The judicial labyrinth in which the Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, is intensified this Thursday with the opening of a sixth investigation against him by the Prosecutor’s Office to the president, who alleges in his defense a premeditated coup operation.
The decision of the attorney general, Patricia Benavides, to open a new investigation into Castillo for alleged irregularities in bidding for works in her native region of Cajamarca, came a day after her sister-in-law Yenifer Paredes, younger sister of the first lady to the that he raised as a daughter, surrendered to Justice after a preliminary arrest warrant against him.
The young woman, whom Castillo refers to as a daughter, spent her first night under arrest today and will continue to be detained for at least another nine days, after a judge rejected her defense’s request to modify her situation after testing positive for covid-19.
SIXTH INVESTIGATION
With the opening of this new fiscal investigation, which also includes the former Minister of Housing and current Minister of Transportation, Genier Alvarado, the Prosecutor’s Office already adds six investigations against Castillo, despite the fact that the Peruvian Constitution only allows accusing the acting president of treason against the homeland and for preventing elections.
This is the fifth linked to his administration and the third based on the presumption that he is the head of a corrupt organization that allegedly acts within the Executive.
The head of state, entrenched in the Government Palace, today limited himself to reiterating on social networks that what happened in this convulsive week responds to a "media show" based "only in assumptions".
For the president, everything is part of a coup operation, presumably orchestrated by those who already tried to take power from him when he won at the polls in June of last year through accusations of non-existent electoral fraud.
After the frustrated intervention of the Public Ministry to arrest Paredes in the presidential residence on Tuesday, Castillo claimed to be the victim of a "collusion between Congress, the Attorney General’s Office and a sector of the press to destabilize the democratic order" Y "seize power illegally".
He made the same insinuation yesterday, after his sister-in-law surrendered to Justice, a fact that he described as "part of the fight" Y "of political life in Peru".
INCIDENT IN CONGRESS
On the other side of the board, the new president of Congress, Lady Camones, today demanded that the Government respect the Prosecutor’s Office and rejected statements made by Castillo and his prime minister, Aníbal Torres, which, in his opinion, incited "to violence".
Yesterday, the head of the ministerial cabinet said during an act with social leaders that if each of them brought fifty people to the capital "the putschists would be brought to their knees".
Torres also accused on Wednesday the Prosecutor’s Office of "carry out operations at all times" and to the Congress of "destabilize" to the Executive through requests for presidential dismissal for alleged moral incapacity, disqualification and constitutional accusations.
Due to these statements, the right-wing party Avanza País presented today a motion to summon the prime minister before the plenary session.
But, for now, there are few parliamentary voices that point to a third presidential impeachment attempt in just over a year, since, at least today, they have been focused on giving their opinion on an incident that was carried out by the former head of this state power, María of Carmen Álva.
During a suspension of the plenary session, and in the midst of discussions between opposition groups and others related to the Government, Alva rebuked Congresswoman Isabel Cortez and pulled her by the arm.
Cortez decided to denounce Alva before the Ethics Commission of the Parliament.
Beyond the confrontation between the powers of the State, its progressive discredit aims to be one of the few certainties that can be glimpsed in the short term, with a public opinion that, according to the latest polls, disapproves by 76% and 83% the current efforts of the Executive and the Legislative, respectively.
