Peru minister quits over lynching

Rospigliosi (left) is the latest minister to leave Toledo's administration

Peru's Interior Minister Fernando Rospigliosi has formally resigned, a day after the country's Congress voted to censure him.

The minister had been criticised for failing to stop three weeks of violent unrest in the country's south, which ended in a local mayor being lynched.

The narrow vote to censure Mr Rospigliosi forced his resignation.

Mr Rospigliosi's departure is bad news for Peru's government, already weakened by a raft of corruption scandals.

It is the first time a minister has been censured by Congress since President Alejandro Toledo took office almost three years ago.

Mr Rospigliosi was given 72 hours to resign after the legislature voted 62 to 39 with six abstentions to censure him. The lawmakers needed 61 votes to force him out.

Mr Toledo criticised the opposition for censuring Mr Rospigliosi, saying he was one of his best ministers, and warning that his departure would worsen the security situation.

Low approval

Last week, thousands of mostly indigenous Aymara people beat to death the mayor of Ilave in southern Peru after accusing him of corruption.

Opponents of Mr Rospigliosi said he did nothing to address the events which led to the death of the mayor.

The minister told Congress last week that he did all he could to calm the residents of Ilave.

His departure is likely to harm the president, who has lost a handful of ministers and a vice president in the past six months after a series of corruption scandals.

According to a poll published this week, Mr Toledo currently has the approval of less than 8% of the population.

In October last year, Mr Rospigliosi who is a member of the ruling party Peru Posible, had the support of 40% of Peruvians. By the beginning of this week, that had slipped to less than 30%.