“I file a constitutional complaint against José Pedro Castillo Terrones, in his capacity as President of the Republic, as the alleged perpetrator of crimes against public tranquility in the form of criminal organization aggravated by his status as leader,” says the nation’s prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, in a document posted on the institution’s Twitter account.
The complaint also includes two former ministers of Castillo, accused of influence peddling. They are Juan Silva, former Minister of Transport and Communications, and Geiner Alvarado, former Minister of Housing, who are accused of being members of the alleged organization that Castillo directs from the presidency.
“Serious indications have been found of the alleged existence of a criminal organization entrenched in the Government Palace with the purpose of taking over, controlling and directing contracting processes to obtain illicit profits,” Benavides reported on social networks.
“From this moment it is the exclusive and exclusive responsibility of the Congress of the Republic to decide on the processing of the constitutional complaint within the framework of the United Nations Convention against Corruption,” added the nation’s prosecutor.
The Congress will have to debate in the next few days the denunciation that could lead to the suspension of Castillo, for which it needs 66 of the 130 votes of the chamber.
The future of the president turns bleak since the leftist alliance that supports him in Congress only has a third of the seats, insufficient to stop the suspension, which entails the separation of the position until the end of the mandate, in July 2026, although will maintain immunity, a figure that does not prevent it from being investigated.
In fact, Castillo has accumulated six inquiries against him since he took office 15 months ago.
There is no record of the prosecutor’s office denouncing a sitting president of Peru.
-day of raids –
The complaint was filed the same day that the prosecutor’s office raided the home of a Castillo’s sister in the morning in search of her nephew, whom they accuse of belonging to the alleged criminal gang led by the president.
In the operation, the houses of twelve more investigated in the same cause were also registered.
“The Public Ministry guarantees at all times the rights and physical integrity of the people who are in the homes raided today with the authorization of the Judiciary,” the prosecution announced on Twitter.
The Peruvian president protested after learning of the operation at his sister’s home, located in the populous district of San Juan de Lurigancho, in Lima, where his nephew Gian Marco Castillo Gómez was being sought.
The president alleged that his mother, Mávila Díaz Terrones, 77, is recovering in that house from a recent surgical intervention, and accused the prosecution of having harmed her health.
“The Prosecutor’s Office has entered my sister’s house. My mother is there. This abusive act has affected her health. I hold the Attorney General’s Office responsible for the health of my mother, “she tweeted.
The president’s mother was taken in an ambulance to a hospital after suffering a decompensation, according to the media.
Castillo visited his mother in the hospital that afternoon.
The operation included the 10-day preliminary detention of five former second-tier government advisers.
Among the homes and offices raided are those of six opposition congressmen, allegedly in collusion with the government.
– Does Castillo lead a network of corruption? –
The thesis of the prosecution is that the leftist president directs a network of corruption of money laundering and granting of public works contracts made up of his family and political environment.
A sister-in-law of Castillo, Yenifer Paredes, 26, has been in preventive detention for 30 months since August 29, accused of being part of said network.
The first lady, Lilia Paredes, and two of her brothers, Walter and David Paredes, are also under investigation and face a request to prohibit them from leaving the country for three years.
The president, a rural teacher like his wife, denies that his family has committed crimes and says he is the victim of a campaign to remove him from power.
Since coming to power, Castillo has lived under the siege of the prosecution and the siege of a Congress, dominated by the right, which demands his resignation and tried twice to remove him.
