This is how they demonstrate in Peru to request the vacancy of Castillo 2:05
(CNN Spanish) --
The Congress of Peru invited President Pedro Castillo on March 28 to exercise his defense personally or through a lawyer against the vacancy motion filed against him by the opposition.
The summons was made after the Parliament approved this Monday with 76 votes in favor, 41 against and one abstention that the vacancy motion presented against the president be admitted for debate under the argument of "permanent moral incapacity".
Lawmakers are expected to debate the motion later that day and then vote on whether to accept or reject it.
To declare the vacancy of the presidency, 87 votes of the 130 congressmen that make up Parliament are required.
In his first reaction to the vote of the congressmen, Castillo said: “They just approved the vacancy motion with something like 53 votes, but we have to tell the country that we have come here not to steal a penny and that we will say here in parliament”.
Should Pedro Castillo resign?
This is what Peruvians say 1:36
How is the process of vacancy motions in Peru
Article 89 of the regulations of the Peruvian Congress establishes the stages that are part of a vacancy procedure: the first is to present the vacancy motion;
the second step is that the document is admitted to debate;
and, finally, agree on the day and time for the debate and subsequent vote on the request for vacancy.
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During the debate prior to the vote, Congressman Waldemar Cerrón, spokesman for Peru Libre, the ruling party, said: "Let's be more consistent with our country, let's be more consistent with ourselves, and let's stop being persecuted and not accept to a president who has been elected for 5 years.”
The motion is the second promoted by the opposition during the little more than seven months that Castillo has been in power.
The promoters of the vacancy motion base their request on twenty "objective facts" against the president.
Vacancy motion arguments against Castillo
The first foundation points out the alleged "contradictions and lies of President Castillo in the tax investigations."
The motion affirms that "the President of the Republic would have incurred in the crimes of procedural fraud and generic falsehood" and adds that Castillo changed his version before the prosecution: "President Pedro Castillo has ignored his own statements about the meetings he held with Mrs. Karelim López Arredondo at the Government Palace.
Thus, in an interview with CNN, he publicly declared that he had received her at the Government Palace on October 18, 2021. However, in the answers given to the prosecutor, he totally denies the fact, saying that "he cannot specify that there is such a meeting."
The opposition motion also argues as a reason the appointment of people it considers "more than questionable for various ministries", as well as the "existence of a parallel cabinet or shadow cabinet".
The opposition includes among its reasons Castillo's announced intention "to convene a referendum to give Bolivia access to the sea."
Speaking during an interview with CNN on January 24, although Castillo did not say that he was going to give Bolivia an outlet to the sea, he did say that he would put the issue to the consideration of Peruvians.
Days later, in statements to the newspaper La Noticia, the president referred to the issue again and said: "I expressed myself badly, I apologize to the Peruvian people."
Despite this, the then Foreign Minister Oscar Maurtua was summoned to Congress, where he stated that the "territorial transfer is constitutionally and politically impossible."
Castillo: I will call a consultation on access to the sea for Bolivia 3:38
The motion for vacancy also argues that the businesswoman Karelim López Arredondo "in her capacity as an aspiring effective collaborator, on February 18, revealed to the authorities of the Public Ministry that the President of the Republic would be the head of a criminal organization destined to benefit illicitly through contradictions and bids for directed works”.
As recently confirmed to CNN by a source from the Public Ministry of Peru, the information provided by López is part of a new process in the Specialized Prosecutor's Office for Money Laundering Crimes, which is kept in reserve and his statements would involve Castillo in alleged acts of corruption.
In a separate decision, Congress also agreed to the presence of President Castillo this Tuesday at 5 PM in plenary.
This Saturday, when it was already public that Congress would debate the admission of the vacancy motion, the president said through his Twitter account: "Using my constitutional right, I will attend Congress to give a message."
However, the president did not specify what the issue he would address would be.
During the debate this Monday on the vacancy motion, Congressman Jorge Montoya, from Renovación Popular, the bench that promoted this measure, pointed out that when he attended on Tuesday, the president could not refer to the vacancy procedure that is followed in the legislature: “ That presentation cannot contain any point that has to do with the vacancy or with the accusations made in it;
It is a separate topic, things cannot be confused.
The president has not had the adequate opportunity to present this visit communication to Congress to give a message, the date should have been after the end of this vacancy process.”
The first request for vacancy against Castillo was presented in November and did not reach enough votes to continue its process in the Legislative.
The Peruvian Constitution, in its article 113, contemplates that the presidency of the Republic is vacant for various reasons, including the "permanent moral incapacity" declared by Congress.