Interim Peruvian President Francisco Sagasti on Friday harshly criticized the appeal of retired military personnel for military intervention to prevent radical left candidate Pedro Castillo from being proclaimed the winner of the presidential election.
Read also: Peru: Keiko Fujimori disputes his announced defeat in the presidential election
"It is unacceptable (...) that this group of retired individuals from the army thinks they can encourage the high command of the army, air and navy to break with the rule of law "
said Francisco Sagasti in a televised address.
Several hundred retired officers signed a letter which, echoing the accusations of
"fraud"
made by the right-wing populist candidate Keiko Fujimori, asks the army to prevent Pedro Castillo from being proclaimed
" illegitimately and illegitimately ”
President of Peru.
Ballot without "serious irregularities"
Twelve days after the second round of June 6, the Andean country is still waiting to know its future president. Pedro Castillo, a 51-year-old teacher and trade unionist, leads the second round with 50.12% of the votes on 100% of the ballots counted against 49.87% for Keiko Fujimori, an advance of around 44,000 votes. But Keiko Fujimori, who has multiplied the accusations of
"fraud"
without providing formal proof, demanded the cancellation of tens of thousands of votes. These appeals are now examined by the electoral authority.
However, the vote was qualified as
"positive"
and without
"serious irregularities"
by the election observation mission of the Organization of American States (OAS). The letter from the retired soldiers, which accuses the
"high government authorities"
of having
"
taken up the
cause"
for the leftist candidate, was delivered Thursday to the army high command in Lima. It follows another call made in the same direction Monday by 64 retired generals and admirals.
"In a democracy, the armed forces do not choose, are absolutely neutral and are scrupulously respectful of the Constitution,"
recalled the interim head of state whose mandate ends on July 28.
Francisco Sagasti was elected interim president by the deputies after yet another political crisis in November 2020 which saw his two predecessors respectively deposed by Parliament and pushed to resign under pressure from the streets.
"I asked the Minister of Defense to send this letter to the Public Prosecutor's Office (...) so that the necessary investigations can be carried out to determine possible acts harmful to the constitutional order and to establish the various responsibilities
", a he added. Three days after the second round ballot, the army asked Peruvians to
"respect"
the verdict of the ballot box.
