The Congress of Peru, dominated by the right, refused this Thursday (08.04.2022) to authorize the leftist president Pedro Castillo to leave the country to attend the inauguration of Gustavo Petro as president of Colombia on August 7.
The permission requested by Castillo received 67 votes against, 42 in favor and 5 abstentions during the plenary session broadcast by the parliament’s television channel.
It is the first time in the last three decades that at least one head of state sees his expectation of traveling on an official mission frustrated.
Among the legislators, it was alleged that the Peruvian president faces a record of five fiscal investigations for alleged corruption, an unprecedented situation in Peru for an incumbent president.
Castillo lamented in a tweet the “unusual and arrogant” decision of Congress. “From the Executive we have always respected the independence of the powers of the State. I regret that, in an unusual and arrogant way, Congress prevents me from attending an international protocol act,” the president wrote on his official Twitter account.
Castillo went before the Prosecutor’s Office
Castillo reiterated his innocence this Thursday before the attorney general, Patricia Benavides, who summoned him to testify about his alleged interference in military and police promotions as part of one of the five preliminary investigations that are open against him.
The president went this morning, almost by surprise, to the headquarters of the Public Ministry in the center of Lima, after his most mediatic lawyer, Benji Espinoza, assured yesterday that his client would not attend the prosecutor’s office due to disagreements about the place of interrogation. .
Minutes before the appointment, however, the president justified on Twitter that, despite his “right to testify at the Government Palace,” he decided to “defend his innocence and always collaborate with justice.”
The president had requested permission to leave the national territory from August 6 to 8.
According to the Peruvian left-wing government, the presence of the Peruvian president in Colombia would strengthen the historic ties of brotherhood and cooperation between the two countries.
According to Peruvian law, the President of the Republic needs authorization from Congress every time he wishes to travel abroad.
jc (afp, El Comercio, The Republic)