Betsy Chavez is today cornered by justice. The National Prosecutor’s Office and even the Congress of the Republic, the body for which she was elected, has her under their sights and she could be disqualified from public service for ten years and, worse still, be sentenced for participating in the coup d’état of Pedro Castillo.
LOOK: Prosecutor’s Office asks Congress to manage the impediment to leave the country of Betssy Chávez
The congresswoman faces a constitutional complaint, and now an impediment to leave the country; in addition to an investigation for illicit enrichment.
Yesterday, the Permanent Commission of the Congress approved requesting the Judiciary (PJ) to impose an impediment to Betssy Chavez from leaving the country due to flight risk.
The Prosecutor’s Office is waiting for the complaint filed against Chávez to be finally approved by the Plenary Session of Parliament. Today that report is in the Permanent Commission, a body that came after the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations voted for its approval.
In this sense, the National Prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, yesterday sent a letter to the President of Congress, José Williams, to recall that he filed the constitutional complaint on December 12, 2022. He also recommended accelerating the processes followed against the former ministers Chavez, Willy Huerta and Roberto Sanchez. All accused of being accomplices of Castillo.
Added to this, the legislator is being investigated for the crime of illicit enrichment. For this reason, the parliamentarian declared last Tuesday before the Prosecutor’s Office about the purchase of the property that she made in cash in her native Tacna, and that amounted to S / 136,500, as reported Peru21.
WAY TO GO
Last Monday, March 6, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations (SAC) forcefully approved the final report that recommends denouncing Chávez for the alleged crime of rebellion and conspiracy against the State.
There were 17 votes in favor, 2 against and one abstention that managed to get the report to be debated in the Permanent Commission. The proposal is to disqualify her for 10 years from public service; with this he will lose his seat in the Legislative.
Without that being enough, the SAC approved suspending congressmen Betssy Chávez and Roberto Sánchez from their functions while the criminal investigation against both remains in force. The suspension must also be approved by the Plenary as a last resort.
Criminal lawyer Andy Carrión pointed out to Peru21 that it must be corroborated, in particular, the existence of a flight risk on the part of the former president of the Council of Ministers so that the Prosecutor’s Office, after being empowered by Congress to formalize the accusation, can require the Judiciary to take a measure such as preventive prison.
“She could be accused of acting as an accomplice or having been the co-author of the alleged crime of rebellion; The link to the crime does exist, there is a video showing that she personally participated in the preparatory acts and coordinated directly with the president to perpetrate the coup. Due to fewer elements of conviction, the Prosecutor’s Office has requested preventive detention from other officials, ”said Carrión.
REAPPEARED
After having been absent from Congress for the last few days, Chávez was intercepted yesterday by the PBO channel outside her home in Magdalena, a district to which she recently moved since she previously lived in Breña.
After being consulted about her disappearance, she assured in a hoarse voice that she is ill. “Yesterday I was in poor health, I presented the document to the Mayor’s Office (of Congress),” she declared.
He also said that he does not plan to flee the country and that what Vicente Romero, Minister of the Interior, said about the request he presented to withdraw his personal security is false. “The Minister of the Interior has had the tremendous lightness to say that I have dispensed with my security, when this is false,” he said through his social networks.
Betssy Chávez will have to respond to justice, although she shows no sign of wanting to do so, in the same style as her former boss Castillo, who, after attempting to illegally shut down Congress, undertook a frustrated escape to the Mexican embassy in Lima. Will Chávez follow in her footsteps?
“For fewer elements of conviction, the Prosecutor’s Office has requested preventive detention from other officials.”
Andy Carrión, criminal lawyer
KEEP IN MIND
- The crime of illicit enrichment that is followed by the former premier contemplates a custodial sentence of up to ten years.
- A video broadcast by the Sunday newspaper Panorama showed Chávez coordinating with Castillo just before announcing the coup on national television.
- Roberto Sánchez handed over his passport to Congress and assured that he was available for investigations.
