Dina Boluarte is in the spotlight after the release of alleged audio recordings in which the Minister of the Interior, Juan José Santiváñez, is heard saying that the president asked him twice to close the Division of Investigation of Highly Complex Crimes (Diviac).
Now, his lawyer, Juan Carlos Portugal, has spoken out on the matter and confirmed that the incident is under investigation.
“He may have boasted of his position using the name of the president, which is also a possibility that must be ruled out. The investigation is embryonic, it has just begun. We cannot assume a conclusion when we have less than a week of this investigation,” he said this afternoon.
The lawyer also said that Boluarte does not have the authority to intervene in administrative matters of the National Police, according to article 167 of the Peruvian Political Constitution.
“Article 167 of our Political Constitution establishes that the President of the Republic is the supreme commander of the Armed Forces and the National Police of Peru. This does not allow the President to intervene in official, administrative, autonomous matters that are the responsibility of the police institution,” he said.
ALL PERUVIANS WILL PAY FOR SANTIVÁÑEZ’S DEFENSE
While citizens with formal jobs pay their taxes punctually month after month, the State continues to release money to cover the expenses of its senior officials on duty; one of them is the current Minister of the Interior, Juan José Santiváñez.
On August 14, the Ministry of the Interior approved the contract for “a legal entity to provide specialized legal defense and advisory services requested by Juan José Santiváñez in the criminal investigation against him.” This comes after the Attorney General’s Office opened a case against him for abuse of authority at the beginning of the month; and, at the provincial headquarters, an investigation into the hiring of the official Anatoly Bedriñana.
Santiváñez was exposed in an audio recording – which he claims is not his voice – when he asked Diviac agent Junior Izquierdo (Culebra) to ask his superiors to control the journalist Marco Sifuentes Quintana, director of the podcast La Encerrona, after he criticized aspects of his management.
In the case of Bedriñana, he was chief of staff of the fugitive Minister of Transport Juan Silva. With Santiváñez, he became a consultant to the Mininter.
The Secretary General of the Mininter, Carlos Alberto Francisco Díaz Dañino, approved the request of the still minister. Now it will be the legal office of the lawyer Carlos Caro (DCC CONSULTORES) who will assume the responsibility of saving Santiváñez from these fiscal investigations.
The studio was awarded the direct contract that will amount to 120 thousand soles.
SANTIVÁNEZ IN TROUBLE
Santiváñez will leave his mark on Dina Boluarte’s Interior Ministry. He will be remembered as the ‘Whatsapp Minister’, as his voice has been widely heard in conversations of public importance with people he considered part of his entourage. The minister has categorically denied the authenticity of the audios, although he has admitted having met with Junior Izquierdo in a chifa in San Borja shortly after taking office.
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