The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, has completed a year in government. AFP photo
The left-wing Peruvian president Pedro Castillo defended his management this Thursday in a message to the country when he completed his first year in government surrounded by five investigations of alleged corruptionwhich he attributed to a media campaign to remove it.
“They claim the vacancy (removal) not for lack of results or for non-existent accusations, but for private interests and to avoid the changes my government is determined to make, “Castillo told Congress, dominated by right-wing opposition.
“The media spreading lies and false newsThey will get tired of looking for evidence because they will not find it, “added the president.
“I submit to justice to clarify the crimes they intend to charge me, to clarify the trials before the justice”, he underlined in his message on the state of the nation, in which he devoted several passages to rejecting the complaints against him.
“Charges that will not prove”Castillo reiterated defiantly, in the midst of the repudiation of some members of Congress.
The opposition in Parliament has called for the resignation of Pedro Castillo. Photo by Reuters
Castillo, 52, rural teacher, trade unionist, is serving the first of his five-year term with a record of five tax investigations for alleged corruption and the persistent siege of an adverse Congress calling for his resignation.
The recent decision by the nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, to open a new investigation for “obstruction of justice” protecting three members of his fugitive milieu, he fueled the embers for a third impeachment request in 12 months.
Of the five investigations, four involve cases in his government.
The lawsuits include an alleged itinerant influence in the purchase of fuel by the state-owned Petroperú in 2021 and the alleged obstruction of justice in the dismissal of an interior minister.
He is also accused of influence the itinerant trade in a file of military promotions; of corruption and aggravated collusion in a public works project; and, finally, of plagiarism in his university thesis.
The president vehemently denies all allegations.
Supporters of President Pedro Castillo are calling for the closure of the Congress. AP photo
The prosecutor, which is autonomous and promotes the mega investigation into the Odebrecht case that has affected four other Peruvian presidents, believes that there are indications that Castillo runs a “criminal organization” which involves his political and family environment.
Problems
However, he cannot take him to court as he has immunity until the end of his term in 2026.
On Tuesday, the former secretary of Castillo, Bruno Pacheco, is wanted on charges of corruption, handed over to the authorities in another blow to the image of the president.
Tension loomed in various passages of the message, such as when twenty of the 130 deputies he withdrew in protest and another group turned their backs on him sitting from his seat.
“Corrupt!” Conservative MP Patricia Chirinos exclaimed loudly in the chamber, interrupting Castillo.
The sovereign closed his message, which coincides with Peru’s national holiday, amid sudden cries demanding his resignation.
“Resign corrupt, be corrupt!”was the phrase that rang from the Fujimori bench.
“Fujimori never again!” the minority bank of the left-wing coalition supporting Castillo responded.
Meanwhile, outside Congress, Hundreds of protesters marched demanding his resignation.
“We are marching because we are against this corrupt regime. There is nothing to celebrate,” Rodolfo Fernández, of the Dignity and Freedom Social Collective, told AFP.
At the same time, a less nourished mobilization of collectives and trade unions also marched in support of the president in Congress.
Castillo unexpectedly won the elections leading a small Marxist-Leninist party with 50.12% of the votes, in a tight ballot against the right-wing Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000).
The current landscape evokes the fate of former presidents Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Martín Vizcarra, who survived a first impeachment motion, but not to a second in 2018 and 2020 respectivelybetween clashes with Congress and corruption allegations.
Castle survived two impeachment attempts “for moral incapacity” in Congress, dissatisfied since the beginning of his mandate which he won with fraud.
For now, Castillo has weathered the storm aided by the corruption and fragmentation of the 130-member Congress, lacking the 87 votes needed to remove him from office.
AFP agency
PB
Luis Jaime Cisneros
Source: Clarin
