Peru: audios of the president of Congress that reveal the possible dismissal of Pedro Castillo are made public

A new political controversy has been generated in Peru, after some audios between the president of the Congress, Lady Camones, and the leader of the Alliance Party for Progress (APP), César Acuña, were made public.

The audios, which were published by Epicenter TV, are part of a party meeting, to which Camones also belongs to; which was convened as an urgency by Acuña.

In a first audio – published last Friday – Acuña demands that the head of the Parliament prioritize a bill that would benefit his candidacy for the Regional Government of La Libertad, in the elections that will take place next October. Specifically, he asks Camones to get the Decentralization Commission of Congress to schedule and approve in the plenary the opinion so that the community of Alto Trujillo becomes a district.

«Right now we are agreeing to the agenda with the strategy to help me […] that Alto Trujillo project will favor me, if we accelerate that; This week, the Decentralization Commission will bring out its opinion and next week it enters the plenary, and the next one, Lady goes delivers the law to Trujillo”, Acuña is heard saying.

The APP president adds that «Lady can speak» and demand that they take that project forward; and indicates to the other parliamentarians of his bench: «This week, this is the task for you all».

«It’s political. The Alto Trujillo project is the dream of 30 years ago. You know that it has 120,000 voters, which is more than El Porvernir and right now the Executive has already sent the bill, that is, the ball is in our court now”, added Acuña.

In a second audio, which was published by the same media on Saturday, there is talk of «a commitment» of the APP parliamentary bench to support a possible vacancy motion against the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo.

«There has to be a commitment from the bench that when we already have the agreement of all, of the 87, we are going to ask for the vacancy (motion)», said Acuña.

Another of the topics discussed is a possible advance of the elections. In this regard, Camones is heard to say: «The advance of the elections is not the quickest solution, because in a month or two, Castillo falls and with him, possibly, we also fall».»Nothing illegal»

After the audios were made public, Camones said that, in her opinion, «there is nothing illegal», because it was a bench coordination, which tries to «do things well inside the Congress».

«Again for me it is difficult to have to face this situation and be a victim of the ‘leak’ of an audio, that all it does is violate my right to privacy. That audio does not reflect any act of corruption and therefore I will always be with my head held high because they will never have an audio that reflects corruption”, said Camones.

Meanwhile, APP accused Congresswoman Heidy Juárez for having been responsible for ‘leaking’ the audio and expelled her from the party, after an evaluation carried out by the National Political Committee of the Movement.

«This decision, firm and irrevocable, has been adopted after the result of the technical analysis of the audio, illegally recorded and disseminated, of a meeting of the parliamentary group with the authorities of the political organization. As a party, we have reached the irrefutable conclusion that it has been you who recorded the audio in question”, says a letter sent to the congresswoman, which has been published by local media.

It is also mentioned that the parliamentarian went to the Governmental Palace on the day the recording was broadcasted.

In response, Juarez described as «unfair» the accusations against her by the party, in which she has been a militant since 2010.

«I flatly reject responsibility for recording and ‘leaking’ what occurred in the meeting», she said in a statement published on her Twitter account, in which she also said that she has not had access to the analysis that was carried out to determine her link with the recorded material.

Regarding her assistance to the Governmental Palace, she clarified that the visit was coordinated by the parliamentary block of the Piura region, represented by congresswoman Cruz María Zeta Chunga, «in order to address the citizen petition of the Piura population, that for years has been demanding the construction of a high complexity hospital».

She explained that, in addition to them, the Congressmen Manuel García Correa and Miguel Ciccia Vásquez also attended the headquarters of the Executive, as well as the regional governor of Piura, Servando García Correa.

The parliamentarian announced that she will adopt the legal measures that correspond to clear her «good name».
The Prosecutor’s office receives an official request

The president of the Council of Ministers, Aníbal Torres, spoke about the ‘leak’ of the audio, noting that he hopes that the board of directors of the Congress, headed by Camones, will step aside.

«In the first part of this conversation that the president of the Congress, the other congressmen who accompanied her and the candidate César Acuña had, they carried out an activity that can be identified as a crime. We have been waiting for the Prosecutor’s Office to react as they have done with other cases”, said Torre at a press conference that he provided with the government ministers.

For its part, the Parliamentary bench of Perú Libre issued a statement in which it requested that the Prosecutor’ office initiate an investigation in this regard against Camones.

«Faced with these facts, we expect the immediate action of the Public Ministry, in order to initiate investigations to determine the crimes that are been committed. We hope that its reaction will be rapid and forceful, because if not, it will be obvious  the double standard and the disrespect to the principle of equality under the law  of this State institution so as to only harm the Executive power», says the text, referring to the investigations against the president of the nation.

Perú Libre also states that they will support the measures taken inside the Congress to sanction Camones.