the Conrisa consortium. Former partners of Kuczynski in the Latin American Enterprise Fund had reportedly inaccurately listed Kuczynski as a founding partner of First Capital but corrected the error shortly afterwards. In consequence, Kuczynski sued Dammert for defamation and falsification of documents. Kuczynski prevailed at the first and second instance, but, on appeal,
Peru's Supreme Court upheld Dammert's right to ask questions on matters of public interest, without ruling on the merits of Dammert's claims. These claims have been denied extensively by Kuczynski. during his first term in office. After working with the Toledo administration, Kuczynski founded Agua Limpia, a Peruvian non-governmental organization that provides drinking water systems to communities in Peru. Agua Limpia is supported by the
Inter-American Development Bank,
Scotia Bank of Canada and others. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2011, but later went on to win the
2016 Peruvian general election against
Keiko Fujimori, becoming the 66th
President of Peru until March 2018.
Central Reserve Bank of Peru Kuczynski returned to
Peru in 1966 to support the government of
Fernando Belaúnde Terry, as an economic adviser. He was appointed
manager of the
Central Reserve Bank of Peru. After the
coup d'état against President Belaúnde on 3 October 1968, BCR managers Carlos Rodríguez Pastor Mendoza, Richard Webb Duarte and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski were accused of granting
foreign currency certificates to the
International Petroleum Company, allowing this company to remit $115 million of current profits to
Standard Oil, its parent company in the
United States. Due to this Kuczynski was forced to take
refuge in the United States. After a judicial
process that lasted eight years, the
Supreme Court of Justice of Peru acquitted Kuczynski, and other BCR officials, of all charges.
Minister of Energy and Mines In 1980, Kuczynski returned to Peru and collaborated in the election campaign of
Belaúnde Terry, who was elected at his
second and last non-consecutive term, and appointed Kuczynski as the
Minister of Energy and Mines. As Minister, he promoted Law No. 23231, which promoted
energy and oil exploitation; However, the so-called Kuczynski Law was not exempt from controversy because of the
tax exemptions granted to foreign oil companies. In December 1985 it was repealed.
Minister of Economy and Finance During the presidential campaign of
Alejandro Toledo, Kuczynski worked as the head of government planning team. He was later appointed as the
Minister of Economy and Finance. As such, he made numerous agreements with the
International Monetary Fund to help fulfill the goals in the
neoliberal economic policies outlined by Peru. However, he was criticized on countless occasions by
Alan García, the main leader of opposition to the government.
Prime minister After the increase in social protests in
Arequipa due to the
privatization of
electric companies, he
resigned on 11 July 2002. He returned to office on 16 February 2004, and was appointed as the
Prime Minister of Peru on 16 August 2005, following the resignation of
Carlos Ferrero Costa. In a cabinet reshuffle, Kuczynski appointed
Óscar Maúrtua as the
Minister of Foreign Relations in replacement of
Fernando Olivera, and
Fernando Zavala as the
Minister of Economy and Finance, his previous post. His premiership lasted through the end of Toledo's presidency in July 2006.
2011 presidential election On 1 December 2010, Kuczynski announced that he would stand as a candidate for President of Peru in the
upcoming elections. Kuczynski ran for President of Peru in the general election, though he did not pass into the run-off as head of the
Alliance for the Great Change (Alliance for the Great Change), formed by the
Christian People's Party, the
Alliance for Progress, the
Peruvian Humanist Party and
National Restoration. in which he narrowly triumphed with 50.12% of the vote to Fujimori's 49.88%, a margin of just thirty-nine thousand votes out of nearly eighteen million cast. Barely a week before the second round of voting, while trailing Keiko, Kuczynski received an important endorsement from third-place finisher
Verónika Mendoza (18.82%), Peru's leading left-wing candidate, in an effort to defeat Fujimori. Keiko's party, Fuerza Popular, had an absolute majority in
Congress with 73 of the 130 seats; PPK trailed with 18. ==Presidency (2016–2018)==