Agents of the Public Ministry of Peru found $ 19, 12 dollars in the least expected site of the presidential palace in Lima.
The money in Cash was kept in a bathroom in the offices of Bruno Pacheco , the secretary general of the government of President Pedro Castillo.
According to an act of the Ministry Public, the official affirmed that the money was his, “product of his savings and the salary he receives” and promised to prove it later.
Pacheco resigned in the middle of an investigation against him for a case of alleged influence peddling, a new blow to the government of President Castillo.
The money in the bathroom
The past 19 November, agents of the Public Ministry presented at the offices inas of the Presidential General Secretariat to carry out a search of documents and computer devices.
The diligence was part of an investigation of influence peddling initiated after the general commanders of the Army and Air Force resigned from their positions. President.
He is also singled out for allegedly using his position to pressure the National Superintendency of Customs and Tax Administration (Sunat) in favor of businessmen who are friends of his.
In the middle of the raid, the official admitted that he had kept in a bathroom cabinet in his office the exact amount of $ 20, 000 dollars in cash.
He declared to the prosecutors that it was not illegal money, but part of his personal savings and your salary , which amounts to 25. 000 monthly soles (about $ 6, 250 Dollars).
The money found is little more than the three months of salary that he received since Pacheco took office, who is seen as the henchman of the President Castillo.
Before the prosecutors, the official promised to “prove as soon as possible” the origin of the money found, according to the ministerial act.
On the same Friday, Pacheco resigned and indicated on Twitter that he was doing so to prevent this case from hitting the president.
I am resigning from the position of SG with the conviction that I have not done anything wrong. I take a step to the side to avoid that the President. be the subject of this smear campaign. I leave with my head held high and with the assurance that my innocence will be proven. I will continue working for Peru!
– Bruno Pacheco🇵🇪 (@BrunoPachecoC) November 19, 2021
Nevertheless, The presidential secretary continued in office until this Tuesday pending the appointment of his replacement.
Opposition demands
The case has generated a new battle front between the opposition and the Castillo government.
“It is unfortunate . We already knew from other sources that Pacheco did his business with respect to influence peddling. Not only in the military jurisdiction, but also in the Sunat, demanding favors. It is natural that this money is thought to come from corruption. It is bad money and we hope that the Public Ministry gets to the truth, “said Elvis Vergara, of the opposition party Popular Action , to the newspaper El Comercio.
“You have to thoroughly investigate what is happening. The main thing, the president has to review in a more detailed way the professionals he calls to work in the Palace. This cannot be repeated, “said Eduardo Salhuana, the spokesman for the party in Congress of the Alliance for Progress party.
On Tuesday Castillo challenged the opposition congressmen to promote his dismissal through the figure of the presidential vacancy .
“I would like to invoke the congressmen to come and walk with me to request a vacancy in these spaces,” he said at an event in the peasant community from Chopcca, from the central Andean region of Junín.
To formally present the motion for presidential impeachment, you need 26 signatures of congressmen , and to accept it for processing, plenary session of Parliament, while in order for it to move forward, it requires 87 votes of the 130 seats , equivalent to two thirds of the Peruvian assembly.
At the moment the opposition does not have the necessary votes to bring the vacancy of Castillo to the plenary session if the president maintains the support of the hard wing of the Marxist party Peru Libre, with which he won the presidential elections.
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