Neither the Supervisory Commission nor the Ethics Commission have responded to the complaints made by congresswoman Margot Palacios (PL) for the interference of the company Llorente y Cuenca (LLYC) to favor the company Repsol.
Palacios chaired the commission that investigated and pointed out Repsol’s responsibility for the oil spill in Ventanilla, on January 15 of this year. But when the commission’s report was going to be debated in the plenary session of Congress, on September 15, Fujimori legislator Arturo Alegría proposed returning the document because it had allegedly been motivated by “ideological reasons.”
An investigation by La República revealed that Arturo Alegría and other legislators who voted in favor of the Fujimori congressman’s previous question were visited by LLYC employees to prevent them from approving the report accusing Repsol.
The former president of the commission, Margot Palacios, denounced Arturo Alegría before the Ethics Commission for infringing the Regulations of Congress, by raising a previous question that favored Repsol, after meeting with Paola Fune, an LLYC worker and responsible for preparing a memory aid that questioned the final report.
And before the Oversight Commission, Palomino requested that the congressmen who were visited by LLYC employees and voted not to debate and approve the report against Repsol be investigated.
However, after two weeks, no commission has responded to Congresswoman Palacios.
“In the Ethics Commission there are established deadlines. In the case of Control, the document has been sent, but there has been no reaction from the president (Héctor Ventura, from Fujimori). In the next session I am going to raise the request again, because the president (Ventura) said that it was going to be taken into account. But two or three sessions have already been held and there has been no concrete action,” Palacios said.
La República reported that Paola Fune, an employee of the consultancy LLYC, met in June with parliamentarians Arturo Alegría (Popular Force), Hernando Guerra García (Popular Force) and José Cueto (Popular Renewal), with the latter also in September.
However, they were not the only ones. Before the plenary session, in June, Fune also met with Popular Renovation congressman Jorge Montoya and with Martín Hernández, advisor to parliamentarian Martha Moyano. Montoya was absent from the vote and Moyano voted in favor. None responded to interview requests.
Another LLYC employee, Jennifer Infantas, met with the adviser to Congressman Elvis Vergara, from Acción Popular. The parliamentarian was absent in the plenary vote and did not want to provide statements for this note.
Infantas also had a meeting with Fujimori congressman Alejandro Aguinaga. Office staff denied that the meeting took place. However, Aguinaga, like all his bench, voted in favor of Repsol.
While Congress saves Repsol, the victims of the spill marched on November 11 and 14 to the La Pampilla refinery and to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM), to ask for compensation and denounce that the areas They are still contaminated with crude oil.
The authorities have not responded. On the contrary, the Ministry of the Environment reported that the short-term action plans of the Environmental Emergency Declaration have been completed and that the company has been given one year to prepare its medium- and long-term rehabilitation plan.
10 months have passed since the spill and, according to OEFA, there are still 71 sites contaminated with oil.
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Before the vote on the report accusing Repsol, Paola Fune and Jennifer Infantas, from Llorente y Cuenca (LLYC), visited Jorge Montoya and the advisers of Martha Moyano, Alejandro Aguinaga and the populist Elvis Vergara.
