Peru: order the arrest of President Pedro Castillo’s sister-in-law, but cannot find her

The judiciary of Peru ordered this Tuesday the preliminary detention for ten days of Jennifer Paredesthe sister-in-law of President Pedro Castillo, under investigation for allegedly dealing with influences in the context of a criminal organization aimed at managing irregular contracts. However, the authorities could not find it and it is now officially fugitive of Justice.

Police personnel and staff from the Special Prosecutor’s Team Against Corruption of Power went to the governament Palacein the historic center of Lima, to carry out a trespass with the aim of arresting Paredes, who was not there.

The arrest order, according to the judicial resolution released by local media, was approved last Friday and was only carried out this Tuesday through several operations by prosecutor Hans Aguirre, which ended with the capture of two businessmen and a mayor from the Cajamarca region, all involved in an alleged crime network.

The team of prosecutors and members of the Police’s High Complexity Crime Investigation Division (Diviac) spent more than three hours in the presidential residence to execute the arrest warrant against Paredes, but have not found him so far.

Because they investigate President Pedro Castillo’s sister-in-law

The tax investigation against Castillo’s sister-in-law It became known after a news report by the América Televisión network, which broadcast a video in which the young woman spoke with the residents of a community in the district of Chota, in Cajamarca, to inform them that she had to make a census of them to build a sanitation project, despite not occupying any position in the Executive.

In the images, Paredes appears next to Hugo Espino, who was arrested this Tuesday and is the legal representative of the company JJM Espino Engineering & Construction SAC, which in September 2021 won a tender with the state for over 3.8 million soles, equivalent to almost one million dollars.

For this case, Paredes and the first lady went to the public prosecutor’s office last July to testify.

Additionally, Castillo’s sister-in-law was recently sued before the Congressional Supervisory Board, where He denied interfering in the contracts Espino won with the government, even though he acknowledged having worked for his company. She also explained that she has known the entrepreneur since 2019 and that she started working for him in August 2021, which is why Espino “usually” visited the Government Palace.

The first lady’s sister specified that the contract she had with the Espino company was “verbal” and assured that in the images transmitted by the news program she was doing her job for her company, which had to “censor the population, collect statistics data on the population to see if it was feasible to carry out a project ”.

The arrests and the structure of the criminal organization

Shortly before the raids on the Government Palace began, local media reported the arrest of Espino, as well as that of his sister Anggi Espino and that of the mayor of the city of Anguía, in Chota, José Medina Guerrero.

Medina, close to the president, is identified as one of the operators of the alleged criminal network within the Executive Power that would drive the castleaccording to the fiscal hypothesis.

In fact, according to the judicial resolution that authorized these four arrests, the president would be the “head” of this supposedly corrupt organizationwhich would have Medina and the current Minister of Transport, Geiner Alvarado, as “leader”.

According to this version, the “coordinators” are the first lady and the family environment of the president, while the Espino brothers and Castillo’s sister-in-law are considered “front men”.

With information from EFE.

IT