It was not necessary to be a seasoned political analyst to predict that the victory of the leftist Pedro Castillo a little over a year ago was not going to end the instability that Peru has been experiencing for five years. Justice puts the president on the ropes again, after the attorney general, Patricia Benavides, presented a "constitutional complaint" against Castillo for corruption on Tuesday before Congress.
The public ministry accuses the president of leading a criminal organization, committing influence peddling and fraud. “We have found very serious and revealing indications of the existence of an alleged criminal organization entrenched in the Government with the purpose of capturing, controlling and directing the contracting processes in the different levels of the State to obtain illicit profits; organization presumably led by the President of the Republic”, affirmed Benavides – who took office three months ago – in an energetic speech broadcast in a video where she appeared surrounded by her assistants.
"The constitutional complaint is expressed in the discovery of obtaining economic benefits for appointments to key positions, in the collection of percentages of illicitly obtained tenders and the illicit use of presidential powers," added Benavides, who took advantage of the video to denounce "the constant and ferocious obstruction of justice" exercised by Castillo and his government, as well as the "permanent intimidation against me and my family."
After the complaint, the president offered a press conference for international media correspondents in which national journalists were not allowed to enter, where he denied the accusations and denounced that "the execution of a form of coup d'état has begun in the Peru". Without expressly mentioning it, Castillo framed the action of the Prosecutor's Office in the lawfare or judicial persecution that other Latin American progressive leaders have denounced in recent years, such as the Brazilian Lula da Silva, the Argentine Cristina Fernández de Kirchner or the Ecuadorian Rafael Correa. “They are not going to intimidate us, we are here stronger than ever, not only to consolidate democracy in Peru, but also to consolidate our solidarity with other communities, with other countries, because it is a government that is born of the people, we owe ourselves to this and we have to continue working”, declared the president.
In an act with trade unionists, the same Tuesday, Castillo stated: “If my blood has to run down the street for the benefit of this town, I have to do it. And if I have to give my life, I'm going to do it”.
The accusation of the Prosecutor's Office also affects other politicians close to Castillo, such as the former Minister of Transport, Juan Silva Villegas - who is a fugitive - and the former head of Housing, Geiner Alvarado, whose residences were searched on Tuesday, as well as that of the sister of the president, Gloria Castillo, or that of six deputies from the centrist Popular Action party whom Benavides accuses of obtaining perquisites in exchange for voting in favor of the government's proposals.
The ball is now in the unicameral parliament. The complaint must go through a subcommission and a commission before reaching the plenary session of Congress, which could decide to open an impeachment. Castillo does not have a majority in the legislature but has already overcome two impeachment attempts since he took office in July 2021, since the vote requires two-thirds of the seats.
In addition, the president has six criminal investigations open and Congress denied him last week the mandatory authorization to leave the country, since this week he planned to visit the EU authorities in Brussels and Pope Francis in the Vatican. A tour that is finally carried out by the Foreign Minister, César Landa.
A teacher and ultra-leftist and anti-establishment trade unionist, Castillo won the elections by just 44,000 votes over the ultra-rightist Keiko Fujimori. Since then he has faced fierce political and judicial opposition, as the ruler of an ungovernable country: all the presidents in Peru's recent history have been involved in judicial proceedings for corruption, which have led to their dismissal, imprisonment, flight from the country or even the suicide of one of them, Alan García, in 2019.
