Despite the fact that there is a request from five groups that he temporarily step away from office, to guarantee that his party, APP, does not block the investigations of the Andrea Vidal case, in which plot is an alleged pimping network in the Legislature, the president of the Congress, Eduardo Salhuana, indicated today, at a press conference, that he will “not” step aside.
This, despite the fact that there is a request from five benches for him to be momentarily elected from office until the investigations into the Andrea Vidal case in the Oversight Commission are completed.
“We don’t have to do it. We are complying accordingly. We have committed to providing all the facilities (in the investigations). And that is what we are doing,” Salhuana told Perú21, when asked if he will step aside until the investigations in the Oversight Commission end, and taking into account that they could present a motion of censure against him.
Press conference with the president of Congress, Eduardo Salhuana.
POSSIBLE CENSORSHIP
For his part, the leader of Podemos, José Luna, told Peru21 that his bench will consider supporting a motion of censure against Salhuana, if it is presented.
He asked that his support for Luna’s departure be accelerated if the Prosecutor’s Office is not allowed to enter Parliament.
Press conference by José Luna, from Podemos.
As recalled, the administrative investigation of the pimping case in Congress, in whose plot is the murder with 70 bullets of the former worker, Andrea Vidal Gómez, and the participation of the former head of the Legal Counsel Office, Jorge Luis Torres Saravia, in a prostitution network, would be the chronicle of an announced coinage shield.
Because? This, because APP could return the favor to Torres Saravia when he saved the former president of the Legislature, Alejandro Soto, on August 29, 2023, through a legal opinion, in which he said that there was no crime of nepotism when the legislator from Alianza Para el Progreso (APP) hired, in his office, the mother of his son.
Jorge Torres Saravia shielded Alejandro Soto in his report in which he said that there was no nepotism in the hiring of the mother of his son when there was. Now, APP would also save him in the pimping investigations.
That assessment he made prevented the Ethics Commission from initiating an investigation and suspending his position as a congressman for up to 120 days.
This shield tacitly announced to Torres Saravia – who is close to APP, despite not being a militant – follows from the fact that the head of Human Resources, Haydi Figueroa – a supporter of APP – was the official who ordered the formation of the Ad Hoc Commission who will carry out the administrative investigation of this case.
In 2020, he began working as an advisor to then congressman Luis Valdez, current general secretary of APP.
Haidy Figueroa orders the investigation and the formation of the Ad Hoc Commission, which would be judge and party.
The other six heads linked to APP are: Carlos Luis País Vera, current general director of Parliament Administration, with a salary of S/26,227.
In 2017, País Vera was the representative of the company Negociaciones Rafaela SAC, in which the son of César Acuña, president of APP, was a director.
In 2017, he was the representative of the company Negociaciones Rafaela SAC, in which César Acuña’s son, Richard Acuña, was a director.
The other senior official close to APP is the head of the Budget Area, Yolanda Ríos Mendoza, with a salary of S/15,470. He was a member of Acuña’s party until 2021.
The other senior manager close to the coiners is Iván Esteban Saldaña Estrada, current head of the General Services Department, with a salary of S/19,277. Between 2019 and 2020 he was an advisor to former congressman Richard Acuña and Luis Valdez. Between July 2021 and August 2022, he was an advisor to the APP bench in Parliament.
William Alcántara Infantes, who is currently head of the Planning and Budget Office, has a salary of S/19,277, and has been an advisor to Richard Acuña and the APP bench, between 2019 and 2021.
Jorge Cruzalegui, in 2017, was head of the Preinvestment Studies Office in the management of the regional government of Lambayeque, when its president was Humberto Acuña, brother of César Acuña.
Cruzalegui currently holds the position of head of the Clearing Area, with a salary of S/15,470. He assumed this leadership in September 2023, when the president of Congress was the coiner Alejandro Soto.
Finally, closing the list is Jaqueline Lozano Millones, who is active in APP, and is the current head of the Center for Training Modalities, with a generous salary of S/19,277.
MOTION OF CENSORY?
Last Sunday, Perú21 reported that five groups – Popular Action, Socialist Bloc, Popular Force, Honor and Democracy and Popular Renewal – have requested the departure of the head of Parliament, Eduardo Salhuana, to avoid a coinage shield in the investigations into the death of Andrea Vidal and the pimping case, in which the main investigator is the former head of the Parliament’s Legal Advisory Office, Jorge Luis Torres Saravia.
Peru21 was the first media outlet to report that Honor and Democracy, Fuerza Popular and Renovación Popular asked that Salhuana step aside so that there is transparency in the investigations because the main person involved is surrounded by APP and because eight key leaders in Congress are by militant leaders of that party.
The newspaper Correo has reported that Acción Popular and the Socialist Bloc also support that position.
As reported Peru21Torres Saravia is a lawyer close to Alianza Para el Progreso (APP), César Acuña’s party.
He was hired in that position – after entering Parliament in 2020 as an advisor to the current secretary general of APP, Luis Valdez – by the former head of Congress, Alejandro Soto.
On the 13th of this month, after the scandal broke out, he was fired by Salhuana.
However, in Parliament, they could do the same thing that Saravia did with Soto: shield him.
