The president of the Congress of Peru, María del Carmen Alva, assured last year that President Pedro Castillo would be removed, but the legislators would be kept in their positions, according to an audio leaked this Friday (3) on the networks.
“We are only going to take out the president”, says Alva in the audio, whose authenticity was confirmed by the president of the Legislature herself in a press conference in which she denounced having been the victim of a telephone intercept.
In the opinion of the parliamentary leader, this audio was intentionally leaked to cover up another alleged scandal in which the Peruvian president was involved.
In the audio, which Alva claimed was from September or October of last year, just two months after Castillo took office, the parliamentarian rejects the approach made by an unidentified woman that the Peruvian vice president, Dina Boluarte, should be removed first.
“There is a big difference, people are with us, they are with Cong Resso, they are not with Castillo, we are a thousand times higher”, he added, referring to the preferences of citizens who since last year have shown great dissatisfaction with both the Executive and the Congress, according to surveys.
Alva, who is one of Castillo’s most notorious opponents, then said that a group of constitutionalists told him that, if the ruler were removed, only presidential elections should be called and that the president of the Constitution Commission, the Fujimorist Patricia Juárez, had already had a project in this sense.
“If circumstances arise, that I have to assume (the Peruvian presidency) and call (elections) in six or eight months, I do it as president of Congress, I won’t be a congressman again, I won’t stay or leave”, declares Alva in the leaked audio.
At this Friday’s press conference, the president of the Legislature assured that “there was no plan” to move away from Castillo and that I was just explaining the article 115 of the Constitution, which indicates that the president can be replaced by his vice “due to temporary or permanent impediment” and that, if both are impeded, the position is assumed by the president of Congress.
“If the impediment is permanent, the president of Congress immediately calls for elections”, he added.
In this sense, Alva commented this Friday that, at the time, he considered that Congress should remain until the end of his term, in 2026, but who now believes that, “if any problem occurs”, general elections would have to be called.
“If Castillo leaves all If we have to leave, we’ll leave”, he emphasized, before noting that polls confirm that “people want a change” in the political class.
The president of Congress also questioned the fact that her audio was released the day after the publication of the transcript of another alleged audio bomb, which the opposition and local press linked to an alleged plot of corruption in the government.
The Peruvian press released on Thursday a transcript in which businessman Zamir Villaverde, who is in prison while being investigated for corruption, allegedly offers a bribe to the former Minister of Transport, Juan Silva, to obtain the tender for the construction of a bridge.
Villaverde, who is collaborating with the authorities in the investigation of the case, involved President Castillo in an alleged corruption conspiracy in the current Executive, although without having presented evidence.
Castillo is being preliminarily investigated for several allegations and the Peruvian attorney general, Pablo Sánchez, ordered last Sunday to expand investigations into the alleged practice of crimes of criminal organization, aggravated influence peddling and aggravated collusion.
Castillo’s lawyer, Benji Espinoza, asked on Tuesday that these investigations be declared “absolute nullity” and announced that if his request is not accepted , present will make a request for “protection of rights”, considering that the ruler enjoys absolute immunity while in office.
