He has ceased to be a minister for the second time in just more than half a year. But Juan José Santiváñez seems to have gone. There he continues, imposing his powerful shadow in the Government Palace and observing how President Dina Boluarte takes an oath to those who will replace it as Minister of Justice and Human Rights: Juan Manuel Cavero Soto, a person who has his approval and whose long resume is dark, also, as his predecessor, by some shadows.
The fourth Minister of Justice of this Government had been working as head of the Cabinet of Advisors of that portfolio since last May, so he worked with Santiváñez in the few months in which the probable candidate for Congress directed that ministry.
In its prolonged walking through public institutions, Cavero traveled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MTC) where in 2016 he took charge of the Directorate of Circulation and Road Safety of the General Directorate of Land Transportation – anarea responsible for the delivery of briefs – until two years later he was dismissed.
A report published by the newspaper El Comercio – titled briefly for a blind man – revealed failures in the driver’s licensing system and allowed to verify how in the midst of these irregularities to a person with visual disabilities could access without much difficulty a brief, given the permissibility of the area that the head of the Minjus today had in command.
This complaint caused the MTC, whose holder was then Edmer Trujillo, declared in reorganization the area directed by Cavero and removed it from the position in November 2018.
After his abrupt departure and despite the proximity of dates between the issuance of the report and the resolution of his dismissal in which he did not argue the reason, the official denied that his removal was linked to the complaint of the aforementioned newspaper.
In February 2022, Cavero arrived at the commune of Independence convened by Mayor José Pando Fernández to assume the Municipal Management; Then, he stressed in the Regional Government of Callao, of the questioned and multi -investigated Ciro Castillo Rojo, where he served as the head of the Legal Advice Management and ended up being denounced by the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office specialized in crimes of corruption of Callao officials for alleged incompatible negotiation and illegal designation of the position.
The office directed by Cavero was responsible for reviewing contracts, issuing legal opinions and legally representing Gore Callao. The official was accused of giving his approval for the irregular designation of a senior official, although he did not have the requirements for said position.
The fiscal folder against him pushed the minister to request the regional government to pay him a legal defense. The management of Castillo Rojo, then, approved a disbursement of 20 thousand soles to cover the fees of lawyer Marcos Silveiro.
Cavero has the venia of Santiváñez. He has been an official of his trust to the point that on August 30 the still Minister of Justice appointed him as a member of the Board of Directors of the State Attorney General (PGE). His presence in the Council was decisive to, in the session on September 5, add votes and remove Silvana Carrión from the Ad hoc attorney for the Lava Jato case.
Carrión’s departure had been requested by the mayor of Lima, Rafael López Aliaga, leader of popular renewal, group included in the Odebrecht case investigations.
Cavero also worked as Legal Advisory Manager at the Municipal Company to Support Strategic Projects (EMAPE) and its name is included in the long list of witnesses cited by the special team Lava Jato that will parade throughout the oral trial that has just been initiated against the former mayor of Lima, Susana Villarán, for the alleged illegal contributions received from the OAS and OAS.
Although without the weight of his predecessor, Cavero is another minister who arrives at the government carrying his backpack.
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