Peru: Attorney General under pressure to resign

PERU - In Brief 27 Nov 2023 by Alfredo Thorne
This morning Attorney Marita Barreto, in charge of investigating corruption in the State, raided the homes of two close advisors of Attorney General Patricia Benavides. They found WhatsApp chats between these two advisors and several congress-members and offered evidence that Benavides had been plotting with Congress, first to remove the previous Attorney General, Zoraida Avalos, more left-wing inclined; and then, to remove the whole highly autonomous Junta Nacional de Justicia (JNJ), responsible for appointing judges, attorneys, and to exert disciplinary control on them. At the time of writing this InBrief, two of the three members of the Junta de Fiscales Supremos, the highest court for the Attorneys, demanded that Benavides resign. The third member is Benavides. However, we need to wait for the JNJ meeting, and most likely they may demand that Benavides step down temporarily while her case is investigated. This confrontation within the Attorney General's Office, and between the Congress and the JNJ, had started some time ago (see our November report). Last week, Benavides had also sacked the head Attorney of the Lava Jato team, Rafael Vela, responsible for undertaking the investigations of the former presidents who had embezzled from the Odebrecht scam. Last night Vela was on several news programs arguing that his sacking was led by Ms. Benavides and was illegal. But she didn't stop there; she wanted to also sack the highly respected Attorney Marita Barreto. What few anticipated was the involvement of Benavides with Congress in an attempt to sack these attorneys and to dismiss the former Attorney General and JNJ. Also, today and immediately after this revolt at the ...

Now read on...

Register to sample a report

Register
Sign-in
Forgot your password?
Copyright 2024 GlobalSource Partners. All rights reserved. This is prepared for GlobalSource Partners’ clients and may not be redistributed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, retransmitted or disclosed, in whole or in part, or in any form or manner, without the express written consent of GlobalSource Partners. This is distributed simultaneously to our website and other portals used by GlobalSource Partners. The information herein was obtained from various sources and is believed to be reliable but GlobalSource Partners does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Neither GlobalSource Partners nor any Country Analyst, officer or employee accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential damages or losses rising from any use of this or its contents.