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The Prosecutor's Office of Peru opens the sixth corruption investigation against Pedro Castillo

2022-08-11T17:09:27.365Z


The new case, for alleged fraud in the award of works, hits the president one day after the arrest of his sister-in-law


Peruvian President Pedro Castillo on Wednesday during a public act at the Government Palace in Lima.Juan Carlos Guzman Negrini (EFE)

Peru's attorney general has opened a new investigation, the sixth, against President Pedro Castillo.

The accusation points to the president for corruption in the alleged awards of public works in the regions of Cajamarca and Lima.

The investigation also points to the Minister of Transport, Geiner Alvarado, one of the few that Castillo has been able to keep in his cabinet since the beginning of his Government, for acts in which he participated as head of Housing, a position he held since July of last year. until last Friday.

The sixth corruption investigation that threatens Castillo after his first year in office indicates that the president awarded "fraudulent tenders" in public works for almost 30 million dollars.

Most of the 28 works were approved for the province of Chota – where Castillo is from – and the province of Cajatambo, in Lima.

This sixth investigation is related to the arrest, on Wednesday, of Yenifer Paredes, the president's sister-in-law, who is being questioned by the authorities within the same investigation.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, Castillo is the head of the criminal organization that colluded to deliver public works to companies close to his family.

The leaders of the plot would be Minister Alvarado and the district mayor of Anguia, José Medina, a close friend of the president.

Alvarado is one of the four ministers who has survived since the first cabinet installed by Castillo at the beginning of his Government in July 2021. The crisis facing the management of the former rural teacher can be exemplified in the very high turnover of his team: Castillo has had seven interior ministers.

The judicial resolution that on Tuesday, at the request of a prosecutor, authorized the arrest of Castillo's sister-in-law, the mayor of Anguía and the brothers Hugo and Anggi Espino –owners of handpicked companies for public works–, indicated that the inclusion de Castillo and Alvarado in the investigation depended on the attorney general, due to their status as appraised.

The president's sister-in-law worked last year in Hugo Espino's company and did professional internships in the Municipality of Anguía, under the management of the detained mayor Medina.

In addition, prosecutors and a special team of intelligence police have found deposits of money made by two other brothers of Castillo's wife, Lilia Paredes, to the accounts of the Espino brothers in the days around the award of public works.

According to the hypothesis of the team that investigates Castillo, "some companies were instrumentalized to obtain the good pro of public works for huge sums of money, despite not having the requirements required by law in order to obtain it, but, having the control of the appointments and the state apparatus, these were directed” in favor of those firms.

On Wednesday night, after the president's sister-in-law turned herself in to the Public Ministry after a day of unknown whereabouts, Castillo and three ministers met for several hours with neighborhood leaders and organizations to show some support.

The president assumes that the accusations of corruption are attacks by his political enemies.

“They are not going to break me,” Castillo said after commenting that his sister-in-law was spending the night on the floor of a police station.

José Dionisio, the lawyer for the sister of the first lady, informed the press that her client had been infected with covid-19.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-08-11

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