The president of Peru’s Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola, testified Monday before the Public Prosecutor’s Office in an investigation into the deaths of at least 40 demonstrators in the recent wave of violence unleashed after the ouster of President Pedro Castillo.
Otárola and the new president, Dina Boluarte, and the ministers of Interior, Víctor Rojas – later replaced by Vicente Romero – and Defense, Jorge Chávez, are being investigated for the alleged crime of genocide, aggravated homicide and serious injuries.
Also under investigation are Pedro Angulo as former president of the Council of Ministers and Cesar Cervantes as former Minister of the Interior, according to Peruvian radio station RPP.
The preliminary investigation is for the alleged crimes of genocide, aggravated homicide and serious injuries, committed during the demonstrations of December 2022 and January 2023 in Apurímac, La Libertad, Puno, Junín, Arequipa and Ayacucho.
Otárola has previously emphasized that the Government has provided all the facilities to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for this investigation and has requested the same celerity in this process as in those opened against those responsible for violent acts and protests.
«We would simply like that also with the same haste the National Public Prosecutor’s Office says what fiscal folders exist regarding the people who are destroying Peru and destroying the airports,» he said, as reported by RPP.
On the other hand, the Minister of the Interior, Vicente Romero, will appear before Parliament at the request of Congresswomen Flor Pablo and Katy Ugarte, who presented motions to ask for explanations for the police assault on the University of San Marcos in Lima, which resulted in almost 200 arrests on Saturday.
Romero has indicated that he will go to the plenary session of Congress to give explanations of the police operation in an interview with the radio station Exitosa, although for the moment he has not received the pertinent invitation.
«Delighted (to go to Congress). Formally, I have not been notified, but I am willing to go to be able to clarify this. I will gladly go. It is my political responsibility and I have to attend. As many times as I am summoned I have to go because it is a space where I have to make all the details known to the political groups,» he said.
Flor Pablo asked the minister to appear «immediately» and report on an intervention in which «an excessive use of force was made without respecting the constitutional principles of proportionality, reasonableness and necessity, even preventing the entry of volunteer lawyers who demanded to enter to protect the rights of those intervened».
Romero has assured that he found out about the police intervention through television and has rejected that it was President Boluarte who ordered the entry. «There was no political decision because that was a decision that the police had made. I found out about it when I was watching the intervention on television. They did it for flagrante delicto,» he emphasized.
Meanwhile, protests continue in various parts of Peru with 74 road blockades in at least ten regions, according to data from the Superintendence of Land Transportation of People, Cargo and Goods (SUTRAN). The agency reports 18 national roads affected.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
