Pedro Pablo Kuczynski facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Pedro Pablo Kuczynski OSP
Kuczynski in 2016
59th President of Peru
In office 28 July 2016 – 23 March 2018
Prime Minister	Fernando Zavala Mercedes Aráoz
Vice President	First Vice President Martín Vizcarra Second Vice President Mercedes Aráoz
Preceded by	Ollanta Humala
Succeeded by	Martín Vizcarra
Prime Minister of Peru
In office 16 August 2005 – 28 July 2006
President	Alejandro Toledo
Preceded by	Carlos Ferrero
Succeeded by	Jorge del Castillo
Minister of Economy and Finance
In office 16 February 2004 – 16 August 2005
President	Alejandro Toledo
Prime Minister	Carlos Ferrero
Preceded by	Jaime Quijandría
Succeeded by	Fernando Zavala
In office 28 July 2001 – 12 July 2002
President	Alejandro Toledo
Prime Minister	Roberto Dañino
Preceded by	Javier Silva Ruete
Succeeded by	Javier Silva Ruete
Minister of Energy and Mines
In office 28 July 1980 – 3 August 1982
President	Fernando Belaúnde Terry
Prime Minister	Manuel Ulloa Elías
Preceded by	René Balarezo
Succeeded by	Fernando Montero
Personal details
Born	Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard (1938-10-03) 3 October 1938 (age 86) Lima, Peru
Nationality	Peruvian American (until 2015)
Political party	Contigo (2019–2021)
Other political affiliations	Independent (before 2010) All for Peru (2010) Alliance for the Great Change (2010–2011) Peruvians for Change (2014–2019)
Spouses	Jane Dudley Casey ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1995)​ Nancy Lange ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	4, including Alex
Parents	Maxime Hans Kuczyński (Father) Madeleine Godard (Mother)
Relatives	Jean-Luc Godard (cousin)
Alma mater	Exeter College, Oxford (BA) Princeton University (MPA)
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Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard (born 3 October 1938), often called PPK, is a Peruvian economist and former politician. He served as the 59th President of Peru from 2016 to 2018. Before becoming president, he was the Prime Minister of Peru and the Minister of Economy and Finance under President Alejandro Toledo. Kuczynski resigned from the presidency in March 2018.

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was born in Lima, Peru. His parents moved there from Germany to escape the Nazis. Kuczynski worked in the United States for a while before getting involved in Peruvian politics. He held important jobs at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. He also served as the general manager of Peru's Central Reserve Bank. In the 1980s, he was the Minister of Energy and Mines. Later, in the 2000s, he became the Minister of Economy and Finance and Prime Minister. Kuczynski ran for president in 2011 and came in third. He ran again in 2016 and won, becoming president on 28 July 2016.

In December 2017, the Congress of Peru started a process to remove Kuczynski from office. This happened after he was accused of not being truthful about payments from a Brazilian construction company. However, Congress did not have enough votes to remove him at that time. After more issues, and facing another vote to remove him, Kuczynski resigned on 21 March 2018. His First Vice President, Martín Vizcarra, then became president.

Early Life and Education

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was born in Miraflores, Lima, Peru. He was the first son of Madeleine Godard and Maxime Hans Kuczyński. His father was a well-known leader in public health in Peru. Pedro Pablo is also a cousin of the famous French film director Jean-Luc Godard.

His parents left Germany in 1933 to escape Nazism. His father, born in Berlin, was a German Jew with some Polish family. His mother was Protestant and had Swiss-French roots. Maxime Kuczyński came to Peru in 1936. Pedro Pablo went to school at Markham College in Lima and then at the Rossall School in England.

He later earned a scholarship to study at Exeter College, Oxford, and graduated in 1960. He then got a master's degree from Princeton University in the United States in 1961. He started his career at the World Bank in 1961.

In 1967, Kuczynski came back to Peru to work at the country's central bank. He went into exile in the United States in 1969. This happened after Peru's government changed due to a military takeover. He then rejoined the World Bank. From 1973 to 1975, he worked at an international investment bank called Kuhn, Loeb & Co.. In 1975, he became chief economist for the International Finance Corporation. Later, he was named President of Halco Mining, a company that mined in West Africa.

