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
The Court of the IADH rules out measures in favor of Gustavo Petro amid investigations into his campaign
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IDHR) considered it “inappropriate” to grant provisional measures in favor of the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, which his representatives requested in the midst of investigations for apparent irregular financing of his political campaign.
The IADH Court explained that Petro’s legal team requested the measures as part of the process of supervising the sentence issued in 2020, in which the court condemned Colombia for the dismissal of Petro from his position as mayor of Bogotá in 2013.
The resolution, published on the website of the IADH Court, determined that the case resolved in 2020 is not related to the provisional measures and therefore rejected them.
“The Court considers that the aforementioned request is not related to the subject of the case (resolved in 2020) or to the implementation of any of the three guarantees of non-repetition of regulatory adequacy ordered in the judgment, which makes it inappropriate,” the resolution indicates.
A “factual” and “legal” situation different from that of 2020
The text adds that the request of Petro’s representatives “is based on a factual and legal situation different from that known to this Court in the Petro Urrego case judgment issued in 2020.”
“On that occasion, the Court considered it unconventional for an administrative authority to order the cessation and eventual disqualification of popularly elected officials. From the information provided in this request for provisional measures, it does not appear that the administrative body in question has the power to disqualify or restrict the political rights of a popularly elected official,” the Court of Human Rights determined.
Last October, the National Electoral Council (CNE) filed charges for alleged irregularities to the campaign that led Petro to the Presidency of Colombia in 2022.
The investigation found an alleged violation of spending caps of 5.3 billion pesos (about 1.19 million dollars).
In the request for provisional measures before the Inter-American Court, Petro’s representatives affirmed that there is an “irregular attribution of powers to the CNE to investigate President Gustavo Petro Urrego, which contravenes the conventional and constitutional guarantees of the integral jurisdiction enjoyed by the dignity of the office of President of the Republic.”
They added that the responsibility for investigating belongs to the Legal Committee of Investigation and Prosecutions of the Senate House of Representatives.
International
The Constitutional Court of Peru annuls the sentence against the leader of Dina Boluarte’s former party
The Peruvian Constitutional Court (TC) annulled this Thursday the sentence for corruption against the politician Vladimir Cerrón, leader of the Marxist party Free Peru in which President Dina Boluarte campaigned until 2022, after remaining on the run for more than a year, a time in which time the president began to be investigated for her alleged cover-up.
The TC declared the appeal of habeas corpus presented by Cerrón’s defense against the sentence, issued last year, which sentenced him to 3 and a half years in prison for the crime of collusion, for the concession of the Wanka Aerodrome when he was a regional authority of Junín, according to the judicial decision published by local media.
Boluarte was linked to Cerrón’s escape, after his official car was discovered by the press in a spa south of Lima, where the police searched days before for the leader of his former political party.
The Court claimed that the Junín Appeals Chamber violated the right to due motivation of judicial decisions by not specifying whether the crime of simple collusion was an instant, continuous and permanent crime.
The nullity of the sentence
The magistrates pointed out that this information is important to define the prescription of the crime, as Cerrón’sdefense maintains.
In that sense, the TC has ordered the Junín Appeals Chamber to issue a new pronouncement, in which it responds on the limitation periods of the crime to determine whether the criminal proceedings are still in force or are being filed.
Once the resolution was released in the media, Cerrón himself celebrated the news on the social network X and said that the TC is, in recent times, “the moral reserve” of Peruvian justice.
He added that the Constitutional Court declared the sentence against him null and void for being “arbitrary”, by declaring his appeal of habeas corpus in the Wanka Aerodrome case well-founded.
Cerrón is currently being prosecuted for other cases of alleged corruption when he was a regional authority and for the last electoral campaign in which his party presented the formula headed by Pedro Castillo, the dismissed former president for his failed coup d’état in 2022, and Boluarte as vice president.
International
Guterres calls for “avoiding at all costs” the integration of AI into nuclear weapons
UN Secretary-General António Guterres advocated on Thursday in the UN Security Council to “avoid at all costs” the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in nuclear weapons, something that could have “potentially disastrous consequences”.
“AI without human supervision would leave the world blind, and would put world peace and security in a dangerous and reckless place,” Guterres told the Security Council, where a ministerial session is being held today, chaired by US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, on the progress of this tool and its implications in global security.
The Secretary General stressed that, while AI is making “a positive difference” in countries suffering from conflicts, food insecurity or the effects of climate change, it has also entered “the battlefield in a more problematic way.”
In this sense, he indicated that recent conflicts have become a testing ground for military applications of AI, which “creates a fertile ground for misunderstandings, miscalculations and mistakes.”
Humans and the algorithm
Thus, he recalled that this tool has already been used to select targets and make “life or death” decisions, and pointed out that cyberattacks made possible by AI “could paralyze the critical infrastructures of a country and its essential services.”
“Let’s be clear: the fate of humanity should never be left in the hands of the ‘black box’ of an algorithm. Humans must always have control in decision-making guided by international law, including international humanitarian and human rights laws and ethical principles,” he added.
In addition to its effects on international security, Guterres focused on the danger posed by the AI creating “very realistic content” that is then spread on the Internet and “manipulates public opinion, threatens the integrity of information and makes the truth indistinguishable from lies.”
The Portuguese politician brought up the UN Global Digital Compact, which was approved last September and addresses the rapid advance of AI, and shared his intention to finance innovative opportunities for this tool “where it is most needed.”
“A world of rich and poor in AI would be a world of perpetual instability. We must never allow (this technology) to lead to an advance of inequality,” he stressed, and said that technology must be “at the service of all humanity.”
The Court of the IADH rules out measures in favor of Gustavo Petro amid investigations into his campaign
The Constitutional Court of Peru annuls the sentence against the leader of Dina Boluarte’s former party
Guterres calls for “avoiding at all costs” the integration of AI into nuclear weapons
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