Peru's finance minister quits over audio recordings

Published June 21, 2017

Peru's business-friendly finance minister resigned Wednesday amid accusations he pressured officials to approve a controversial airport project, delivering a new blow to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's efforts to boost the South American nation's slowing economy.

Alfredo Thorne's resignation came after the opposition-controlled congress voted to censure the former Wall Street banker.

Thorne used to work for the World Bank and JP Morgan Chase and was seen as a star in Kuczynski's Cabinet of foreign-educated technocrats.

But analysts say his political inexperience may have gotten the best of him. The accusations that forced his resignation stem from the leak of a secret audio recording in which Thorne can be heard offering a high-ranking official a bigger budget if he signed off on plans to build a new airport near Cusco.

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