In politics there are no coincidences. And as the attempts vacancy they failed, Fujimorism and its opposition allies in Congress appeal to another strategy to take power and only calling for presidential elections: the impeachment trial.
On Thursday, the Audit Commission, chaired by Héctor Ventura, of Fuerza Popular, approved the report of the Saratea casewhich, in addition to recommending investigating a series of crimes against President Pedro Castillo, including criminal organization, accuses the president of violations of the Constitution, due to not appearing before the commission and for his lack of transparency in the meetings of the house of Breña.
The file will be voted on next week in plenary. It is a fact that it will be approved. The opposition has more than 66 votes. It’s enough.
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The procedure that follows, explained the former magistrate of the Constitutional Court Eloy Espinosa-Saldaña to La República, is that the case passes into the hands of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations for the political trial to begin. “In the Subcommittee they are going to determine a rapporteur congressman to review the 362 pages of the report and based on that, decide if there is room for the trial process. This case is presented, there is a session of the SAC, to which the defendants or their lawyers are invited and then the package is sent to the Permanent Commission and it confirms what the Subcommission says and has three to four days to take it to the Plenary”, explains the lawyer Espinosa-Saldaña.
There are two scenarios: that it be seen in this legislature -supposedly it expires on July 8- or the next one. Yesterday it transpired that Popular Action intends to extend the term of María del Carmen Alva, head of Congress, until July 23. The constitutionalist warns that in “this matter, if there is a political consensus, the political trial against Castillo can be handled very quickly.” Even before Alva leaves the Board of Directors.
“The other scenario, in case the process is delayed -adds the former magistrate-, it is most likely that it will be an issue that they see as start of the next legislature because two more things are going to be at stake here: the situation of Dina Boluarte and who is the new Board of Directors”. “I can disable both (Castillo and Boluarte) and the newly appointed president of Congress assumes (the Executive) and goes to the call for general elections.”
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The point is that the congressmen of People’s ForceRenovación Popular and Avanza País, if the disqualification of Castillo and Boluarte materializes, and in the event that the head of Parliament assumes the reins of the Government, They want only presidential elections to be called.
At this point fits the audio of María del Carmen Alva, where it is revealed how the acciopopulista is guided by the fujimorista Patricia Juárez, president of the Constitution Commission, and Gladys Echaíz, called to preside over Parliament, to maintain that the congressmen, in the event that there are new elections, should keep their five years.
Voced. Gladys Echaíz, promoted to the Board of Directors by Fujimori and its allies. Photo: Antonio Melgarejo/ The Republic
The role of the Subcommittee
It has become clear that everything is carefully planned. Whether express or not, no scenario looks favorable for Castillo’s management. The Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations, where his case will go, has become a commission where the political interests of the opposition prevail. An example of this is how its president Rosio Torres, of the Alliance for Progress (APP), has been playing on the wall with Acción Popular, FP and Avanza País to shield Manuel Merino in the Inti and Bryan case.
YOU CAN SEE: Gladys Echaíz: who is the congresswoman called out by Fujimori to preside over the Board of Directors?
This same commission must elect a parliamentary delegate to prepare a file against President Castillo and also to another who sees the case of Boluarte, for her participation in the Apurimac Club, being Minister of Social Inclusion.
Yesterday, the Permanent Commission of Congress approved to process the constitutional complaint against Boluarte. Your process is moving fast. The Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations has 15 days to issue a file. This month, if the legislature is extended, he must appear before the SAC to give his defenses.
The speaker with Boluarte will not be a left-wing congressman. This implies that the final report will recommend removing her from public office. Thus, President Castillo will not only be without a bench -he recently resigned from Peru Libre-, but also without a vice president.
YOU CAN SEE: Congress: Permanent Commission shields Héctor Becerril and constitutional complaint goes to the archive
The Board of Directors
As the former member of the Espinosa-Saldaña Constitutional Court explained, everything is complemented by what will be the election of the Board of Directors.
After Castillo and Boluarte were disqualified, whoever assumes the presidency of Congress will be the next transitional president. The opposition will also need to have a head of the Board of Directors to suit them. For this reason, Fujimorism and its henchmen propose Echaíz, despite the fact that she is not to the liking of the APP leader, César Acuña. Likewise, they will require a Constitution Commission according to their interests -as they have with Patricia Juárez- to support the theory that with the president and his vice president of the Republic out of the way, it is only appropriate to call presidential elections.
In this way the opposition benches will control both powers: Executive and Congress. The promoters of the disqualification of Castillo and Boluarte know that it will be less complicated for them to obtain a simple majority of votes in plenary to disqualify both leaders.
YOU CAN SEE: Hildebrandt: “Has Boluarte agreed to replace Castillo to fulfill Cerrón’s political project?”
The suspension of these officials requires a minimum of 66 votes from the parliamentarians present in the chamber, subtracting the members of the Permanent Commission. The president doesn’t even have it safe with Free Perua group that he recently resigned from and that supported the censorship of the Minister of the Interior, Dimitri Senmache.
Congress. The disqualification of the president requires 66 votes of the Plenary. Photo: Antonio Melgarejo/The Republic
For former magistrate Eloy Espinosa Saldaña, when the president and his vice president are disqualified, there is no going back.
However, for the constitutionalist Pedro Grandez, there is the possibility that the head of state resorts to constitutional Court because, from his point of view, the powers of the Executive are violated by suspending the president without the Judiciary having sentenced him for the same accusations. However, the new TC was also elected to the measure of Congress. We are at a crossroads with no way out for Castillo.
YOU CAN SEE: Pedro Castillo: lawyer for the president evaluates going to the Constitutional Court to protect him
Salas voiced as Senmache’s successor
Yesterday it transpired that the Minister of Culture, Alejandro Salas, was going to replace the censored Minister of the Interior, Dimitri Senmache. Salas, as we know, is the squire of President Pedro Castillo. However, in the afternoon, Salas said that his assumption as head of the mininter They are speculations, although he did not deny accepting the position, in case it is proposed to him. “I work for a democratic government and whatever the government determines for me, I am always willing to work for the country. They are rumors that are there, ”he expressed.
President Pedro Castillo, for his part, lamented the censorship against Senmache. “Political reasons prevailed in this decision. With this decision, those who lose the most are the citizens”, manifested. According to Hildebrandt in Thirteen of him, Silva is willing to turn himself in to betray the head of state in the framework of the investigations of the Puente Tarata case.
reactions
Eloy Espinosa-Saldaña, former magistrate of the TC
“What is the sanction of impeachment? Disqualification: prohibition for one to hold public office. Up to 10 years they can put you. If there is political consensus, it can move forward very quickly.”
Pedro Grandez, constitutionalist
“The Constitution does not allow impeaching the president for crimes. And all the more reason a door cannot be left open. If the president can’t be impeached for crimes, he can’t be disbarred either.”
