The National Control Authority of Public Ministry suspended the prosecutor for 6 months and coordinator of the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption in Power, Marita Barreto. This occurs within the framework of the investigations against him for the alleged crime of improper disclosure of identity, which at the beginning of October began this investigation against him.
According to the disposition of the supreme prosecutor Delia Espinoza, it is proposed that Marita Barreto would have provided information to journalist Carlos Paredes of Willax, in relation to an investigation that involves congressman Guillermo Bermejo. The prosecution’s hypothesis highlights that by revealing this confidential material, the identities of potential key collaborators would have been put at risk.
Given this, the senior coordinating prosecutor of EFICCOP, Marita Barreto, spoke out after being notified of her temporary removal from office by the National Control Authority (ANC) and denied the accusations against her, stating that she will appeal the decision as she considers it arbitrary. The measure is based on alleged acts of leaking information and improper collaboration, facts that the prosecutor categorically denies through her statement, highlighting her work in the fight against corruption.
Statement from Marita Barreto after suspension by the ANC.
What is the accusation against Marita Barreto?
In the program ‘Contracorriente’, the communicator Carlos Paredes presented a series of recordings in which he heard a conversation with Marita Barreto, who was supposedly providing him with confidential details about an investigation involving Congressman Guillermo Bermejo. Although the meetings did take place, the head of Eficcop denies having revealed sensitive information. Barreto claims that Paredes approached her through tricks, alleging that the journalist’s father had been her professor at the university.
Carlos Paredes said that Barreto would have given him the aforementioned information on a USB and showed 18-minute recordings as evidence. According to the communicator, in these recordings the prosecutor could be heard asking that the names of the collaborators or the documents linked to the case not be revealed. On the other hand, Barreto maintained that the recordings were altered and requested that an expert opinion be carried out to confirm their veracity.
Marita Barreto: what did the Eficcop Barreto coordinator say about this accusation by the journalist?
In this context, prosecutor Marita Barreto mentioned a few weeks ago that Carlos Paredes had visited her in her office on several occasions to talk to her about his father, who was her teacher. In one of those meetings, he gave him a book sent by his father. Barreto maintained that this action was a pretext to approach her, although he does not know her intentions. In addition, she expressed concern about the fact that they had recorded her and identified her as their informant, which she considers extremely dangerous.
“First, because I am not anyone’s informant and I don’t have to be; second, because I have not leaked any information to this man. Quite the contrary, from the audio you can see how I recommend that the press, sometimes, can make some errors that harm the investigation in the desire to inform, and the desire to inform cannot in any way harm the confidentiality of the information, it is in that context,” he added.
