The corruption scandal so far has affected Chief Justice César Hinostroza, the President of the Callao Higher Court, Walter Ríos and three members of the National Council of Justice (CNM), which is responsible for appointing judges and removing them from office. The President of the Callao High Court, Walter Ríos, was taken into custody by the National Police on July 15th.
Justice Minister Moisés Heresi was heard in an audio recording, which led to his resignation.
The President, Martín Vizcarra, acted quickly and set up a commission to prepare proposals for judicial reform by July 25th. This commission is headed by the renowned ex-Foreign Minister Allan Wagner and well-known public figures such as Hugo Sivina Hurtado (ex-President of the Supreme Court and the Electoral Authority), Delia Revoredo Marsano (ex-member of the Constitutional Court) or Walter Albán (executive director of Proética).
At dawn on July 29, 2018, the police and the public prosecutor’s office searched the houses of entrepreneurs, lawyers and members of the judiciary, secured evidence and arrested members of the criminal organization “Los Cuellos Blancos del Puerto”. This organization is said to have been headed by Judge Walter Ríos, who is already in custody.
Chief Justice Hinostroza and former members of the CNM were officially released on October 4, 2018. All parliamentarians present voted for it in Congress. The judge was even charged with the contentious issue of belonging to a criminal organization.
According to ehistorylib, the prosecutor Juan Domingo Pérez and the judge Richard Concepción Carhuancho remain true to their line and take action. The presidential candidate and leader of the opposition party Volks-Kraft was issued a 36-month pre-trial detention for money laundering allegations. The charges related to money she allegedly received in 2011 from the Odebrecht construction company and the management of a criminal network.
Ex-President Alan García was also forbidden to leave the country for 18 months because there was a risk of fleeing and ongoing investigations into money laundering allegations had not been concluded. Recently, disagreements became known about a conference held before the main business association in Sao Paulo, for which García received US $ 100,000. The financing is said to come from Odebrecht’s “Fund 2”, where illegal funds were administered. Shortly after García accepted the judge’s decision, he applied for asylum at the Uruguayan Embassy in Lima for political persecution. The Uruguayan government rejected the asylum application on December 3, 2018 and García left the Uruguayan embassy.
On February 15, an agreement was signed between representatives of Odebrecht and the prosecutors of Peru (including Rafael Vela Barba; José Domingo Pérez). At the meeting in the Peruvian consulate in Sao Paulo / Brazil, the ex-managers from Odebrecht were also present, and they will be questioned over the next few days and weeks. These are Jorge Barata and Ricardo Boleira (managers) as well as the project managers Carlos Nostre and Renato Ribeiro. The following is about corruption in the course of the construction of Metro Line 1 in Lima, parts of the Inter-Oceanic Road and roads in Cusco and Lima. The results of this interrogation are awaited with great interest by the Peruvian public, as this is solid evidence for the indictment against ex-presidents García, Humala, Kuczynski and party leader Keiko Fujimori are supposed to deliver. The well-known journalist Rosa María Palacios said “This will give us the opportunity to convince ourselves of all the corruption that has existed in Peru over the last 200 years”. After the first day, incriminating material against ex-President Alan García became known.
At the beginning of April 2019, a judge issued a 10-day preventive detention and a house search against ex-President Kuczynski. This means that all ex-presidents still alive are imprisoned or prosecuted.
On April 14, preventive detention was also issued against ex-president Alan García, which led to his suicide the next day.
From April 23, the most important witness in the Lava Jato Jorge Barata case will be questioned in Curitiba / Brazil. His statements are intended to provide important information in support of the prosecutors’ charges against the ex-presidents Toledo, Kuczynski and Humala as well as against the party leader of the People’s Force Keiko Fujimori. Likewise, the possible involvement of ex-President García in the corruption affair should be clarified.
National symbols
The red-white-red national flag in vertical stripes must adorn every building – whether palace or hut – on July 28th, the national holiday of Peru.
Peru Flag
The symbols in the national coat of arms are supposed to represent the country’s riches (vicuña, cinchona tree and mineral raw materials). José Bernardo Alcedo (1788-1878) wrote the text of the official hymn. The setting also comes from him.