Leftist President Pedro Castillo delivered a message to the Nation on Wednesday night to attack the Peruvian Attorney General’s Office, Congress and the press as a result of the constitutional complaint filed against him for having committed the alleged crimes of criminal organization, trafficking of influence and collusion that could leave him out of power after almost 15 months.
“Serious accusations are repeated, as serious as they are inconsistent, such as the constitutional complaint filed by the Attorney General before Congress against me. Unconstitutional and illegal complaint without foundation and that lacks all corroboration and objective evidence, ”said Castillo, who was surrounded by the plenary session of his cabinet of ministers in the Government Palace.
The Peruvian president emphasized that “before the country and the international community, this practice of breaking the constitutional and democratic order, the political forces that joined the country in the largest process of corruption in national history in the 1990s, are the ones that Now they are promoting – as at that time – a form of a new coup d’état in Peru”.
Castillo also slipped that magistrates of the Judicial Power would be in collusion with the Prosecutor’s Office to attack him and the members of his government. He said that these acts hide a purpose that is the political persecution started even before he assumed the presidency. “They want me to leave so that they govern without having been elected,” he pointed out.
“I am going to finish the period that the people granted me and I am going to hand over power to the next president of Peru on July 28, 2026. Not before,” said Pedro Castillo.
The rural teacher turned president insisted that he is not corrupt. In addition, he added that he was accused of being a communist, a terrorist and, finding no evidence, they looked for new reasons to prevent and block governance. “I tell you that I am going to finish the period that the people granted me and I am going to hand over power to the next president of Peru on July 28, 2026. Not before,” he said.
prosecution
After Castillo’s message, the response from the Attorney General’s Office was not long in coming. “The main constitutional function of the Public Ministry is the prosecution of crime. The operation of the justice system with respect to the Constitution and international treaties are the basis of the rule of law. We reject any attempt to politicize justice,” they wrote in a statement.
Last week an accusation was filed against the president of Peru before Congress for being the alleged head of a criminal organization “entrenched” in the state as a result of the Puente Tarata and Petroperú cases.
In the first case, Castillo would have used the Ministry of Transport and Communications to obtain a bribe of 58 million dollars in exchange for benefiting a businessman who contributed to his electoral campaign with the work. For this purpose, Castillo would have colluded with his nephews Fray Vásquez Castillo, Gian Marco Castillo Gómez and the now former minister Juan Silva, according to the Prosecutor’s Office.
For his part, in the second point, the former rural professor would have appointed Hugo Chávez Arévalo as general manager of the state-owned Petroperú so that he can decide on the millionaire hirings. One of them was the favor for 47 million dollars to the company Heaven Petroleum Operators (HPO) for 280,000 barrels of biodiesel.
It should be mentioned that the president is also being investigated for irregular promotions in the Armed Forces and the National Police in November of last year and for an “alleged cover-up” to avoid catching fugitives from his government.
Congress
The reactions of the opposition were also immediate.
“The Legislative Power protects this nation from a criminal organization headed by you, President Pedro Castillo. There is no coup here. There is legitimate constitutional defense here,” said parliamentarian Norma Yarrow (Popular Renovation).
Parliamentarian Héctor Ventura (Popular Force), president of the Oversight Commission, described as “insult to the Nation” the phrases spread by the head of state.
Different options are being evaluated in Congress to remove Castillo from power. One of them is the third presidential vacancy motion against the president that includes all the alleged acts of government corruption that have led to investigations by the prosecution.
87 votes are required for Castillo’s removal. If the objective is achieved, who would assume it would be his vice president Dina Boluarte who would complete the presidential term until 2026.
IACHR report
In the midst of polarization, a delegation from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) – made up of the vice president and rapporteur for Peru, Stuardo Ralón, the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights, Soledad García Muñoz, and members of the technical team of the Executive Secretariat – issued a report on their visit last week.
He found that the country is going through a political and institutional crisis due to the lack of definition of three constitutional figures that have the potential to weaken the separation and balance of powers.
The IACHR refers to the constitutional accusation; presidential vacancy due to permanent moral disability; and, the dissolution of Congress due to the denial of trust to two councils of ministers.
For this reason, he requested the Peruvian State, especially the Congress of the Republic and the Constitutional Court, to “regulate and delimit” these figures found in the Magna Carta.
In addition, he mentioned that “he urges all the powers of the State to refrain from making calls for the arbitrary use of force or institutional breakdown.”
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