Last Wednesday, December 7, Pedro Castillo He was the protagonist of a limit momentof those in which, depending on the result, someone’s life will take a 180 degree turn: the announcement of a coup as a result of a forced closure of the Congress of the republic, which ended up being the final blow to his presidential adventure. After that, in a matter of hours, he lost his position as head of state, his freedom and contact with his family. The chance to say goodbye to loved ones it became a luxury for whom only a year ago he was preparing to celebrate his first Christmas in government palace.
The celebration of Christmas Eve 2022 for Pedro Castillo it was a moment in solitude in his cell at the Barbadillo prison, where he is serving the 18-month pretrial detention imposed by the supreme judge Juan Carlos Checkley. A place that begins to collect a certain tradition of hosting former dictators or those who tried to put on that costume in their worst quarter of an hour. The former president also spent his Christmas here Alberto Fujimorisentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
Pedro Castillo’s family
At the family level, Terrones Castle he spent this year-end date away from his family. the former first lady lilia paredes It is located in Mexico, protected under the cloak of a political asylum granted by the Government of Manuel Lopez Obrador for her and her two minor children.
The expelled Mexican ambassador, Paul Monroy, spoke —from Mexico— on the situation of Lilia Paredes. She warned that he Political asylum granted “has broad effects”. In addition, he alerted the Peruvian authorities that, “if for Mexico it is a political crime (for which it is intended to judge lilia paredes), then the Peruvian State has to accept it that way.” And he recalled that the prosecution against the wife of Pedro Castillo is still in the investigation stage.
The Government of Mexico relies on the Caracas Conventionsigned in 1964, to have granted asylum to Navarro Walls and his sons. In that document it was established that he could not be granted asylum “to people who are accused of a crime or who are sentenced”, but this is not the case of lilia paredesagainst whom there was a measure of appearance with restrictions, which was annulled by the Power of attorney the same day that Peru decided to expel from the national territory Paul Monroy.
Pedro Castillo’s lawyers
Since he left the presidency of the Republic, Pedro Castillo had 8 different lawyers. His first legal representative was the former president of the Council of Ministers Hannibal Torres, who accompanied him during his first hours as a detainee at the headquarters of the Cercado de Lima Prefecture. He was present when the prosecutors led by the head of the Public ministry, Patricia Benavides, to inform the former president of the details of his arrest. He accompanied him throughout the legal process and in the helicopter when he was transferred —during the night of Wednesday the 7th— to Diroes.
As well as Aníbal Torres, lawyers joined the legal defense of the former president Wilfredo Robles Rivera y Victor Perez Liendo. Days later she appeared Miguel Perez Arroyoex-lawyer for Alberto Fujimori before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I/A Court HR), and the lawyer Maria Esther Adriano Guzman as his lawyers, but the former resigned and told that made the decision after being the victim of direct attacks by his closest circle.
Given the imminent request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for preventive detention against Pedro Castillothe lawyers Raul Noblecilla y Ronald Atencioboth characters close to the congressman Guillermo BermejoThey took up their defense. They decided not to participate in the hearing. as a strategy to question the process, for which the public defender Ítalo Díaz had to take charge, but they finally lost before the room presided over by the judge Checkley and the result was 18 months of pretrial detention against the former head of state, who is serving them in the Barbadillo prison.