MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peruvian opposition lawmakers fail by far to impeach Castillo

All the opposition had against him were “speculations, imaginary connections without support in the facts,” Castillo argued

Peru's President Pedro Castillo Terrones Monday averted impeachment after the opposition lawmakers who wanted him ousted failed by far to reach the 87 votes needed.

With 55 votes in favor of Castillo's dismissal, 54 against, and 19 abstentions, the motion to vacate the presidency was nowhere near its approval. It was the second parliamentarian attempt to remove Castillo from office, this time around citing “moral incapacity.”
“Let's hope that today this page is closed,” Castillo told Peru's single-house Parliament after more than 6 hours of debate.

Castillo first spoke to the Congressional plenum. He said he felt calm and that he has no “attachment to power.” Then he left his lawyer José Palomino Manchego to exercise his defense.

After that, lawmakers began delivering their speeches until Vivian Olivos, of the opposition Fuerza Popular, hung a sign on her seat with the message ”Vacancia Ya! (impeachment now!).

Castillo insisted the motion against him was unsubstantiated and made up of a “compilation of versions from a sector of the press.”

“The vacancy motion promoted is for the cause of permanent moral incapacity. Everyone knows that it does not contain a single element that validly supports it. It is a compilation of versions of a sector of the press. We only find statements, without any corroboration, speculations, imaginary connections and without support in the facts,” he pointed out.

After that, Castillo was applauded by lawmakers from the ruling party.

The opposition claimed Castillo had incurred in a permanent moral incapacity, which is among the possible reasons for vacancy established in Article 113 of the Constitution. However, the Constitution does not specify what “moral or physical incapacity” consists of, as stated in Article 113, so the interpretation of this cause is left to Congress.

Meanwhile, Peruvian Prosecutors ordered Monday the preliminary detention for ten days of 11 people under investigation for alleged corruption, including former Presidential aide Bruno Pacheco and two nephews of Castillo's.

Assistant State Attorney Karla Zecenarro oversaw the police raid, which included the search, seizure, as well as lifting of the secrecy of communications, against 11 people involved in the alleged criminal network within the Transport Ministry.

Pacheco is charged with influence peddling and criminal organization, while Fray Vásquez Castillo and Gian Marco Castillo, nephews of the president, are believed to have been primary accomplices of the crime of aggravated collusion and alleged perpetrators of the crime of criminal organization.

During the operation across 13 properties in several districts of Lima and Callao, various businessmen were arrested for their alleged involvement in acts of corruption in the bidding process for the construction of the Tarata bridge over the Huallaga River, in the jungle region of San Martin.

“In the course of the investigations carried out by the Public Prosecutor's Office, a series of irregularities have been identified in said tender, in which the members of the selection committee, the representatives of the consortium, the companies linked to it and the investigated Bruno Pachecho and Karelim López would have been involved, which would have had the purpose of favoring the winning consortium,” added the Public Prosecutor's Office in its statement.