The investigations will continue in 2025. The woman who reported in January 2020 that she had been sexually raped by the former head of the Parliament’s Legal Advisory Office, Jorge Luis Torres Saravia, will be summoned to testify, in the second week of January, to the Congressional Oversight Commission.
This is part of the investigations into the Andrea Vidal case, whose plot includes the death of the latter with more than 40 gunshots and the alleged existence of a prostitution network within the legislative body.
Last Thursday, in the session of the Oversight Commission, the Popular Renewal congresswoman Norma Yarrow announced that the woman would be a victim of intimidation by the former director of the Parliament’s Legal Advisory Office.
In the session he reported the existence of a notarized letter that Torres Saravia sent to his complainant on the 14th of this month asking him to retract his complaint.
Torres Saravia, in his speech, accepted having sent that document, but said that he did so to defend his honor because, according to him, he did not abuse her.
CENSORSHIP OF SALHUANA
On the other hand, despite the request of 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 – because his party controls seven key headquarters of Parliament – the president of Congress, Eduardo Salhuana, indicated last Friday at a press conference that he “will not” step aside.
Norma Yarrow also assured that her group will evaluate whether it supports a motion of censure against Salhuana and requested the change of the senior officer, Giovanni Forno, because at the hearing of the case he did not know how to respond clearly about the hiring of Torres Saravia.
On that occasion, Forno said that he did not remember who gave him Torres’ resume to occupy that important position.
In 2023, as recalled, Torres Saravia, when he was head of Legal Counsel, issued a legal report in which he said that the then president of Congress, Alejandro Soto, did not commit the crime of nepotism when he hired the mother of his son.
I KNEW THAT
-APP could shield Torres Saravia because the head of Human Resources, Haidy Figueroa, an APP activist, formed the ad hoc commission that will hear this case.
-Motion of censure. Last week, the text of a motion of censure against Salhuana began to be drafted, which could be presented on January 19 at the next session of the Permanent Commission.
-“According to his statements (to the press), the decision to separate Torres Saravia was a request from César Acuña,” said the president of the Oversight Commission, Juan Burgos, regarding the dismissal of the former head of the Congressional Advisory Office .
