Vladimir Cerrón (left) and Pedro Castillo at a campaign event in Junín, in March.PERÚ LIBRE
A provincial money laundering prosecutor in Lima investigates 19 people, including the prime minister and official congressman, Guido Bellido, and the Marxist-Leninist politician Vladimir Cerrón, founder of the left-wing Peru Libre party, with whom Pedro Castillo came to the presidency of Peru.
"Cerrón would be at the top of the criminal organization," said superior prosecutor Rafael Vela, national coordinator of prosecutors specializing in money laundering, in a televised interview.
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Another prosecutor opened an investigation for money laundering in June - derived from investigations that another magistrate began in 2019 in the Junín region, where Cerrón was governor - and last Friday included in the file Bellido, Cerrón and his brother, the official Congressman Waldemar Cerrón.
The political party has also been charged.
Cerrón had the intention to appear in the elections, but the justice prevented him from doing so.
In his place, he placed the Castillo school teacher.
Critics argue that he is a kind of shadow ruler.
A 47-page document cites the keys to an investigation in which it is discovered that workers of the Junín regional government - linked to Peru Libre - were asking for bribes from citizens who processed driver's licenses and payments for appointments in jobs in the Condition. It is argued that the leaders of that formation used the money from these irregular charges in electoral campaigns and in the legal defense of Cerrón, who was sentenced in 2019 for corruption during his tenure as a regional authority. This case is known as
The dynamics of the center
.
The fiscal investigation against Bellido and the Cerrón brothers will last until October 2022. The prime minister has been included among those investigated because he was the highest ranking leader of the party in Cusco, but he was also one of the leaders who collected funds for Cerrón to pay the civil reparation that he owed to the State as part of his conviction for corruption.
Referring to the case, the superior prosecutor Vela argued on the RPP cable channel that Cerrón had committed “abuse of power in the exercise of public function to carry out illicit activities and seek financing for the campaign that would then allow him to become president of the Republic".
Guido Bellido, the new Prime Minister of Peru, poses for a portrait at the end of an interview with EL PAÍS in Lima, on August 4. Leslie Searles
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The whole case revolves around the hypothesis that the criminal organization was formed within "the political party", led by the neurosurgeon Cerrón - who founded the party in 2008 under another name - and served to "unduly finance the various party campaigns and finance the payments, services and expenses related to the different legal and judicial processes that the members of the alleged criminal organization may have.
The document details Cerrón's bank movements in recent years in which he has not been able to prove the origin of the money, including $ 300,000 (in soles) that he tried to withdraw from the financial system last month and that the Financial Intelligence Unit froze, due to his conviction for corruption.
Apt justice system
The investigator and former head of the extradition unit of the Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office, Yván Montoya, told this newspaper that although the investigation covers people who are in power, the justice system is going through a good time to face it.
"Prosecutors have autonomy of functions and the independence structures of the Prosecutor's Office are maintained because there has been a purge of the three most dangerous supreme prosecutors who interfered or disturbed (anti-corruption) processes in previous years," he said.
The lawyer alludes to three magistrates who were part of the corruption network of the justice system called Los
Colllos Blancos del Puerto
, dismissed in recent months. “This is a left-wing government, and with this fiscal investigation the population will confirm that corruption has no ideology. But there is also a public perception that this is a case of a regional court of a party that has just come to power. They do not associate President Castillo with these practices, ”explained attorney Montoya.
The tax investigation occurs in a context of criticism of the Government, because some high-level officials appointed are people from the Cerrón circle or the president, despite not having the training or experience for the positions.
The Cabinet must appear in Congress in the next few days to ask for a vote of confidence.
In case of being rejected by the congressmen, President Castillo must present at least another name to occupy the position of prime minister that Bellido now holds.
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