From 1983 to 1992, he was a co-chairman at First Boston, another international investment bank. In 1992, he started a private equity firm called Latin American Enterprise Fund (LAEF). This firm focused on investments in Mexico, Central, and South America.

Early Political Career

Kuczynski with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

Involvement in Politics

In 1980, Fernando Belaúnde Terry was elected president of Peru. Kuczynski was asked to return to Peru and serve as Minister of Energy and Mines. In this role, he supported a law that helped oil and gas exploration. Kuczynski left this job in 1982 and went back to working in the United States. During his 2016 presidential campaign, he explained that he left Peru because of threats from the Shining Path group. He said they attacked his apartment, and like many Peruvians, he left the country for safety.

In 2000, Kuczynski joined the presidential campaign of Alejandro Toledo. After Toledo became president in 2001, Kuczynski served as Minister of Economy and Finance. He held this position from July 2001 to July 2002, and again from February 2004 to August 2005. In August 2005, he was appointed Prime Minister. He held this role until Toledo's presidency ended in 2006.

After working with the Toledo government, Kuczynski started Agua Limpia. This is a Peruvian non-governmental organization (NGO). It helps provide clean drinking water systems to communities in Peru. Agua Limpia gets support from the Inter-American Development Bank and Scotia Bank.

He ran for president in 2011 but did not win. However, he later won the 2016 Peruvian general election against Keiko Fujimori. He became the 66th President of Peru and served until March 2018.

Central Reserve Bank of Peru

Kuczynski returned to Peru in 1966 to help the government of Fernando Belaúnde Terry. He worked as an economic adviser and was named manager of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru. After a coup d'état in 1968, Kuczynski and other bank managers were accused of wrongdoing. Kuczynski had to seek refuge in the United States. After an eight-year legal process, the Supreme Court of Justice of Peru found Kuczynski and the other officials not guilty of all charges.

Minister of Energy and Mines

In 1980, Kuczynski came back to Peru. He helped Fernando Belaúnde Terry get elected for his second term as president. Belaúnde Terry then made Kuczynski the Minister of Energy and Mines. In this job, he promoted a law to encourage oil and energy exploration. This law was later changed in 1985.

Minister of Economy and Finance

During Alejandro Toledo's presidential campaign, Kuczynski led the government planning team. He was later appointed as the Minister of Economy and Finance. In this role, he worked with the International Monetary Fund. He aimed to help Peru meet its economic goals.

Prime Minister

Kuczynski resigned from his role as Minister of Economy and Finance on 11 July 2002. He returned to office on 16 February 2004. On 16 August 2005, he was appointed as the Prime Minister of Peru. This happened after the previous Prime Minister, Carlos Ferrero Costa, resigned.

As Prime Minister, Kuczynski made some changes to the government team. He appointed Óscar Maúrtua as the Minister of Foreign Relations. He also named Fernando Zavala as the Minister of Economy and Finance, which was Kuczynski's old job. His time as Prime Minister lasted until the end of Toledo's presidency in July 2006.

2011 Presidential Election

On 1 December 2010, Kuczynski announced he would run for President of Peru in the 2011 Peruvian general election.

Kuczynski ran as the head of the Alliance for the Great Change. This group included several political parties. He came in third place in the election. His opponents, Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori, went on to the second round of elections on 5 June 2011. Humala was elected president in that round.

2016 Presidential Campaign

In 2015, Kuczynski announced he would run for president again. This time, he ran with his own political party, called Peruanos Por el Kambio (PPK).

In Peru's general elections on April 10, 2016, Kuczynski received 21% of the votes. This allowed him to go to a second round of voting against Keiko Fujimori. He won this round by a very small margin, getting 50.12% of the votes compared to Fujimori's 49.88%. This was a difference of only about thirty-nine thousand votes. Just before the second round, Kuczynski received support from Verónika Mendoza, another candidate who finished third.

