The Chamber of Deputies This Tuesday, the 10th, he rejected the constitutional accusation against the former president Pedro Castillo for the alleged crimes of illegal sponsorship, abuse of authority and passive bribery, related to irregularities in the promotions of officers of the Armed Forces and the National Police during his government.
The impeachment obtained 54 votes in favor, but needed at least 66 to be approved. The vote also recorded 43 votes against and 11 abstentions.
The votes in favor came mainly from the benches of Popular ForcePopular Renewal and the Good Government Party. Meanwhile, Together for Peru and Works They voted against, while the deputies of Ahora Nación abstained.
This was the vote on the board. The votes in favor of Edwin Espinoza and Milagros Santana, both from the Good Government Party, must be added.
Sources from El Comercio indicated that there were discrepancies within the Good Government Party. Although the majority of its members agreed to support the accusation, a group of parliamentarians, including the bench’s spokesperson, Nery Fernández, preferred to vote by abstention. Finally, the bloc aligned itself with the majority decision.
The report that recommended charging Castillo was based on a constitutional complaint filed in August 2023 by Patricia Benavides, then the nation’s attorney.
In November 2021, a report from El Comercio revealed that the former deputy commander general of the PNP Javier Bueno Victoriano denounced that there were irregularities in the process of promotion to generals of arms and services. Two months later, in January 2022, Bueno reiterated his complaint in PBO and indicated that the former secretary general of the presidency Bruno Pacheco also played a leading role in the process.
In December 2022, retired PNP colonels Manuel Mar Pérez and Ángel Merino Céspedes testified before the Public Ministry and indicated that, despite occupying positions 16 and 23 in the merit table for promotion to the rank of general – which included 23 vacancies – their names were excluded from the proposal sent to then-President Castillo.
Benavides’ complaint before Congress also included former Defense Minister Walter Ayala, who was attributed with the alleged commission of the crimes of abuse of authority, generic active bribery and aggravated influence peddling. However, the Chamber of Deputies also rejected the accusation against him and ordered its archive.
Currently, Ayala serves as senior advisor to Together for Peru Senator José Castillo, brother of former President Pedro Castillo.
The report against Castillo and Ayala sought to lift the immunity of both so that the Public Ministry could advance with the investigations. The document had been prepared by the previous Congress.
Deputy Daniel Varas, from Together for Peru and president of the Constitutional Accusations Commission, presented the report to the plenary session. During his presentation, he highlighted that the document had been processed by the previous Parliament. And at the time of the vote, he spoke out against the accusation.
Castillo participated in the session virtually, from the Barbadillo prison, where he is serving a sentence for the coup d’état of December 7, 2022.
The former president denied the accusations against him. “There was a promotion evaluation process. I didn’t know any of them, I didn’t receive anyone who touched my table to say that I needed to be promoted. That would be not only a mistake, but also going against the norm itself,” he said.
Minutes earlier, lawyer Hugo Yataco had assumed Castillo’s defense before the plenary session of the Chamber of Deputies. During his intervention, he pointed out that the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations of the previous Parliament did not adequately assess the elements of conviction.
During the debate, deputy Javier Cipriani, from Renovación Popular, maintained that “promotions are earned with merit, sacrifice and honor, they are not bought with money or negotiated with political power.”
“It seems that Pedro Castillo confused the Palace with a placement agency, where those recommended had a better opportunity than those who prepare a lifetime to defend the country,” added Cipriani, who voted in favor of the accusation.
For his part, deputy Luis Quispe, from the Good Government Party, asked his colleagues to vote responsibly.
“There is no animosity against Mr. Pedro Castillo or against Mr. Walter Ayala. He (Castillo), as a person, deserves all our respect, but afterwards, we are actors responsible for our actions,” he said. Quispe also voted in favor of the impeachment.
With the rejection of the accusation in the Chamber of Deputies, the procedure was concluded in this instance and the case will not be submitted to the Senate.
