\n He grew up in the Amazonian jungle, worked as a banker on Wall Street and is the cousin of famed French director Jean-Luc Godard -- now Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has narrowly avoided being impeached over graft charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n Elected last year, Kuczynski is accustomed to wearing a suit and tie, having held top positions in both private and public spheres throughout his career, and insists \"I am not a politician\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I am an economist who wants to do something for his country,\" he says.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Kuczynski has a long history in politics.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before losing the 2011 presidential election, the center-right figure was energy minister in the 1980s and later economy minister and prime minister under Alejandro Toledo, who was president from 2001 to 2006.\n<\/p>\n
\n A former Wall Street banker and World Bank economist, Kuczynski has also served on the boards of several companies, including some in the mining industry.\n<\/p>\n
\n At 79, he says age is not a problem.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They say I'm old, but my head and my experience work,\" he maintains.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite his austere airs, Kuczynski from a young age developed an interest in the arts, which he owes to his Franco-Swiss mother Madeleine Godard -- aunt of the famous filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard.\n<\/p>\n
\n Madeleine Godard, a literature professor, in the mid-1930s met Kuczynski's father Max, a doctor from a Jewish family in Berlin who fled Germany following Adolf Hitler's rise to power.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Peruvian 'Gringo' -\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I want to go to Latin America -- marry me, let's go,\" the former World War I German officer told Godard, and the couple arrived in Peru in 1936.\n<\/p>\n
\n Doctor Kuczynski went on to treat lepers in the Amazon jungle, where the young Pedro Pablo, born in 1938, spent part of his childhood.\n<\/p>\n
\n He and his younger brother remember how their father trained a monkey to bring him fruit.\n<\/p>\n
\n In the 1950s Kuczynski -- by then a top musician -- studied at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London, and during his presidential bid he did not shy away from picking up the flute.\n<\/p>\n
\n He then studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University before heading to Princeton, where he was awarded a scholarship and completed his training in public administration.\n<\/p>\n
\n The politician speaks Spanish with a hint of an accent -- he also speaks French and English -- which has earned him the nickname \"gringo\" in Peru.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Impeachment vote -\n<\/p>\n
\n On Thursday, standing before an opposition-controlled Congress hostile to his leadership, Kuczynski appeared relaxed and confident as lawmakers considered corruption accusations against him connected to the disgraced Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht.\n<\/p>\n
\n An impeachment motion put to lawmakers failed by eight votes, with 79 votes in favor, 19 against and 21 abstentions. At least 87 votes were required to approve an impeachment.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kuczynski is accused of lying to cover up $5 million (4.2 million euros) in payments from Odebrecht, which both he and the company insist were for legitimate consulting fees.\n<\/p>\n
\n His center-right party -- which bears his initials PPK, standing for Peruanos por el Kambio (Peruvians for Change) -- has vowed by the end of his five-year term in 2021 to provide the country's poorest citizens with drinking water, education, hospitals and improved security.\n<\/p>\n
\n After an exceptionally tight election in 2016 against Keiko Fujimori -- which saw half the population voting to return to power the clan of Alberto Fujimori, the former president jailed for crimes against humanity and corruption -- Kuczynski has struggled to bring the divided nation together.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Peruvian leader, who is also a Harley Davidson motorcycle enthusiast, is married to his second wife Nancy Lange. He has four children.\n<\/p>\n
\n bur-tup\/mdo\/dl\n<\/p>\n
\n HARLEY-DAVIDSON<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He grew up in the Amazonian jungle, worked as a banker on Wall Street and is the cousin of famed French director Jean-Luc Godard -- now Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has narrowly avoided being impeached over graft charges. Elected last year, Kuczynski is accustomed to wearing a suit and tie, having held top positions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-35872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n