Urgent Decree 102-2021: The money trail is in the Government Palace

Probably, given the appearance of new witness statements and more documentary evidence, the president peter castle argue that he did not know what his spouse and his brothers-in-law, even his countrymen and closest friends, known as “Los Chiclayanos” did. But what he cannot deny is that he stamped emergency decree 102-2021 with his own handwriting on October 29, 2021.

The decree is key because it authorizes the financing of around 120 public works for drinking water and sanitation by the Ministry of Housing and Construction, in approximately one hundred districts in different regions of the country, more than 30 in Cajamarca, where the chief of the State. Of the 496.6 million that were transferred, a total of 127.8 million went to Cajamarca districts, including Anguía, from where Mayor Nenil Medina Guerrero, a close friend of the president and a member of “The Chiclayans”.

So far, the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption of the Power has managed to establish that the president’s wife, Lilian Paredes Navarro, and her brothers Yenifer, Walter and David Paredes Navarro, Probably linked to Mayor Nenil Medina, they took advantage of their closeness to President Castillo to promote, finance and execute a scheme for directing allocations of Public Works to obtain economic benefit.

The testimonies of effective collaborators, protected witnesses, and especially the confession of businessman Hugo Espino Lucana, show that those involved knew that President Castillo would sign a decree to provide funds directed to the financing of public works. It was without a doubt the emergency decree 102-2021, of October 29, 2021.

The mayor of the Anguía district, Nenil Medina Guerrero, was arrested on August 9. Photo: Marco Cotrina/The Republic

And the head of state also knew that the aforementioned decree would provide funds for the execution of five public works for more than 10 million soles in the district of Anguía, in his town, in charge of his countryman and intimate friend, Nenil Medina. And he knew it because he delegated his Minister of Housing and Construction, Geiner Alvarado López, who also signed emergency decree 102-2021, which defined the list of district municipalities that would receive funds for public works.

Geiner Alvarado was also part of “Los Chiclayanos”. Alvarado himself. has declared to the Prosecutor’s Office that the person who recommended him to President Castillo to take over the Ministry of Housing and Construction It was businessman Abel Cabrera Fernández, also a member of “Los Chiclayanos”, financier of Pedro Castillo’s presidential campaign.

In turn, Geiner Alvarado recruited as head of the Cabinet of Advisors of the Ministry of Housing Salatiel Marrufo Alcántara, also from the group “Los Chiclayanos”.

Geiner Alvarado, Abel Cabrera and Salatiel Marrufo had known each other for years because they were classmates at the Pedro Ruiz Gallo National University, in Chiclayo, and were part of the Broad Democratic Student Front (FAED), led by Salatiel Marrufo.

Chiclayo connection

It was precisely Salatiel Marrufo who, in coordination with Geiner Alvarado, after a frustrated meeting with the head of state at the Government Palace, that same day, on August 19, 2021, organized a clandestine meeting in an apartment in Surquillo between officials from the Ministry of Housing and “Los Chiclayanos” to discuss which districts would receive the public funds that Pedro Castillo would later authorize with emergency decree 102-2021.

At the request of Salatiel Marrufo, with the full knowledge of President Pedro Castillo and Minister Geiner Alvarado, the Deputy Minister of Housing and Urbanism, Elizabeth Añaños Vega, and the head of the budget, Jacqueline Castañeda del Castillo, They were taken to a department in Surquilla where “Los Chiclayanos”, Abel Cabrera Fernández, the mayor of Anguía, Nenil Medina, were waiting for him. -for whom Marrufo worked as legal advisor- and businessman Segundo Sánchez Sánchez, the famous owner of the house on Sarratea street where President Castillo had several clandestine meetings.

Coordinator. Salatiel Marrufo took Housing officials to a meeting with ‘Los Chiclayanos’. Photo: diffusion

As the witnesses of the meeting have declared before the Office of the Prosecutor of the Nation, Salatiel Marrufo told the officials of the Ministry of Housing and Construction to expose those present the investment plan that President Castillo would later approve with emergency decree 102-2021. The officials did not know if Sánchez, Medina and Cabrera exercised any function in the Executive, but they did their role because they understood that it was a presidential order, without any doubt. In addition, the head of the Cabinet of Advisors to the Minister of Housing, Salatiel Marrufo, was with them.

In the same month of August 2021, Mayor Nenil Medina and businessman Hugo Espino began frequent visits to the Government Palace and to the Ministry of Housing, precisely to ensure that public works projects of interest to them are included.

According to the declarations of Hugo Espino, the first lady Lilia Paredes and the president’s brothers-in-law, Yenifer, Walter and David Paredes, asked him to participate in tenders of their interest through their companies, JJM Espino Engineering & Construction and Destcon Engineers & Architects.

for your own benefit

The 90 thousand soles that Walter and David Paredes Navarro gave to Hugo and Anggi Espino Lucana They were to finance the technical studies of the work of three million soles that the mayor of Anguía, Nenil Medina, would tender.

The mandatary Pedro Castillo was aware of Medina’s interest in the five projects for almost 10 million soles in Anguía. So much so that Castillo and Medina were together in Anguía on September 13, 2021, shortly before the issuance of emergency decree 102-2021, to announce the execution of public works. One went directly into the hands of the brothers-in-law of the head of state, but the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption of Power does not rule out that the same thing happened with the other four projects.

In effect, Nenil Medina would simulate an adjudication process so that the company Destcon Ingenieros & Arquitectos, of the brothers Hugo and Anggi Espino, would be the winner, promoted by the president’s brothers-in-law, the Paredes Navarros. The farce has been fully verified.

Nathaly Alcántara Montes, who appears as president of the bidding committee for the three million project in Anguía, appeared before the Special Team of Prosecutors against Corruption of Power to affirm that she had not intervened in the process and that her signature had been forged. And that was not the worst.

He also testified that the mayor of Anguía, Nenil Medina, the friend and countryman of the head of state, Pedro Castillo, offered him up to 50 thousand soles to agree to fabricate a false contract as a participant in the tender which benefited the Paredes Navarro family. Medina was desperate because he had no way of proving that Alcántara had been involved in awarding the three million soles project.

Nathaly Alcántara happily rejected the offer, concluding that it would be better to tell the authorities everything.

The investigations of the Special Team of Prosecutors against the Corruption of Power have fully identified the role of the Paredes Navarro brothers in the alleged corruption scheme in the direction of public works. Anguia is just one example. There are other cases in Chota, Cajatambo and Chachapoyas, in the verification process. They all have in common the financing approved by President Pedro Castillo with emergency decree 102-2021.

Effective collaborator betrays the countryman Nenil Medina

“(Nenil Medina) was the one who financed Pedro Castillo’s campaign. He supported his nephews Fray Vásquez Castillo. Gian Marco Castillo Gómez and José Luis Vásquez Castillo. When they lived in Sarratea, on the third floor, I bought them clothes, food, everything,” said an effective collaborator about the mayor of Anguía, the president’s countryman, Nenil Medina.

“He also gave strategies in the campaign, but it was sinister. He stopped in Lima, despite being the mayor of Anguía. He was careful not to appear in the photos. It stopped in Sarratea. He did not ask for permission in the meetings and sat next to President Castillo, ”said the witness.

“When Castillo was elected president, Nenil Medina was coordinator with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, when Iván Merino was minister. It only worked in the shadows. He did not want charges, the effective collaborator pointed out. President Castillo knew that the funds from DU 102-2021 would finance works in Anguía, where his wife and his brothers-in-law had interests.