MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru: Congress Speaker to be removed?

“The Ethics Committee can only investigate me for my performance as a congressman, from 2021 onwards,” Soto argued

The new Speaker of Peru's one-house Congress, first in line to succeed President Dina Booluarte in case of vacancy, has stepped under the spotlight following a barrage of allegations linking him to cases of corruption.

In this scenario, leftwing Congressman Roberto Sánchez said Alejandro Soto's “hours are numbered.” Sánchez also warned things were getting worse and the alliance among the right-wing Fuerza Popular (FP), the left-wing Perú Libre (PL), and the center-right Alianza Para el Progreso (APP) that picked Soto for the post will remain strong.

Soto emerged at the end of July as the choice of FP and PL to preside over Congress, apparently because of his low profile. However, details about Soto that went first unnoticed began to appear. According to press reports, he has up to 55 judicial processes for different matters and things took a turn for the worse worse when it was revealed he withheld information from the National Jury of Elections (JNE), hired a sister-in-law as his assistant, and promoted a law that favored him in a personal litigation he has with a company that accuses him of swindling.

Transportes Wayna Picchu of Cusco bought a house in 2012 for US$ 265,000, with Soto -a company legal advisor by then- believed to be the middle-man when instead he was the owner of the property he had purchased from local peasants for only US$ 5,000. For this action, he was guilty of fraud and fined. However, the verdict was up in the air when Congress passed a law modifying the statute of limitations, which favored Soto. Now the press has documented that it was the beneficiary himself who promoted this law.

Regarding the nepotism allegations, Soto argued that the woman he hired was not his wife's sister, but the sister of a woman with whom he has just had a child in an “informal” relationship.

If Soto were to be dismissed, a new Speaker could be elected without removing the other members of the board. “The Board of Directors is responsible for who we have for Speaker. This list was formed based on an alliance and, in it, there are shared responsibilities,” according to MP Flor Pablo.

In this scenario, Soto announced Friday that he will make himself available to the Ethics Commission, after being accused of benefiting from Law 31751, which allowed him not to serve a sentence of eight years and eight months for swindling. “The Ethics Committee can only investigate me for my performance as a congressman, from 2021 onwards. It will not go back if a crime was prescribed or not, if I sold or not a piece of land of my property”, he said.

About having built a five-story house over an archeological zone in Cusco, Soto insisted the place was not protected. “These facts do not disqualify me to be a congressman, much less to be Speaker of Congress,” he said.