The Permanent Commission of Congress approved the final report of the constitutional complaint against the former prime minister Betsy Chavez and the former Ministers of the Interior, Willy Huerta, and of Foreign Trade, Roberto Sánchez, that recommends accusing them of the crimes of rebellion and conspiracy, in the framework of the failed coup d’état by ex-president Pedro Castillo on December 7.
In the case of Chavéz, the report was approved with 24 votes in favor, 2 against, and one abstention. Huerta suffered the same fate with 19 votes in favor, 7 against and 2 abstentions. While Sánchez was accused with 23 votes in favor, 4 against and 2 abstentions.
Hints in the report
Among the evidence presented by the rapporteur congressman Wilson Soto against the former head of the PCM It appears that on December 7, 2022, she guided the TV-Peru team from inside the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) to the presidential office.
“Both the PCM and the presidential office have specialized bodies related to coordination with the media (…) there being no reasonable explanation of why the premier assumed the task of said coordination both to make the TV-Peru team enter and to escort them out,” the report states.
Likewise, it is indicated that it did not issue any private or public pronouncement against the content of the message to the nation immediately after its broadcast or later. It is even added that he did not mention the events that occurred in his letter of resignation to the premiership
Regarding Huerta, the report details that he entered the presidential office before Castillo began reading his message and that it remained in place until it was finished. In addition, it is noted that he provided Castillo with his cell phone so that he could communicate with the Commander General of the Police, Raúl Alfaro Alvarado, whom -according to his testimony- the former president would have ordered him to close Congress and intervene with the prosecutor of the Nation.
About Roberto Sanchez, the report concludes that he entered the presidential office after finishing the message to the nation to greet the former head of state.
“No Testimony”
Betssy Chávez’s lawyer, Erwin Siccha, said that there is no testimony or evidence to prove that his client had previously coordinated with former President Castillo the drafting of the message to the nation on December 7, 2022.
“His presence at the scene of the events is an indisputable matter, but no testimony indicates that she had previously conspired to the message of the nation, aimed at establishing a state of exception”, stressed Siccha.
Sánchez rejected “prior knowledge, prior participation, during or after these serious events.” He denied having said “for the country” to Castillo after the former president gave his last message to the nation, as stated by the former minister Willy Huerta. For this, he showed a video in which the former minister Huerta retracts the statement he gave to the Prosecutor’s Office.
The data
Vegetable garden. He claims that he never knew what was going to be discussed in the presidential office. He considered that Chávez and Aníbal Torres “knew what was going to happen.” He accepted having provided Castillo with his cell phone, but clarified that he never knew that he would order the closure of Congress.
