It was about time. The Sixth Supraprovincial Unipersonal Criminal Court Specialized in crimes of Corruption of Public Officials of Junín imposed four years in effective prison on the former governor of Junín Vladimir Cerrón and other officials of his first regional administration (2011-2014) for the case of Wanka Airfield.
However, Judge Guido Arroyo ordered that the sentence be executed when it is confirmed in the second instance.
During the oral trial that began in the first days of January 2022, the deputy prosecutor of the Fourth Office, Miguel Canchanya, argued before the court that Vladimir Cerrón, convicted of corruption, and Luis García, representative of the Wanka Gran Aerodrome consortium, signed a contract for the construction of the aerodrome without considering the pronouncement of the General Directorate of Investment Policy (DGPI) of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).
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Likewise, the Regional Government of Junín (GRJ) should not have taken steps to generate the aerodrome project in the district of Orcotuna, province of Concepción, since there was already a position of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) that alleged that this region it already had an airport (Francisco Carlé de Jauja) and should not invest in the creation of another, but despite this Cerrón and company insisted.
This illegal act was confirmed with the signing of the contract dated June 4, 2014, the same one that forced the GRJ to make the payment of 0.5% of the amount of the investment to the contractor, proposed with the declaration of interest of the private initiative that amounted to S/2’018,180.
The sentence also affects Aldrín Zárate, former manager of Economic Development; Mercedes Carrión, former head of legal advice and Luis Arauco, former regional director of Transportation, as authors. Also to Serafín Blanco, Luis García and Nataly de la Vega as accomplices against the public administration in the form of collusion to the detriment of the State and the Regional Government of Junín.
During the trial, the representative of the Public Ministry managed to prove that those now sentenced agreed for the admission, evaluation, direct award and signing of the contract for the construction, administration and operation of the service.
Cerrón and company were also disqualified from holding public office for four years and were ordered to pay a civil compensation of S/2’018,180.
The magistrate provided a series of rules of conduct for the convicted that entails not being absent from the town of their residence. Also, comply with registering in the biometric control every Monday until the completion of the criminal process, as well as the impediment to leave the country.
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“Vladimir Cerrón will always want to evade justice. Here we are not talking about the construction, what was prepared was a technical file. They used around 10 million soles,” reported José Villasana, former Junín regional councilor in Peru21TV.
In a brief communication with Perú21, the prosecutor Miguel Canchanya pointed out that “what the judge has dictated is the operative part. They will notify us recently, in these days, of the complete sentence, not only against Cerrón and other officials.
On his social networks, Cerrón reacted after learning of the judge’s decision. “Sentenced for trying to build an airport for Huancayo. The contract was declared void and the GRJ did not invest a single penny. It is postulated that we would have put the GRJ at risk. I will appeal,” said the ex-partner of former president Pedro Castillo.
