The problems presented in the delivery of material for the development of the 2026 General Elections in southern Lima continue to have consequences, especially in the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), which is questioned for not taking the necessary provisions to prevent more than 50 thousand people from not being able to vote at the time due to the fact that the voting tables were not installed in San Juan de Miraflores, Lurín and Pachacámac.
READ HERE: Galaga, the company accused by ONPE of delaying the delivery of voting material in southern Lima
Arrest of ONPE official
Just one day after resigning from the position of ONPE Electoral Management Manager due to the delay in the delivery of electoral material in Lima, José Samamé Blas was arrested in flagrante delicto this Monday by agents of the Anti-Corruption Directorate (Dircocor) of the Police for the “alleged crime of omission, refusal or delay of functional acts.” He was taken to the headquarters of the Institute of Legal Medicine and then transferred to the Depincri premises in Lima to carry out a series of procedures.
PNP sources indicated to The Commerce that Samamé will remain detained for 48 hours, the duration of flagrancy, and that it is an action carried out by the Police without the participation of the Public Ministry.
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José Samamé Blas was arrested because he was the one who requested the transportation service for the electoral material and established the terms of the contract that the ONPE signed on March 9 with Galaga, the company in charge of distributing the electoral material.
One of the main questions to the ONPE is that it signed the contract with Galaga despite the fact that, from 2020 to 2023, it had imposed three penalties, totaling more than 64 thousand soles, for breaches of contract and that it had not taken action in response to the warnings from the Comptroller’s Office.
The resignation
In a letter addressed to Piero Corvetto, head of the ONPE, Samamé assumes responsibility for the logistical failures presented during the electoral distribution and makes himself available for investigations.
“Given the events that occurred today (Sunday) and logistical failures, which have affected the normal deployment of electoral material in various voting locations in Lima, generating delays and inconveniences in the installation of voting tables, and being in charge of the management in charge of said distribution tasks, I recognize responsibility,” Samamé indicates in his resignation letter.
In this regard, the National Prosecutor, Tomás Gálvez, indicated that the Public Ministry is investigating the possible commission of the crime of collusion between ONPE officials and the Galaga company. However, he stressed that there was negligence.
“That will be determined with the investigation (whether or not there was an intention to affect the electoral process), but the alleged commission of the crime of collusion between ONPE officials and the company is already being investigated,” said Gálvez with the podcast ‘Always at 8’, hosted by journalist Milagros Leiva.
“The existence of an illegal agreement that could give rise to possible collusion is presumed. We cannot affirm or deny, that is being investigated. Now, if there has been total negligence, there has been,” he stated.
For its part, the National Jury of Nacional filed this Monday before the Provincial Corporate Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Lima, through its Public Prosecutor’s Office, a criminal complaint against the head of the ONPE, Piero Corvetto, as well as against three officials of said electoral entity and a representative of the Galaga company.
The strange complaints filed by the general manager of Galaga
Galaga’s general manager, Juan Charles Alvarado Pfuyo, has been involved in several police incidents. In some cases he has reported strange “losses” of license plates, as well as Sunat documents and vehicle ownership cards. Most cases occurred in San Juan de Lurigancho.
Alvarado Pfuyo reported at the San Juan de Lurigancho police station, on March 7, 2014, the “loss” of the license plate of his vehicle while he was traveling through block 6 of Gran Chimú Avenue.
Two years later, two workers reported that they were assaulted by a gang of criminals when they were moving through block 7 of Canto Grande Avenue. Alvarado Pfuyo was involved in the case because he was the representative of the company where the complainants worked.
This is the location of the Galaga company in San Juan de Lurigancho. (Photo: Mario Zapata/El Comercio)
Juan Alvarado reported, on November 23, 2016, at the San Juan de Lurigancho police station that his vehicle’s license plate was lost when he removed it because his windshield was damaged. Another strange event happened on December 10 of that same year, since, as reported, he lost a license plate from his truck when he was heading from the Puente Nuevo area to Wiese Avenue.
In November 2020, Alvarado Pfuyo indicated at a Cercado de Lima police station that when entering a restaurant, at the intersection of Av. Nicolás de Piérola and Jirón Ayacucho, he realized that he did not have his wallet, inside which was the ownership card for a vehicle. Just four days later, he also reported the loss of his wallet when he was traveling through the Mesa Redonda area and that inside the accessory were vehicle identification cards from two cars.
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The general manager of the Galaga company not only denounced the “loss” of filming plates, but also the loss of a Sunat guide, which occurred on March 3, 2023.
In addition, Juan Charles Alvarado Pfuyo was arrested on San Martín Avenue (San Juan de Lurigancho), on July 4, 2011, for driving a vehicle that did not have a permit to use darkened windows. Likewise, on July 22, 2016, there was a crash on Canto Grande Avenue, where two people were injured.
He also reported that, on October 15, 2019, one of his company’s trucks suffered an overturn after another unit blocked its path on the Yellow Line. Alvarado Pfuyo was also reported for allegedly hitting, on July 29, 2023, a motorcycle taxi driver for preventing his vehicle from entering his home, near bus stop 14 on Canto Grande Avenue, in San Juan de Lurigancho.
The defense of Galaga
Through a statement, Galaga tried to defend himself against the accusations launched by the ONPE. The company pointed out that the delays presented in the final stage of the electoral material distribution process “do not respond to contractual breaches” on its part, but rather “to factors beyond our operational responsibility.”
In this context, he rejected “any statement that seeks to exclusively attribute the difficulties presented to him,” as he assured that they respond to a “complex logistical process that involves multiple actors and shared responsibilities.”
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“Our company has strictly complied with all the obligations established in the terms of reference of the contracted service, which are duly supported and documented,” Galaga indicated in his statement.
“The transportation service was planned and executed in accordance with the requirements and schedules provided by the ONPE, depending at all times on the coordination, timely delivery and logistical conditions defined by the entity itself,” he added.
For this reason, Galaga asked the ONPE to issue “clarifications” and offer public apologies for the damage caused to its “institutional image.” He stressed that he handed over to the Police in the presence of the Public Ministry all the information regarding the contract with the electoral entity.
The Comptroller’s Office had alerted the ONPE about delays in the delivery of electoral material by Galaga
A possible impact on the transfer of material for the 2026 General Elections due to inefficiencies of the Galaga company was warned by the Comptroller’s Office after a visit to an ONPE premises last Friday.
Guzmán Vera, an official from the Comptroller’s Office, explained that it was found, during the visit to the ONPE premises, that the Galaga vehicles left several hours after the time they were scheduled, which was alerted to the electoral entity, but it responded that the issue was going to be regularized.
“Last Friday (the Comptroller’s Office) was set up to see how the electoral material was being distributed and there we already found some indications, for example, that the vehicles that were supposed to leave at 10 at night ended up leaving at 3 or 4 in the morning (on Saturday). So, those same activities were repeated to the point that the last vehicle that had left the Lurín headquarters had been at 6 in the morning (on Sunday), when it was supposed to leave at midnight on Saturday,” he said. the official.
“The ONPE was fully aware of the control report issued by the Comptroller’s Office on the possible contingencies that the contractual execution could generate. We currently see that there was improper programming, an inadequate execution of that contract that unfortunately has impacted the distribution of electoral material,” he added.
He also recalled that the ONPE was notified last March that, in accordance with the contract with the company, the offer that Galaga had presented had “certain inconsistencies that could impact the execution of the service.” In this context, El Comercio accessed a document from the Comptroller’s Office, dated March 24, in which it warned that the company had not proven that the drivers have the minimum experience of one year to drive van-type trucks.
