The Public Ministry and the Attorney General’s Office conclude a turbulent year and face an uncertain future. The political power wants to undermine their independence and control their decisions; a situation that will continue in 2026. What will have to be seen is how the institution and each prosecutor face this scenario and how it affects investigations with a political profile.
The National Prosecutor, Delia Espinoza, was suspended by the National Board of Justice (JNJ) for six months – from September 19, 2025 to March 19, 2026 – in an absurd disciplinary process for alleged contempt for a resolution that she could not comply with. But, even if this disciplinary measure were to remain ineffective – a constitutional judge has already tried – Espinoza will not be able to return to the institution in a short period of time, since Congress imposed two disqualifications for 10 years (until 2035) from holding public office.
This situation means that, since September, the Public Ministry has been headed by an interim prosecutor of the Nation, Supreme Prosecutor Tomás Gálvez. The interim position should be maintained until the JNJ makes a final decision or until November 7, 2027, when the three-year term for which she was elected ends.
Legally, Delia Espinoza continues to be the nation’s prosecutor, but she is suspended and disqualified. The very old Organic Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office does not provide for a succession in cases of provisional, non-definitive sanctions.
The election of the new prosecutor of the Nation
The only way out of this impasse is for the Board of Supreme Prosecutors to annul the election of Espinoza as prosecutor of the Nation. The decision is not easy for any of the supreme prosecutors and will set a precedent that, in the future, could generate instability. In previous crises, as in the case of Gonzalo Chávarry, the solution was to pressure the resignation of the current Attorney General to elect a new head.
Today this is not possible. Espinoza cannot resign from a position that she no longer holds and, furthermore, doing so would be validating a sanction that she considers arbitrary and unfair. Given this situation, various Boards of Superior Prosecutors and unions have asked the supreme prosecutors to annul Espinoza’s election.
The supreme prosecutors discussed the issue at the beginning of December without reaching an agreement, and they are scheduled to resume the dialogue at the end of next January. The matter cannot be postponed for too long. A Public Ministry without the Nation’s Prosecutor is unstable and too vulnerable
If Espinoza’s election is concluded, the supreme prosecutor Tomás Gálvez today has the majority to be elected prosecutor of the Nation. However, in recent weeks, Luis Arce Córdova has expressed his interest in occupying the position. Gálvez would generate resistance in the APRA sector controlled by the National Board of Justice. The point is that Arce Córdova is still seen as a judge, rather than as a supreme prosecutor. He doesn’t know the institution.
There are limits
Meanwhile, the Board is pressing to sanction the supreme prosecutor Pablo Sánchez, in order to accelerate his departure from the Public Ministry. An untimely departure by Sánchez would immediately affect the correlation of forces within the Board of Supreme Prosecutors. It will happen anyway, but starting in July 2026 when he turns 70 and must leave the Public Ministry due to age limits.
At the Christmas celebration at the Public Ministry, Gálvez supported Pablo Sánchez and Zoraida Ávalos, apologizing to them for past grievances. Gálvez denies that this is related to the election of the new National Prosecutor: “If every day we have to coordinate and be in contact, the minimum is an apology so that any resentment disappears, without hypocrisy and without calculations,” says the acting National Prosecutor.
In the judicial system the details are important, especially in the midst of political harassment to control the Public Ministry. If Gálvez represents one of the sectors in conflict, that message goes in two directions. Pablo Sánchez is a very loved and respected character within the institution since his time as senior prosecutor. Sánchez was the coordinator of the prosecutors who investigated the Fujimori-Montesinos network. He served as prosecutor of the Nation and, later, as senior supreme prosecutor, he has had to be in charge of all crises.
The mistreatment that the Board of Supreme Prosecutors has given him will not be easily forgotten. They are not the only ones who have mistreated him. The Lava Jato Special Team that he created did not respect his authority either. The feeling, within the Public Ministry, is that many have used it for their personal interests and no one supported it when it was needed. If there is some calculation in Tomás Gálvez, it is that he knows the Public Ministry.
The future of special teams
Meanwhile, between January 5 and 6, the dissolution of the special teams of the Lava Jato, Cuellos Blancos and other cases will become effective. The decision to dissolve them has already been made, as La República reported. What had to be defined was the destination of the dispatches and files.
According to La República sources, the offices will be relocated to the specialized subsystems with all their personnel and files. The resolution by the suspended prosecutor of the Nation Delia Espinoza will be followed, in part, when she transferred the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption in Power (Eficcop) to the anti-corruption subsystem. With the difference that now they will not be Special Teams, but rather another specialized prosecutor’s office.
Therefore, the Lava Jato case will go to the subsystem specialized in Money Laundering, whose current coordinator is the provisional senior prosecutor Germán Juárez Atoche, a former member of said team promoted by Gálvez. Will Rafael Vela Barba agree to put himself at the disposal of a prosecutor who until a few weeks ago was his subordinate?
On the other hand, the Cuellos Blancos case will go to the Corruption of Officials subsystem, which has senior prosecutor Omar Tello as coordinator. Some prosecutors will remain in their offices, while others will be relocated.
The Special Teams of Prosecutors were devised in the 1980s. They are defined in the Organic Law of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of 1981, but it was not until 2017 that they were activated. In the 90s, the Fujimori-Montesinos regime preferred ad hoc prosecutors. In 2017, faced with the Odebrecht case, Pablo Sánchez considered that the Special Teams were a good alternative. But, over time and since there were no regulations or defined limits, the Special Teams became “mini Public Ministries” with a power that neither they, nor anyone else, knew how to handle. That was his virtue and his weakness.