Fujimori's party, Fuerza Popular, had a majority in Congress. They held 73 out of 130 seats, while PPK's party had 18.

Presidency (2016–2018)

Kuczynski and his cabinet, 28 July 2016

Kuczynski became president on 28 July 2016. At 77 years old, he was the oldest President to take office in Peru.

His government worked to recognize and include indigenous peoples in Peru. They supported the use of indigenous languages in Peru. For example, the state TV station started broadcasting daily news in Quechua in December 2016. In April 2017, they added a news program in Aymara. The President's main speech in July 2017 was also translated into Quechua at the same time.

Foreign Policies

Kuczynski did not agree with the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. He welcomed Venezuelans who left their country to live in Peru. About 200,000 Venezuelans settled in Peru. Kuczynski was one of the first leaders in Latin America to ask for more democracy in Venezuela. Peru also withdrew Venezuela's invitation to a big meeting called the 8th Summit of the Americas. This was because Maduro planned an early election, and major opposing parties were not allowed to participate.

Kuczynski and his Council of Ministers at the site of a natural disaster in Lima.

Resignation

Kuczynski announced he was resigning from the presidency on 21 March 2018.

This happened after videos and audio recordings were released. These recordings seemed to show political deals between the government and lawmakers. The goal was to stop a second attempt to remove Kuczynski from office. The Peruvian Congress accepted his resignation on 23 March 2018. His First Vice President, Martín Vizcarra, immediately took over as president.

Resignation of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski     In favor: 105 congressmen      Against: 12 congressmen      Abstentions: 4 congressmen      Absents: 9 congressmen

Other presidents of Peru who have resigned include Guillermo Billinghurst, Andrés Avelino Cáceres, and Alberto Fujimori. Peru's current Constitution says a president's job can become empty if:

• The President passes away.
• Congress declares the President is permanently unable to do their job.
• Congress accepts the President's resignation.
• The President leaves the country without Congress's permission or does not return on time.
• The President is removed from office for certain serious reasons.

On March 23, Congress voted to accept Kuczynski's resignation. There were 105 votes in favor, 12 against, and four abstentions.

Post-Presidency (2018–Present)

Legal Investigations

On April 10, 2019, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was arrested. This was part of an investigation into money laundering related to the Odebrecht case. He was later placed under house arrest while the investigation continued.

In October 2021, Kuczynski's name appeared in the Pandora Papers. These leaked documents showed that he had created a company in the British Virgin Islands in 2004. His lawyer stated that this company was created to protect his assets and was used only for two properties bought with legal money.

Family and Personal Life

Kuczynski's father, Maxime Hans Kuczyński, was born in Berlin, Germany. He was a bacteriologist and a well-known expert on tropical diseases. His father left Germany in 1933 because he was Jewish. He was invited to Peru in 1936 to help set up public health services.

Kuczynski has been married twice. His first wife was Jane Dudley Casey. They had three children: Carolina Madeleine Kuczynski, the journalist Alex Kuczynski, and John-Michael Kuczynski. They divorced in 1995.

Kuczynski's second wife is Nancy Lange, an American. She was the First Lady of Peru until Kuczynski resigned in 2018. They married in 1996 and have one daughter, Suzanne Kuczynski Lange.

Kuczynski's younger brother, Miguel Jorge Kuczynski Godard, is a scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge. Kuczynski's brother-in-law Harold Varmus won a Nobel Laureate for Medicine in 1989 for his cancer research.

Kuczynski is a first cousin of the French film director Jean-Luc Godard. This is through his mother, Madeleine Godard, who was the film director's aunt.

He used to have U.S. citizenship but gave it up in November 2015. He did this so he could run for Peru's presidency. Kuczynski speaks several languages. Besides his native Spanish, he speaks English and French very well, and he also knows German.

Electoral History

Ancestry

Images for kids

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  Kuczynski greeting people outside Palacio de Gobierno during his first term.

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  Kuczynski with the President of China, Xi Jinping in Peru in 2017.

See also

In Spanish: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski para niños