Release of responsibilities. The holder of the PCM, Alberto Otárola Peñarandadeclared before the National Prosecutor’s Office for the investigations initiated against him and the president Dina Boluarte for the alleged crime of genocide, after more than half a hundred deaths were recorded in different regions of the country as a result of protests against the current government. In said intervention, Otárola evaded responsibility for the Ministry of Defence that he held at the beginning of Boluarte’s term and, instead, attributed the consequences to the Armed forces.
According to tax folder No. 277-2022to which the outlet “Al estilo Juliana” had access, and which includes the statements of Otárola Peñaranda before the Public ministrythis repeatedly responded that he would not have provided instructions regarding deaths in protests, because these decisions “do not correspond to the functions” of the position he held during the first months of Boluarte’s management.
“As defense minister, he had no tactical, operational, or functional competence in the execution of police and military plans in the areas where both the police and the armed forces intervened”Otárola said as revealed in the report presented by the television program.
Otárola began her intervention specifying: “In the specific case of the deceased, I must point out that In the operational part I did not provide any instructions, because it does not correspond to the functions of the defense minister”. In this sense, he also alleged that he had not been “informed about the plans of operations” adopted by the Armed Forces and reiterated that “what was reported to the ministers were the results of the actions of the armed forces in support of the police national, but not on operational plans”.
Blames the Armed Forces despite defending it in front of cameras
In his statements he also highlights the functions of the FF. AA. in order to take the weight of deaths off his charge. Otárola said: “The essential function of the defense minister is to direct, coordinate, supervise and evaluate the national security and defense policy. But in exclusively operational matters, who acts is the joint command of the Armed Forces”.
Furthermore, according to information collected by The Republic This Saturday, Otárola specified that “the execution of the operational plans does not correspond to the Minister of Defense.”
In this sense, he insisted that he was “unaware” of the use of firearms. in the repressions registered in the regions of Ayacucho, Apurímac, Puno and Arequipa.
Otárola contradicts Boluarte and subtracts power over the armed forces
On the other hand, the prime minister of Dina Boluarte tried to minimize the responsibility of the president for the deaths of her government that already add up to a total of 58 murders, product of the protests and the violent repression with which the PNP and the Army have acted.
In Otárola’s statements before the Public Ministry, he stressed that “The President of the Republic has no competence to authorize or not the use of weapons”.
But it was not enough to exculpate the head of state, but also added that this competition “It does not correspond to the Mindef either”; and that its use is “regulated by current regulations”.
