The Minister of the Interior, General PNP (r) Victor Rojas Herrera, rejected the request of the coordinator of the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption, Marita Barreto Rivera, so that the largest PNP David Medina Guillén continues to support her in her investigations.
During an interview with channel N on Thursday morning, Marita Barreto reported that she had asked Minister Víctor Rojas that Major Medina and three other officers were still on the Special Team, but had not received a response.
They are the captains Gian Marco Dueñas Chávez, Bruno Cacique Guevara and Jessie Fernández Rivera.
The top prosecutor Marita Barreto He considered that it was a bad sign, because the departure of the four members of the Special Team would affect the ongoing investigations.
“Not only have they withdrawn the major (David) Medina from the special team, but also three captains of the Special team. There are four officers who have been withdrawn from the Special Team and they were in charge of tax files, investigations in progress,” argued prosecutor Barreto.
bad signs
Then, he went directly to the head of the Condition, Dina Boluarte.
“I thought that things would change without this kind of pressure, obstacles and disturbances.. I call on (President) Dina Boluarte to keep her word and keep my team of police officers and prosecutors as we have organized ourselves so that we can also render accounts to the country of our work efficiently and effectively, ”Barreto told Canal N .
Regarding the reason why the largest PNP David Medina Guillén was retiredit was because he has been in the same grade for several years, he replied that this was a frequent situation in the National Police.
“If that were the criteria, we would have to prune half of the police at the national level because it is something that is known. There are many officers who have spent more than 15 years in the same grade and in many cases three years in the same place, and they remain until today,” Barreto alleged.
“We feel affected. The investigation is being disturbed because officers are being removed who have shown not only efficiency in their work, but also commitment to take on such specialized work as combating the corruption in power”, highlighted Barreto.
Suddenly, the controversy between the Minister of the Interior, Víctor Rojas, and the superior prosecutor Marita Barreto became a tough controversy. Barreto was communicating that the government of Dina Boluarte had dealt a hard blow to the Special Team with the departure of the four officers.
change of words
After complaints from the superior prosecutor Marita Barreto, The Minister of the Interior announced that the provision was without effect for the captains Gian Marco Dueñas Chávez, Bruno Cacique Guevara and Jessie Fernández Rivera to assume new duties from January 1, 2023 at the PNP Officers School, the Ventanilla police station and at the vraemrespectively.
It resolved that the three captains continue in the team that supports the Prosecutors against Power Corruption.
However, Minister Víctor Rojas maintained the resolution to retire PNP captain David Medina Guillén for reasons of renewal, considered the “right arm” of the coordinator of the Special Team, Colonel PNP Harvey Colchado Huamaní. What’s more, he justified not only that he was removed from the Special Team but also that he was discharged as an officer of the National Police.
“As for Major David Medina, action has already been taken in accordance with the framework of the law and he retired due to renewal of cadres. Regarding the other three officers who have the rank of captain, I have arranged for these changes to be rendered null and void so that the Special Team is not affected”, reported the Minister of the Interior.
In an interview with Radio Programsthe head of the Interior was more precise:
“There are certain conditions for a PNP officer to retire, and one of them is that they do not have a career line within the institution, which is the specific case of Major David Medina Guillén, who has been in that grade for ten years. He has not taken the staff course, an essential requirement to achieve the next higher grade, which is commander, ”he explained in detail.
In addition, he mentioned that Major David Medina has five days of rigorous arrest for disciplinary measures, specifically against morality, police decorum and for disobedience to superior.
The Minister of the Interior painted Captain Medina in a very different way from the image described by the superior prosecutor Marita Barreto.
So Minister Víctor Rojas recommended that prosecutor Barreto summon the officers he considered appropriate to cover the space of the largest PNP David Medina. He specified that he had no intention of interfering in the activities of the Task Force.
“At no time is there the desire to hinder the work of the Special Team, but to give all the facilities”, stressed the Minister of the Interior.
However, the controversy was very reminiscent of the incident between former President Pedro Castillo and former Interior Minister Mariano González. It was when Castillo found out that González, precisely at the request of the prosecutor Marita Barreto, appointed Colonel PNP Harvey Colchado Huamaní as coordinator of the Special Team.
As the former minister González would recall, Castillo was upset by the appointment of Colchado because he considered him his “enemy”. González kept Colchado, so Pedro Castillo dismissed Mariano González.
right arm
The largest PNP David Medina Guillén is considered one of the founders of the High Complexity Investigations Division (Diviac) of the National Police, together with Colonel Harvey Colchado Huamaní, in 2016.
Due to his professionalism and vocation, he was in command of decentralized units of the Diviac in Huánuco and Chiclayo, until 2021. At the head of such units, he dismantled several criminal organizations dedicated to hitmen, land trafficking and corruption of officials.
Since graduating from the School of National Police Officers, Major David Medina, a member of the 1995 “Los Triunfadores” Promotion, worked in specialized units such as the Directorate of Investigation Against Corruption (Dicocor) and in the Vraem Police Front. (valley of the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro rivers).
When the Special Team was set up in support of the Prosecutors against Power Corruption, Major David Medina was summoned by Colonel Harvey Colchado. Since then, he has worked on tax files related to officials around former President Pedro Castillo.
Among the most recent cases, David Medina dealt with the payment of bribes for promotion to the rank of General of the National Police, an investigation that has so far led to the arrest of the former PNP general commander Javier Gallardo Mendoza and four other generals who paid a bribe of US$40,000 to reach the higher rank.
Three advisers to the Ministry of the previous government resign
The head of the cabinet of advisers of the Ministry of the Interior, retired general PNP Abel Gamarra Malpartida, resigned from the position, after the prosecutor Marita Barreto questioned his permanence in the sectordespite having been part of the environment of former President Pedro Castillo.
Along with Abel Gamarra, the adviser to the ministerial office, retired PNP colonel Abel Tarazona Melitón, and the head of Counterintelligence of the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior (Digimin), retired PNP colonel Erasmo Sánchez Lira, also resigned.
Until the closing of this edition, the resignation of the head of Digimin, Colonel PNP Carlos Cabrejos Becerra, was expected.
For the superior prosecutor Marita Barreto, the presence of these officials in the Mininter It did not generate confidence because they were appointed by Castillo.
Infographic – The Republic
