International
Boluarte celebrates two years in power in Peru surrounded by judicial scandals
Two years have passed since Dina Boluarte made her accidental entry into the Presidency of Peru, 24 months in which her mandate has been entangled in judicial scandals that have placed the head of state in the eye of a legal hurricane with investigations that include abandonment of office, corruption or cover-up.
Elected as vice president in the 2021 elections, her arrival at the head of state was marked by the failed self-coup of state of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo, which was followed by a wave of protests whose repression, which resulted in 49 deaths at the hands of the public force, meant the opening of the first investigation against her.
The winding path of Justice in Peru must, in all cases, follow the path of the constitutional complaint, a special procedure that applies to senior state officials who have immunity. Congress must give the green light to the Prosecutor’s Office so that the chamber recommends that the person under investigation be charged. If not, the investigations must be closed.
Here is a review of the cases opened against President Boluarte that have generated scandal in Peru.
Deaths in protests
The first investigation opened to Boluarte was for the crimes of homicide, genocide and serious injuries in the anti-government protests of late 2022 and early 2023.
Congress did not accept the first complaint of the then attorney general, Patricia Benavides, so it had to be filed.
However, a second investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office, for the same case and for the crimes of homicide and injury, continues to advance and seeks to clarify whether the president was responsible for the deaths, that is, if her orders were the cause of the deaths, something that her defense denies.
The ‘Rolexgate’, the most red-to-aun scandal in Boluarte in Peru
The most media case was opened as a result of some luxury watches and jewelry that Boluarte wore and that he had not declared.
The investigation separated the case into two processes, one of them, related to the reception of these sumptuous objects, which already led to a constitutional complaint for bribery that has received a first approval in a subcommittee of Congress and must obtain the final green light in the plenary.
The alleged cover-up of its former leader
Probably the most tandated case. Boluarte was active until 2022 in the Free Peru party, a group linked to traditional Marxism and with an omnipotent leader, trained in Cuba and aspiring to Castro caudillismo: Vladimir Cerrón.
The politician has been convicted of a corruption case from his time as regional governor and has been a fugitive from justice for more than a year. Boluarte’s links with his former leader and the police inability to arrest him have unleashed all kinds of speculation.
These were fired by the presence of an official vehicle of the Presidency in an area where the Police were looking for Cerrón. In the absence of answers from Boluarte, the Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation against her for alleged cover-up, according to the president’s defense lawyer.
Dark meetings
Last October, Boluarte unexpectedly went to the Prosecutor’s Office to testify about another investigation for having received the then Attorney General Patricia Benavides, with the alleged purpose of filing a complaint against him in exchange for maintaining the director of the Police.
The former prosecutor was dismissed for interfering in an investigation against her sister, Judge Enma Benavides, and is also accused of allegedly leading an alleged influence peddling network.
The Public Ministry reported that it is investigating the ruler for the alleged commission of the crime of improper passive bribery in grievance of the State for allegedly accepting from Benavides “the promise of filing” of the genocide investigation in exchange for not removing the then general commander of the National Police from office.
Abandonment of office
The last open scandal was born from a nose surgery in 2023, whose effects were evident, which neither Boluarte nor his team have wanted to confirm by considering that it is his private life.
The surgery, according to experts, involved a general anesthesia and a period of convalescence. During the twelve days following that operation, he had no public activity and his communications team spread, through his platforms, old photographs.
After his former Prime Minister Alberto Otárola confirmed the surgery, the Prosecutor’s Office opened a new investigation into the alleged crime of abandonment of office, by not communicating the temporary impediment to exercise the position, during the period in which, allegedly, he had his medical leave.
International
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
The presidential candidate of Ecuador for the indigenous movement, Leonidas Iza, who was part of the wave of protests of 2019 and who led that of 2022, reveals himself as an “anti-system” politician in the face of “a corrupt system” that he intends to reformulate to relieve the impoverished, because he predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in the Government to meet popular demands.
Iza, 42, is the candidate of Pachakutik, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie) that he himself presides over, and with which he was at the forefront of the 2022 wave of protests against the government of conservative President Guillermo Lasso, where he was arrested and even labeled a “terrorist.”
“I am one of those who has never lost the ability to be outraged when governments have had policies against their own citizens,” Iza, a native of the Andean province of Cotopaxi, said in an interview with EFE.
“I am not against the private sector, I am against those who do not pay taxes and those who come to the Government only to defend their companies,” said the candidate in reference to the last two presidents (Lasso and Daniel Noboa).
“We fight for social justice, not to be violent. It is a reaction to the injustice to which we have been subjected,” he said.
For Iza, who represents the anti-extractivist left of Ecuador, the country has “a corrupt system, a health system that does not work, a deficient and unfair economic system, and public services that are not helping citizens.”
“And that’s what we want to change. We won’t be able to do it overnight, but the State can give relief to the people,” the candidate said.
To do this, it proposes to fight against tax evasion, which amounts to about 7.5 billion dollars a year, and also against corruption, which is estimated at about 3 billion dollars per year, to balance public accounts without having to follow the current credit program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that asks to cut public spending and raise taxes.
He also aimed to increase agricultural productivity, as well as boost tourism to go from 1 to 3 million visitors a year, and anticipated that he will regulate small and artisanal mining to avoid illegal mining but will not allow large-scale mining because it considers that it can contaminate the country’s large river basins.
