The Permanent Council of the OAS is in the process of forming the High Level Group that will visit Peru in response to the request made by the Government of Pedro Castillo to activate the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
The Executive had requested that Articles 17 and 18 of the aforementioned document that was signed in 2001 in Lima, Peru, and that all OAS member states must abide by to ensure their democratic institutions be followed.
This means that there will be a visit and a report that the Permanent Council will evaluate in order to take the actions it deems pertinent and that will prevent democracy in Peru from being affected.
In a letter sent on Wednesday, October 26, to the President of the Council, José Williams, it was detailed that the official visit would take place the week of October 31 to November 6, with no exact date yet. What will the countries that make up the OAS find in our country?
LOOK: Walter Albán on the mission of the OAS: “Crisis must be resolved by the Peruvians themselves”
government vs. Congress
The main conflict behind the current political crisis is the one between the Government of President Pedro Castillo and the Congress of the Republic, since in the latter the search for signatures is being carried out for a third vacancy motion due to disability permanent morale.
In the first two motions that were raised from the opposition benches in December 2021 and March 2022, not enough votes were achieved to remove the president from office. The third attempt is headed by ungrouped congressman Edward Málaga and is still accumulating signatories.
From the Government, no question of confidence has been presented so far despite the numerous interrogations and censures that have been carried out against various ministers of the cabinets that Castillo’s management has had.
However, during two official events and Decentralized Councils of Ministers, members of the Executive such as the Prime Minister, Aníbal Torres, have questioned the work of the Legislative Power where they assure that there are groups that seek the vacancy because they do not recognize the electoral defeat of 2021.
executive vs. Public ministry
The confrontation of the Executive has also extended to clashes between Pedro Castillo, his lawyers and the ministers who defend the president’s management with representatives of the Public Ministry, including the Nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides.
Pedro Castillo currently has various investigations in the office of the head of the Public Ministry, which began to be carried out during Pablo Sánchez’s administration with the decision to interpret the Constitution in the sense that it prevents accusing the acting head of state, but it does not prohibit investigations.
There are also frictions due to the existence of a special team of prosecutors called “Against Corruption in Power”headed by Marita Barreto, created at the beginning of Patricia Benavides’ administration and from where many members of the president’s entourage have been investigated, including her sister-in-law raised as a daughter, Yenifer Paredes, and the owner of the house in the shred Sarratea, Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez, a fugitive to date.
The Government has responded by criticizing the National Prosecutor for the changes she ordered in various offices, including the departure of prosecutors who were investigating the White Necks of the Port case and the prosecutor Bersabeth Revilla, who was in charge of a case against Sister of Patricia Benavides, Emma Benavides, for the alleged crimes of bribery and illicit association to commit crimes in a criminal organization.
:quality(75)/cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/HUTVqZZ5/poster.jpg "The disputes between all the powers of the State that the OAS will find next week")
Currently, a constitutional complaint against Pedro Castillo is being processed in the Congress of the Republic raised by the National Prosecutor, a measure considered contrary to article 117 of the Constitution by the Government. This is one of the reasons why they went to the OAS.
Congress vs. Power of attorney
Congress has also had conflicts with the Judiciary, due to the fact that various judges have attended in recent months to requests for protection with precautionary measures that have ordered the paralysis of processes to elect authorities that are within parliamentary work.
In July 2021, in a conflict that lasted until the first months of the current legislature, the Third Transitory Constitutional Court of Lima ordered the process of electing members of the Constitutional Court to be paralyzed.
More recently, in August 2022, the same constitutional court ordered the suspension of the process to elect the new Ombudsman. Walter Gutiérrez formally resigned in March of this year and, since then, Congress is expected to name his successor.
Despite the judicial decision, the plenary carried out the vote to choose between the candidates selected by a special commission. However, none obtained the necessary votes and it was decided to restart the process.
Currently, there is a competence claim filed by Congress against the Judiciary precisely because it considers that a magistrate could not order the suspension of a process to elect an authority as the new Ombudsman.
Public Ministry vs. Power of attorney
More recently, a dispute has broken out between the prosecution and the Judiciary due to a claim filed by Rafael Vela Barba against Supreme Judge César San Martín, around a cassation involving the Lava Jato case and the process against Ollanta Humala and Nadine Heredia.
The prosecutor of the special team has indicated that San Martín would have conflicts of interest due to his proximity to a law firm that represents one of the parties involved in the cassation, in addition to having Carlos Caro Coria as a lawyer before the JNJ, who He is a lawyer for Enagás, a company involved in the Gasoducto Sur Peruano case.
This has been responded to by the Judiciary as an attempt to pressure magistrates to affect their independence.
“Given the imminent visit of the OAS, we present our institutional position of judicial independence and reject any act of intimidation and pressure that has been carried out by an official of the Public Ministry”, stated Elvia Barrios, president of the Judiciary in a statement she made with the rest of the Supreme Court, including César San Martín.
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:quality(75)/cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/eteH3kzp/poster.jpg "The disputes between all the powers of the State that the OAS will find next week")
