International
Peru’s President Boluarte demands answers from prime minister over alleged irregular contract
Peruvian President, Dina Boluarte, has ordered the early return of Prime Minister Alberto Otárola from an official trip to Canada to demand explanations regarding an audio in which he allegedly offered a job to a young woman with whom he apparently had a relationship before she was hired at the Ministry of Defense.
“We have been informed in the Cabinet that the president has ordered the early return of the premier to become aware of the situation and take the necessary actions,” said Minister of Women, Nancy Tolentino, in a press conference.
In the audio, aired on Sunday by the Panorama program, Otárola is purportedly heard speaking very familiarly to a woman identified as Yaziré Pinedo, asking her to send her resume immediately and then inquiring about when he can see her.
Congress members demand the Prime Minister’s resignation
Congress members from various political groups called on Monday for the resignation of Peru’s Prime Minister, Alberto Otárola, after the release of an alleged audio in which he offered a job to a young woman before her hiring at the Ministry of Defense.
The first vice president of Parliament, Arturo Alegría, told local media that “what is appropriate for the peace of mind of Peruvians is to take action.”
“When private matters cross the line and become public actions, decisions must be made,” Alegría said about the apparent familiarity Otárola displayed in the phone conversation with 25-year-old Yazire Pinedo, after previously denying knowing her.
The legislator added that “for that simple lie, there must be a decision” by President Dina Boluarte.
The Prime Minister’s troubles
In turn, legislator Carlos Zeballos, from the Podemos Perú party, said the Prime Minister “must offer his resignation” to Boluarte, as soon as he returns to the country from his trip to Canada to attend a mining convention, because it is a “very serious situation.”
“It involves state funds being used for personal matters,” said the congressman.
Zeballos added that “when an entire cabinet falls, several ministries need to be reshuffled.”
Meanwhile, the progressive bloc of Change Democratic-Together for Peru said on its social media account that “Otárola’s tenure at the PCM (Presidency of the Council of Ministers) is unsustainable.”
They announced that they will present “a motion of interpellation for the premier to answer for the acts of corruption attributed to him” and added that “the cycle of the Fujimori group’s operator and the right in the Government Palace has ended.”
Likewise, independent congressman Carlos Anderson also announced a motion of interpellation against the Prime Minister, “in response to public outrage over the audios” of Otárola.
“Being a ‘sugar daddy’ with state resources. This not only constitutes an ethical violation but also warrants exemplary punishment, if necessary,” he pointed out.
In the audio, aired on Sunday by the Panorama program, Otárola is purportedly heard speaking very familiarly to Pinedo and asking her to send her resume immediately, then inquiring about when he can see her.
Pinedo received two service orders last year for 18,000 and 35,000 soles (about 4,700 or 9,200 dollars) at the Ministry of Defense, a portfolio that Otárola held before becoming Prime Minister.
The Presidency of the Republic rejected in a statement “any action that goes against the interests of the State” and “any possible irregular hiring in exchange for favors.”
It announced that it will wait for Otárola’s return from abroad to “request the pertinent explanations and make the necessary decisions.”
Otárola himself commented on his social media account that “for months they have been trying to spread an audio whose content must be verified.”
He reiterated that in his administration, “there has been and will be no irregular hiring” and that he is not corrupt.
International
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.
“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.
“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.
Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.
Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”
The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.
International
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.
The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”
This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.
International
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, returned this Thursday to delegate – for the second time – the Presidency to the Secretary of Public Administration and Cabinet of the Presidency Cynthia Gellibert, whom he himself appointed by decree vice president in charge, in the face of the open confrontation he maintains with the vice president, Verónica Abad.
As he did last week, Noboa again issued a decree in which he announces that he is absent from the Presidency from Thursday to Sunday, to make an electoral campaign in search of his re-election in the elections of February 9, and during that period of time it will be Gellibert who will be in charge of the head of the State.
This action of the president of Ecuador is a matter of evaluation by the ordinary and constitutional justice at the request of the vice president, Verónica Abad, who claims to assume the presidential functions during the full period of the electoral campaign, in which according to the Constitution the head of state must ask for leave for being a candidate for re-election.
In his decree, Noboa argues that, although the Constitution determines that the Vice Presidency must assume the head of State in the event of the absence of the president, this “is not limited to the elected vice-president, but to the person who to date is exercising the functions of the Vice Presidency.”
Before appointing Gellibert as vice president in charge by decree, Noboa sent Abad to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Turkey, after a judge annulled the five-month suspension that the same Government had imposed on him. Until now, the vice president remains in Ecuador to claim to be the one who temporarily assumes the Presidency.
The new period of Gellibert with presidential powers began at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT) this Thursday and is scheduled to end at 22:00 (03:00 GMT) next Sunday, time at which the debate between presidential candidates is expected to end where Noboa is summoned to participate.
After the debate, Noboa plans to travel to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, according to the Ecuadorian Presidency.
After the first assignment of the Presidency to Gellibert, Abad denounced a “coup d’état” and urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to apply the Democratic Charter, considering that the constitutional order had been broken because it had not received the presidential powers, as contemplated in the Ecuadorian Constitution.
In addition, he filed a protection action with which he seeks that the Justice annul the decrees in which Noboa appointed Gellibert as vice president in charge and delegated the Presidency to him. A court admitted the appeal on Friday, but did not accept some precautionary measures that Abad also asked for to suspend those effects immediately.
Controversies like this will be part of the analysis and evaluation of the electoral observation mission (EOM) of the European Union (EU) for the Ecuadorian elections, as anticipated on Wednesday by its leader, Spanish MEP Gabriel Mato.
The confrontation between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign for the second round of elections for the extraordinary elections of 2023, and was reflected when he assumed the charges, when in one of his first decisions, the president sent the vice president to Israel as ambassador, with the mission of seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Abad has denounced Noboa for alleged political gender violence and has accused her of leading a harassment against her to force her to resign and thus avoid having to delegate the Presidency to her during the electoral campaign period, which runs from January 5 to February 6.
The titular vice president has also accused the Government of being behind the corruption investigation in the offices of the Vice Presidency that involves her son in a case where the Prosecutor’s Office also sought to indict Abad, but the National Assembly (Parliament) voted mostly against lifting the jurisdiction, although the ruling party voted in favor.
The general elections in Ecuador are called for Sunday, February 9 and, according to the polls published so far, Noboa and the candidate of the correismo Luisa González appear as prominent favorites to move on to the second round.
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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