14-12-2018: Latin American Weekly Report

President Martín Vizcarra emphatically underscored his status as Peru’s most popular head of state in a generation in a referendum on political and judicial reform on 9 December. Voters comprehensively approved the three questions supported by Vizcarra: restructuring the discredited council of magistrates, tightening restrictions on political party financing, and ending congressional re-election. They decisively rejected the one question he opposed: restoring a bicameral legislature. The result confers legitimacy on Vizcarra’s presidency, giving him a mandate of his own after he replaced Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in March this year. It was also a resounding defeat for the right-wing Fuerza Popular (FP, Fujimoristas) which controls congress.