Recordings of conversations in which the interlocutors describe the takeover of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC), in order to interfere in the tenders in which national and foreign construction companies were interested, and in which illicit payments to officials are also mentioned high-level public figures, influenced the decision of the National Prosecutor, Pablo Sánchez, to open an investigation against President Pedro Castillo.
During the information gathering process, the prosecutors Karla Zecenarro and Luz Taquire had access to the audios, and to validate them they made a voice recognition by the effective collaborators and validated the transcripts of the dialogues that contain criminal information.
Pablo Sánchez, for example, collected the following content from a conversation between former Secretary General Bruno Pacheco (BP) and the businessman and friend of the Head of State, Zamir Villaverde (ZV), on July 25, 2021:
ZV: You have surprised me with that leg, Juan Silva. Or are you kidding me? That (Silva) is not the one with the briefcase of a million dollars or soles that…! Asu, what abuse!
BP: Pedro (Castillo) hasn’t said it yet.
ZV. But Pedro knows about the million soles.
BP: You know, but he plays the jerk.
ZV: So, you’re making a commercial mistake…
BP: It is that this leg is having support. But he has not responded.
ZV: Knowing that I was going to Transport.
BP: That asshole is a land dealer.
ZV: There he is going to negotiate other things. Hey, Bruno, why don’t you go to a ministry where there is management? For example, Housing or…
BP: If you tell me, I’ll go. But you have to let me know what I’m going to win. Because if I go for the roe…
ZV: Another thing that seems absurd. In Transportation I have everything organized. And if you leave as vice (minister) of Transport?
BP: Vice? As little?
ZV: Well, I say burn them and you get promoted. Otherwise, Housing. Let’s say with Juan Silva. Yes, each one is going to be a king in his own kingdom. Millions are handled in Housing. I put together the whole picture. There you also handle Sedapal. The second monster after Transportation is Housing.
BP: But think, breathe a little. Don’t you think that in these three months they are going to get the shit out of the ministries?
ZV: As I have learned, they want to make a plot. But in three months enough to leave with money. In addition, it is not that they are thrown out, some are changed. In this government it is shown that they are not interested in anything. They go to another ministry.
BP: I am going to negotiate with Pedro (Castillo). With you, support, ah. And stop fucking with me.
ZV: But as vice. Put him as vice and put me as adviser.
BP: No, well, don’t ask that much either.
ZV: It’s that I have to be there to do the whole figure.
BP: Outside.
ZV: Yeah, okay. If that’s how you tell me, that’s fine. But can it be put as vice? Will Juan (Silva) let us work?
BP: What is Juan going to do, then?
ZV: And you, what do you prefer? Secretary General or Housing? If you had to choose.
BP: Me, right now, thinking coldly, the General Secretariat.
The conversation is relevant because it confirms the statements of the effective collaborator Karelim López and other witnesses, who pointed out that, with the consent of President Castillo, Juan Silva, Bruno Pacheco and Zamir Villaverde, they took over the MTC, and especially Provías Descentralizado, with the purpose of controlling the awarding of contracts for the benefit of construction companies with which Villaverde had previously coordinated. For this businessman, three months in power were enough to win contracts, that’s why he says: “In three months, enough to leave with money.”
The National Prosecutor also took into account an audio whose content was recognized by an effective collaborator, who stated that it was a dialogue between Zamir Villaverde (ZV) and Juan Altamirano Sánchez (JA), who presented himself as an advisor to former Minister Juan Silva.
JA: Prior to what is remaining, ah.
ZV: What happens is that I have written to the… what is his name? To the minister. I imagine that he is in a meeting, he has not…
JA: Yes, brother. Look, I’m going to shut down everything here. It’s not going to move at all (nothing) until tomorrow, it’s fine.
ZV: Excellent, Juan (Altamirano). But more or less I tell you something so that you know. On Friday a contest has already come out that came right from the White House (Government Palace). A sheet came saying that how is it possible that these companies of the (construction) Club win. They gave me the instructions that I look at it. So, we had postponed this until Wednesday of this week, and oh surprise, on Friday they gave these companies the go-ahead. Now, on Wednesday they will do the same. So the only way you can change these 60 Logistics people is for one person to come in and take over. And that he enters with 20 people and can grab all the contracts and say ta ta ta. But it has to be someone you know. This Torreblanca (former MTC official) does not know and is not part of the team group to do this job. That’s why I would ask you, that is, the lady (Karelim López), as I told you, help me. I am not looking for jobs for anyone; What I am trying to do is management. That’s why I would ask you to give me the chance. (…). Look, I have also asked France for a favor (Fray Vásquez Castillo, nephew of the president). And I told him, dammit, please help me, talk to your uncle, I tell him, we want to carry out this process. There he is in Transilvani (MTC) we have put him where you are. So, Juancito (Altamirano), help me, how I would like to talk to you.
JA: Yeah, Zamir. See you tomorrow. Tomorrow we coordinate.
The National Prosecutor highlighted the relevance of this conversation because it fits with the timeline and the facts that the effective collaborator Karelim López exposed.
Indeed, between July 26 and November 29, 2021, during Juan Silva’s administration, three Chinese and two Peruvian companies linked to Zamir Villaverde and President Castillo’s nephews suspiciously won seven contracts for 804.5 million soles. . And on October 22 of that same year, a consortium made up of the construction company Termirex, linked to Bruno Pacheco and Karelim López, obtained a contract for 232.5 million soles. The conspiracy of the accused allowed them to type in just over 4 months, 8 contracts for more than 1,037 soles. All the contracts were awarded by Provías Descentralizado.
According to the prosecutor Pablo Sánchez, for the consummation of these events, Zamir Villaverde recruited the Provías Descentralizado official, Alcides Villafuerte Vizcarra, who, as soon as his involvement was made known, fled. He would later turn himself in to justice.
For the Nation’s prosecutor, the reports by prosecutors Karla Zecenarro and Luz Taquire contain sufficient evidence of the existence of a criminal organization to digitize MTC tenders and that the head of state would be at the top of the pyramid.
“From the reports sent by the prosecutors, as well as from the other information contained in this fiscal file, it is clear that, to date, there would be sufficient reasonable evidence, to a degree of suspicion, that the President of the Republic, Pedro Castillo , would lead an alleged criminal organization that would have entrenched itself in the highest levels of the state apparatus, given the high position held by him as head of state, which gives him obvious power of control over public administration, “says prosecutor Pablo Sánchez .
In other words, Juan Silva, Bruno Pacheco, the nephews of the president, the officials of Decentralized Provías, could not have acted without the consent of President Pedro Castillo.
The seriousness of the crimes at stake
According to the National Prosecutor, Pablo Sánchez, given the seriousness of the crimes at stake -organized crime, aggravated collusion and aggravated influence peddling-, and the high position of Pedro Castillo as head of state, it was what determined that the start of the investigation.
Initially, Sánchez decided to open an investigation against former Minister Juan Silva and the six Popular Action congressmen known as ‘Los Niños’.
But before the appearance of more evidence that compromises President Castillo, the Nation’s prosecutor, Pablo Sánchez, decided to evaluate this information and concluded that it compromised the head of state.
Among the new ones are the audios that Zamir Villaverde disclosed and that before the Prosecutor’s Office he recognized that it was his voice.
