In the year 2020, the Siucho family celebrated the centenary of the arrival of the patriarch in Peru, Emilio Siucho Lama Castilianized version of its original identity, Siu Yat Cho. His surname became Siucho. He arrived at the age of 19 as part of the third great wave of Chinese immigration, which occurred between 1911 and 1949, according to the anthropologist and sinologist Humberto Rodríguez Pastor. He set foot on Peruvian soil in 1920, when Augusto Bernardino Leguía was in power. But he did not settle in Lima.
He came from Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, to establish a new family, far away from the conflicts between the clans of his hometown. The purpose of Siucho, who was an only child, became clear when he married Leocadia Apac Gomezwhom he met in Huánuco and with whom he had 11 children. He did not seem interested in returning with such a large family, among whom are the parents of the Siuchos who are currently the protagonists of a scandal between uncles and cousins.
“My great-grandfather had a great entrepreneurial spirit. In Lurín, he began a period of stability for the family. He dedicated himself to the transportation business. He was very well-known in the southern area of Lima and a very good friend of his neighbors and his community. They remember him as ‘the good-natured Chinese man with 11 children,’” he wrote. Julian Siucho Garofolingreat-grandson of Emilio Siucho Lam and grandson of Julián Siucho Ápac, one of the patriarch’s 11 children.
Julian Siucho Apacwho was born on August 25, 1947, is older than his brother Francisco Siucho Apacwho came into the world on February 19, 1955. Francisco Siucho Apac and his wife Martha Neira Torres are the parents of businessmen Iván, Martín and Jaime, soccer player Roberto and Ana Suicho NeiraThe entire Suicho Neira family is involved in the tax investigation into the alleged case of money laundering resulting from the illegal export of gold.
The conflict caught the attention of the press when Jean Carlo Miu Lei, cousin of the Suicho Neiras, accused them on the program “Contracorriente” that they were dedicated to gold trafficking and laundering. Then it appeared Ana Suicho Neirawife of national team player Edison Flores, on “Beto a Saber”, and reported that her cousin Javier Miu Lei paid US$1 million to presenter Andrés Hurtado Grados, “Chibolín”, so that the money laundering prosecutor, Elizabeth Peralta Santur, would return 100 kilos of gold seized by the authorities during the operation “Los Topos del Frío”.
It is very difficult to understand the dispute between the Siucho Neira and the Miu Lei if one does not know the evolution of the family branches of Chinese origin that originate from the patriarch who died in 1971. Where do the Miu Lei come from?
FAMILY TIES
Juana Siucho Apacone of the eldest daughters of Emilio Siucho Lam -born on July 20, 1939- married Fun Kan Lei (better known as Juan Lei) and had five children: Augusto, Javier, Susana, Rosa and Ana María. It was Ana María Lei Siucho who married Augusto Miu Malca and they had four children: Augusto, Diego, Jean Carlo and Sebastián Miu Lei.
The war of the Siucho and the My Lei It broke out long before the role of “Chibolín” in this story was made public: on September 5, 2022, Augusto Miu Lei denounced Iván Siucho Neira for money laundering. He had detected that the company of the Siucho NeiraQuantico Servicios Integrados, declared to Sunat the export of gold from the La War War mining concession, owned by the Miu Lei. According to the complaint, not a single gram of gold could have come from the La War War concession because there are no gold mining extraction works.
In his recent sincere confession before the supreme prosecutor Alcides Chinchay, Ivan Siucho Neira has implicated a member of the clan, his uncle Javier Lei Siucho, brother of Ana María Lei Siucho, mother of the Miu Lei. According to the version of Ivan Siucho Neirahis cousin asked him to contact “Chibolín” to help him solve a problem of his uncle (Javier Lei Siucho), implicated in the case “El Club de la Construcción”. As a representative of Contratistas y Mineros Contratistas Generales, Javier Lei Siucho was accused of allegedly having paid bribes to public officials in exchange for the awarding of multi-million dollar public works contracts.
But he is not the only one from the Siucho clan.
THE FUJIMORISTIC BRANCHES
In the same corruption scandal known as “The Construction Club”The company San Martín Contratistas Generales is involved in this activity, founded on November 7, 1990 by the aforementioned Julián Siucho Ápac, son of the patriarch Emilio Siucho Lam. The company’s shareholders are his children Iván, Julián, Raúl, Iván and Érika Siucho Dextre. Julián Siucho Dextre is registered as a member of Fuerza Popular, although he is not the only one linked to Fujimorism.
According to witness statements Jorge Yoshiyama Sasaki before the Lava Jato Special Team, Julián Siucho was one of the members of the “Construction Club” who held frequent meetings with Keiko Fujimori. During the meetings, The guests gave cash contributions to Fujimori’s presidential campaignaccording to Yoshiyama. Keiko Fujimori’s ex-husband, Mark Vito Villanella, who is also involved with the Siucho Dextre, appeared on several occasions.
He Lava Jato Special Team The agency found that Villanella sold five plots of land for US$5.1 million to the siblings Julián, Raúl, Iván and Érika Siucho Dextre, the owners of San Martín Contratistas Generales. For this fact, Villanella is being prosecuted for criminal organization and money laundering, because it is suspected that the sale he made with the Siucho Dextre was a simulation.
It is worth noting that the premises located at Manuel Olguín 231, where the cocktail parties for Keiko’s campaign funds were held, is owned by the Siucho Dextre family. As is known, these cocktail parties were also simulations, because the origin of the funds with which she financed her 2011 and 2016 campaigns are of clandestine origin, they were never declared.
“This is inherited from his father (Francisco Siucho Ápac), who was initially involved in land trafficking and then moved into the illegal gold business,” said Jean Carlo Miu Lei. Francisco Siucho Ápac is facing three tax investigations along with his children, the grandchildren of the patriarch Emilio Siucho Lam, who left China because he believed he had no future in his country of origin. His descendants are now the centre of a scandal.
BOX
MEMORIES OF A TABLE WITH THE SIUCHO AND THE MIU LEI
● In Nosotros los Hakka: Trajectories in China and Peru (2021), the exceptional research by journalist and anthropologist Patricia Castro Obando, reports that the Chinese who moved to Peru in the context of the third wave of migration, such as Emilio Siucho Lam (Siu Yat Cho), did so because of interethnic conflicts, but also because of epidemics and hunger. Perhaps this explains why the patriarch decided not to return, as other compatriots did.
● Most of the Chinese who arrived with the third wave came from Zhongshan (patriarch Siucho’s homeland), but also from Taishan (Chixi) and Heshan.
● Julián Siucho Garofoli recalled the good times when the Siucho and Miu Lei got along: “Grandpa Julián (Siucho Ápac) married Blanca Dextre and they had four children. My childhood memories take me to family lunches at my grandparents’ house. (…) There I learned to savor (…) the secret recipes of my dear great-aunt Juana Siucho Ápac de Lei (married to Fun Kan Lei),” parents of Ana María Lei Siucho, mother of Augusto, Diego, Jean Carlo and Sebastián Miu Lei, declared enemies of the Siucho Neira.
