On Thursday, April 30th of this year, Speaking on behalf of President Dina Boluarte, her former lawyer Mateo Castañeda offered PNP Colonel Harvey Colchado to help him hinder the Rolex watch case against the head of state. In exchange, Castañeda guaranteed Colchado that the president would forgive him for having participated in the raid on her residence in Surquillo on March 30 of this year, and would not discharge him in December. These facts were denied by Castañeda and his defense when he revealed them to La República. However, Colonel Colchado handed over the audio recordings of his meetings with the lawyer Mateo Castañedaevidence that prosecutor Carlos Ordaya has incorporated into the request for 36 months of preventive detention for the lawyer.
The recording is legal because Colonel Colchado made it as an “undercover agent” of the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption of Power (Eficcop).
“SHE (BOLUARTE) ALREADY UNDERSTOOD”
Also present at the meeting on Thursday, April 30 was retired PNP General Carlos Moran, who, at the request of his lawyer, Mateo Castaneda, sought out Colchado. Moran and Colchado are great friends. The transcript says:
Castañeda: I gave a message to ‘Bica’ (Colonel PNP Walter Lozano, friend of Colchado), to the effect that we can exchange figurines. Did he tell you? Colchado: He told me that they were going to protect me, nothing more. Castañeda: I told this to ‘Bica’. Look: ‘Tell your friend that I’m getting information from the one (the Attorney General, Juan Carlos Villena) (…).
Colchado: Ah, yes… Castañeda: And his deputy (the deputy supreme prosecutor), Dr. Hernán Mendoza, who is in charge of the Rolex issue. Because land I made her (President Boluarte) understand (…) that he (Colchado) had only obeyed an order. Who got the court order? It’s the prosecutor. Who is your enemy? The national prosecutor and the deputy prosecutor. They are your enemies. I told ‘Bica’, tell my friend (Colchado) that we should exchange stickers. Well, if I have something from there, I’ll be in a better position. Do you know what the other sticker is? The thing about December (the retirement passes), they’re sure to want to screw you. Colchado: In December there are invitations (to retirement).
Castañeda: So, before that, when do your paintings (retire)?
Quilting: November to December. Moran: By the end of October they already have everything.
Colchado: So, what do you need? Castañeda: Information from the FN (national prosecutor) and from Mendoza. Colchado: Whatever it is? Work-related or personal? (…)
Castañeda: Yes, work-related, personal, whatever (…) There is a lot of ignorance about how the police, fiscal, and judicial world works. And they make you look like you have a reputation, or like an urban legend, (that’s) how they’ve built you up, right? Colchado: They don’t know that I only executed the measure (the search). I haven’t investigated anything. Castañeda: That’s what I explained to her (Dina Boluarte). She already understood. (…)”
On March 15, “Calín” (PNP General Carlos Morán) informs Colchado that the meeting with Castañeda will be at the “Pescados Capitales” restaurant and that the reservation is in the name of “Mateo”. Credit: Eficcop.
Mateo Castañeda’s meetings with Colonel Harvey Colchado began on Thursday, March 14 of this year at the Pescados Capitales restaurant in Miraflores, under the coordination of retired PNP general Carlos Morán. Castañeda was Morán’s lawyer and knew of his close connection with Colchado. Morán gave his cell phone to Eficcop and the experts obtained the WhatsApp messages and other recordings that confirm the arrangements he made with Mateo Castañeda to meet with Colchado on Thursday, March 14, Monday, March 25, and Thursday, April 30.
Transcript of the meeting between Colchado and Castañeda on April 30, in which Dina Boluarte’s lawyer makes improper offers to the PNP officer. Credit: Eficcop.
At the meetings on March 14 and 25, Mateo Castañeda was not Dina Boluarte’s lawyer, but rather that of her brother Nicanor Boluarte. It was not until April 5 that the head of state introduced Castañeda as her defense attorney in the Rolex case. This happened after the president’s home was broken into.
“THE PRESIDENT DID ATTEND”
A momentous meeting that has been documented by Eficcop is the one that took place on Monday, March 25, in Castañeda’s office in Miraflores. The meeting organized by Morán and Castañeda was attended by President Dina Boluarte and her brother Nicanor Boluarte. At that time, Castañeda was not the president’s lawyer.
Harvey Colchado did not show up, but Carlos Morán, who was present, called him from his phone and began to ask him questions about the case related to Nicanor Boluarte. Morán and Colchado have provided the experts with their phone numbers, which prove that they communicated when Dina and Nicanor Boluarte were in Castañeda’s studio. In addition, copies of the Whatsapp messages were obtained, which confirm the arrangements made prior to the conversation in which the Boluarte brothers were present.
These facts were corroborated by the Prosecutor’s Office:
“At 6:28 p.m. on March 25, 2024, Carlos Morán wrote to the undercover agent ‘René’ (Harvey Colchado) via WhatsApp, agreeing that in 30 minutes he would meet with the President of the Republic, Dina Boluarte. Then, at 6:31 p.m., ‘René’ called Carlos Morán via WhatsApp and they agreed that minutes later the latter would call him via WhatsApp and put the cell phone audio on speakerphone so that President Boluarte could hear it. What was described is corroborated by the WhatsApp call records attached.” Eficcop has confirmed that there was a meeting between the brothers Dina and Nicanor Boluarte with Mateo Castañeda and Carlos, and these with Colchado by phone. The interest was to break the investigation into ‘Los Waykis en la Sombra’.”
On March 25, Morán told Colchado that he would meet with “D” (Dina Boluarte) in Mateo Castañeda’s office in 30 minutes. Morán then called him when he was with the head of state and asked him about the case of Nicanor Boluarte. Credit: Eficcop.
“EVERYTHING WILL BE REPORTED TO THE PRESIDENT”
Prosecutor Ordaya points out in the request for preventive detention for 36 months for Nicanor Boluarte, Mateo Castañeda and other accomplices:
“At 8:51 p.m. on March 25, Carlos Morán, the contact for undercover agent ‘René’ (Colchado), was accompanied by President Dina Boluarte, the investigated Nicanor Boluarte and the lawyer Mateo Castañeda, so he called agent ‘René’ (Colchado) via WhatsApp. Putting his cell phone on speakerphone, Carlos Morán asked him what the status of the investigation against Nicanor Boluarte was. To which, undercover agent ‘René’ (Colchado) replied that the investigation would be closed in approximately three months. Also, in his capacity as an undercover agent, and knowing that President Dina Boluarte was listening to him, he promised to inform Carlos Morán of any action that the Attorney General’s Office takes against President Dina Boluarte.”
Indeed, Morán and Colchado’s idea was to show that President Dina Boluarte, through Mateo Castañeda, the lawyer of her brother, Nicanor Boluarte, intended to interfere in the investigations of the Eficcop. The president’s interest grew when the Rolex case broke and she also hired Mateo Castañeda as a lawyer. For this reason, on April 30, Colchado had a new meeting with Castañeda, but this time he acted as a representative of the president and her brother.
THERE WAS NO INTERFERENCE
The defender of President Dina Boluarte, Juan Carlos Portugal, stated that in no way did the head of state interfere in the investigations against her brother and in the case of the Rolex watches.
“The interference is in the imagination of the prosecutor. It is one of his many fables. Unfortunately, the name of the president is used once again in the context of a conversation. People are prisoners and slaves of our expressions and Mateo Castañeda will be responsible for his dialogues,” he said.
“Castañeda has the status of a reference witness, and that legally has a very lacking evidentiary rigor,” said Portugal.
