The Subcommittee of Constitutional Accusations of the Parliament has approved a report, which will now pass to the Permanent Commission, in which it advises to constitutionally accuse the president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, for treason.
The report has been approved by the minimum – 11 votes in favor and ten against – by a subcommittee headed by the former president of the Parliament Lady Camones and where although the allies of the fujimorismo are the majority, they have required the votes in favor of other formations such as Alianza para el Progreso or Somos Perú.
The resolution of the Subcommission of Constitutional Accusations has concluded that Castillo should be disqualified for five years from any public office after allegedly having committed the crimes of treason and having violated the Constitution by talking about granting Bolivia a possible exit to the sea, according to ‘La República’.
For his part, the president has responded to the results of this sub-commission assuring that he is not «intimidated». «We are not intimidated. We are here for the country, because the citizen comes first,» he said.
Likewise, the head of state called on the Congress of the Republic to «act looking at the Peruvian people», and not so much to the particular feelings of some people, according to local radio station RPP.
Now, once the subcommittee has taken the first step to disqualify Castillo, the report will be evaluated by the Permanent Commission and, in case the matter is also approved, it will be finally the Plenary of the Congress of the Republic who will have the last word.
President Castillo would thus face a possible accusation of treason, which would be the culmination of an innumerable list of complaints and incriminations against the president in the little more than 16 months he has been at the helm of Peru.
In this time, the head of state has not only seen himself accused of different crimes, mostly for alleged corruption, but has also spent much of his time appointing new ministers and up to four prime ministers in a remarkably tense political context.
The disqualification requires 66 votes, subtracting the members of the aforementioned Permanent Commission. The Peruvian press has warned that, based on the parliamentary arithmetic already shown in previous occasions, it is possible that the opposition has the numbers in its favor.
