The Prosecutor’s Office of Peru requested this Tuesday the videos of the security cameras of the house that served as an electoral “bunker” of the President Pedro Castillo; where in recent weeks he allegedly held a series of meetings without official record that are the subject of investigation.
Pedro Castillo and his controversial meeting with Karelim López
The claimed videos correspond to November 19, 2021, the day the businesswoman Karelim López arrived at this property. She is the representative of a consortium that the Prosecutor’s Office suspects of having irregularly won the tender for the construction of a bridge. All, apparently thanks to the influence of the president.
The Prosecutor’s Office will focus on determining what López did during his brief stay in this house located in Pasaje Sarratea, in the popular district of Breña in Lima; and especially if he got to meet Castillo.
Although the president also arrived at the property that day, Castillo’s lawyer, Eduardo Pachas, maintains that the security cameras show that the president left the house before Karelim López arrived.
Facilitate the videos
Therefore, the prosecutor Karla Zecenarro, of the Fifth Office of the Second Provincial Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Crimes of Corruption of Officials of Lima, asked the owner of the house for all the videos of the security cameras, both external and internal.
During the tense electoral campaign, this address served as Castillo’s residence and also as his center of operations. There he held political meetings restricted to a very close circle of members of the Marxist Peru Libre party, with which the leftist won the presidential elections.
Three investigations against Pedro Castillo
This is one of the three cases in which the Attorney General, Zoraida Ávalos, opened investigations against Castillo last week. However, he suspended any diligence on understanding that the Constitution prevents him from doing so due to the immunity enjoyed by the head of state.
The other two cases are about alleged irregularities in a tender by the state oil company Petroperú for the acquisition of biodiesel for a value of 74 million dollars; and alleged pressure to irregularly promote military personnel close to the president.
Although the National Prosecutor has suspended its proceedings on the president – who is accused of the alleged crimes of influence peddling, illegal sponsorship and collusion – other prosecutors such as Zecenarro can advance their investigations on the other implicated who do not have immunity .
Thus, searches and raids have already been carried out on the home of former Secretary of the Government Palace, Bruno Pacheco. In the bathroom of his office at the headquarters of the Executive, $ 20,000 in cash was found hidden from him, which he attributed to “personal savings.”
Given these investigations, Castillo denies any illegality. But his lawyer insists that he cannot publish the list of people he met at Breña’s home because there is no record.
Half year of mandate
Castillo is heading into his sixth month in office, a period marked by uncertainty and fierce opposition from the Peruvian right.
In just that time, he made a frustrated first attempt to remove him from power through a presidential impeachment motion that was unsuccessful in December.