What is missing for the vacancy process against Castillo?
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(CNN Spanish) --
The president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, denounced this Tuesday an alleged coup attempt allegedly inspired by the Public Ministry, hours after the Nation's prosecutor, Patricia Benavides, filed a constitutional complaint in his against before the Congress of the Republic.
“Today (Tuesday), in the morning hours, the execution of a new form of coup d'état has begun in Peru, a coup d'état with scripts created using the Public Ministry politically and making the country believe that my person leads a criminal network, which I strongly reject,” said the president at a conference to the foreign press at the Government Palace.
What does the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office accuse Pedro Castillo of and what do we know about the crisis in Peru?
The president cannot be criminally charged while in office, according to the constitution.
The complaint seeks to suspend the president from his functions and to be able to make him available to justice so that the investigations of the Prosecutor's Office continue and eventually be tried by the Supreme Court.
The Prosecutor's Office has opened six investigations against Castillo, five of them for alleged acts of corruption committed during his government.
The president has repeatedly denied these allegations.
It is the first time that a prosecutor of the Nation presents a constitutional complaint against an acting president.
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Two hours before the president's pronouncement, in a public message, the National Prosecutor denounced that she had found "very serious and revealing indications of the existence of an alleged criminal organization entrenched in the government with the purpose of taking over, controlling and directing the processes of hiring in the different levels of the State to obtain illicit profits, an organization presumably led by the President of the Republic, (Pedro) Castillo Terrones.”
What crimes does the complaint allege?
The constitutional complaint was filed for the alleged crimes of criminal organization, influence peddling and collusion, which the president would have committed in the cases known as the Ministry of Transport and Communications or Tarata Bridge;
Petroperu;
and Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation.
That is, three of the six cases for which the president has been investigated by the National Prosecutor's Office since the beginning of the year.
The complaint filed before Congress "is based on obtaining economic benefits for appointments to key positions, on the collection of percentages for illicitly obtained tenders and the illicit use of presidential powers," the Public Ministry maintains on its Twitter account. .
Who else does this constitutional complaint include?
The complaint includes former ministers Juan Silva and Geiner Alvarado, who, according to tax theory, would be part of an alleged criminal organization led by the president.
Silva, who is being investigated and has an arrest warrant against him, is a fugitive.
While Alvarado, also investigated, has attended the tax summons and has denied the accusations against him.
What is a constitutional complaint?
Through the constitutional complaint, two processes are carried out in parliament: the impeachment trial for committing a crime and the impeachment trial for constitutional infraction.
The purpose of the preliminary hearing is to suspend the public official from office to bring him to justice, while the political trial can determine the suspension of the position or the dismissal and disqualification for up to 10 years.
In this case, the Prosecutor's Office seeks political impeachment, according to the complaint filed with Congress and to which CNN had access.
Constitutional lawyer Aníbal Quiroga explained to CNN that the President of the Republic is protected by article 117 of the Peruvian Constitution —which only allows the president to be accused of four crimes, including treason—, but this does not he should allow Castillo to "hide behind him."
Congress of Peru (Credit: TV PERU)
Quiroga pointed out that "in the Peruvian legal world there is consensus that article 117 is a protection for the presidential investiture, but not a parapet to avoid serious accusations of proven crimes."
The Prosecutor's Office, he added, has files or accusations against the President of the Republic and his entourage for alleged crimes of corruption.
“The question is whether (article) 117 supports this stopping until 2026 or whether it can be overcome.
The opinion is growing that (article) 117 is a barrier to avoid harming the President of the Republic for political reasons, but not for reasons of impunity”, he added.
The National Prosecutor said in her message on Tuesday that it is the “exclusive and exclusive responsibility” of the Congress of the Republic to decide on the processing of the constitutional complaint within the framework of the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
So, it is up to Congress to decide, through the votes, whether this complaint against Pedro Castillo proceeds or not.
CorruptionCoup d'étatPedro Castillo
