Police raided the private home of Peruvian President Pedro Castillo on Wednesday (August 10th), local media reported, looking for his sister-in-law who is facing an arrest warrant for alleged corruption.
The Peruvian president himself is the subject of five investigations, in particular for corruption but it is distinct from that involving his sister-in-law.
Footage broadcast on several television channels showed police officers entering President Castillo's home on Wednesday in Chugur, in the Cajamarca region, 800 km north of Lima.
The prosecutor's office, contacted by AFP, made no comment.
Pedro Castillo, at a public event in Lima on Wednesday, simply said, “
they just entered my house
”.
No footage showed Yenifer Paredes being arrested when officers left Pedro Castillo's residence, suggesting the president's sister-in-law was not there.
"
Illegal Raid
"
This police raid comes the day after an unprecedented police raid on the grounds of the presidential palace in Lima to arrest Yenifer Paredes.
On Tuesday, the Superior Court of Justice authorized the prosecutor's search request because Yenifer Paredes, who considers Pedro Castillo and his wife as his "
parents
", indicated three addresses on his official documents.
Yenifer Paredes had already been summoned to testify before the public prosecutor and appear before a control commission of the Peruvian Parliament in mid-July.
President Castillo, in office for a year, had castigated Tuesday evening an "
illegal raid
" aimed, according to him, to remove him from power and carried out with the complicity of the right-wing opposition in the unicameral Parliament.
"
Today, the government palace and the presidential palace have been violated once again by an illegal raid endorsed by a judge, at the very moment when they ask for my disqualification for five years in order to deprive the Peruvian people of their legitimate government
said Castillo, a 52-year-old ex-rural teacher and trade unionist.
Pedro Castillo has already faced two attempts to impeach him by Parliament and was credited by an Ipsos poll in July with 74% unfavorable opinions in his management of the country which has seen three Prime Ministers and seven Interior Ministers succeed in just over a year.