Iza anticipated that he will not pay the external debt as long as there are “guaguas (children, in Kichwa) who have no education and are dying of hunger, and colleagues who are dying for lack of health.”
“We will tell the IMF and the other multilaterals that we are going to pay, but first we are going to solve the structural problem we have at the moment: education, health and minimum conditions for security,” he warned.
In that sense, Iza pointed out that “the strength of a popular reaction in the streets is accumulating” that must be resolved by whoever is elected. “Knowing my country, which has been on the streets all its life, there will be a popular reaction if (the discomfort) is not resolved in the following months,” he reiterated.
“The option that understands the people is us, and not the sectors that have always been in the Government,” said Iza, who avoided pointing out whether that reaction will reach the dimensions of the strong protests of 2019 and 2022, both led by the indigenous movement.
In this electoral campaign, Iza has left his distinctive Andean red poncho to put on the bulletproof vest in the face of the persistent wave of violence of organized crime that the country is experiencing, because he warned that the “war” that Noboa declared to the criminal gangs has not worked because its leaders are still free.
Faced with this, he promised “a hard hand for all” and recalled that “state institutions must suffocate everyone (criminals)”.
The candidate also advocated deepening international cooperation: “there must be a responsibility of all countries (producers, consumers and drug transit), especially in the region (of Latin America)”.
Asked if Ecuadorian society is ready to have an indigenous president of rural origin, Iza sees himself with popular support to face “the most reactionary sectors that have support in racism and stigmatization.”
International
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
The fire that occurred this morning in a 12-story hotel in a ski resort in northwestern Turkey claimed at least 69 deaths, in addition to causing fifty injuries, according to the latest assessment of the country’s authorities.
The fire originated around 3.30 a.m. local time (0.30 GMT) in a hotel, built entirely of wood, in the Kartalkaya ski center, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, with almost full occupancy.
The flames were extinguished after about ten hours of firefighters’ work and the authorities found the death of 66 people, in addition to rescuing 51 injured, compared to the 10 dead and 32 injured initially estimated.
The hotel, with 161 rooms, had an occupancy close to 90%, because these days are the winter school holidays in Turkey, says the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.
The wooden construction and the location of the hotel at the foot of a ski slope, which only allows vehicle access from the front facade, made the intervention of firefighters difficult, the Turkish newspaper explained.
According to the television network NTV, about 300 people, including employees, were in the hotel at the time of the fire, the causes of which are still unknown.
International
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
The Islamist organization Hamas urged the Palestinians on Tuesday to intensify and support their militiamen in the clashes against the Israeli Army during the military incursion that began today in Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank.
“We call on the masses of our people in the West Bank and their revolutionary youth to mobilize and intensify the clashes against the (Israeli) occupation army at all points, and to work to thwart the extensive Zionist aggression against the city of Yenin.”
“This military operation launched by the occupation in Yenin will fail, as did all its previous military operations against our brave people and their tenacious resistance,” the Palestinian group said.
Since the beginning of the operation, nicknamed by the Army “Iron Wall”, at least seven Palestinians have died in Yenin and another 35 have been injured, according to data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Hamas accused the forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), President Mahmoud Abbas’ ruling party in the West Bank, of having left Yenin to allow the operation of Israeli troops, instead of defending the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended on Tuesday that the last assault launched by his forces against Yenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, seeks to “eradicate terrorism.”
“This is another step towards the objective we have set ourselves: to strengthen security in Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” according to a statement released by its Office.
“We are acting systematically and decisively against the Iranian axis wherever it sends its weapons: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” concludes the Israeli president’s note.
The rail comes shortly after the start of the ceasefire in Gaza, which includes a weekly exchange of hostages in the Strip for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
Following the release of the prisoners, the Army increased its presence in this occupied territory with seven companies, claiming to strengthen its “anti-terrorist efforts.”
The images recorded in Yenin show dozens of Army vehicles accessing the local refugee camp, which has also been bombed by Israeli aviation.
The incursions and attacks of Israeli forces in Yenin, considered a bastion of Islamist-like militias, were already constant but they worsened after the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
However, since mid-December it has been the security forces of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), which governs small parts of the West Bank, that have led an offensive in this population, which until last Friday triggered armed fighting against the militiamen.
This exchange of fire has caused at least 15 people dead on both sides, including two minors.
The occupied West Bank is experiencing its greatest spiral of violence since the Second Intifada (2000-05), and in 2024 at least 491 Palestinians have died in the territory by Israeli fire, most of them militiamen from refugee camps, but also civilians, including at least 75 minors, according to EFE’s count.
So far this year, at least 24 Palestinians have already died in Israeli attacks, five of them minors.
Indigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
Deaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
Hamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
Ecuador prison riot leaves at least 43 dead
-
International4 days agoNoboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
-
International4 days agoMusk’s Starship was lost after a smooth takeoff
-
International4 days agoMark Carney announces his candidacy to replace Trudeau as Prime Minister of Canada
-
International4 days agoHRW assures that Sheinbaum “inherited a crisis” from López Obrador due to “extreme violence” in Mexico
-
International4 days agoTrump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
-
International4 days agoThe Prosecutor’s Office asks Boluarte to hand over the documents that justify the surgery he kept hidden
-
International4 days agoLatin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
-
International4 days agoEdmundo González Urrutia’s team says that the anti-chavista will attend Trump’s investiture
-
International4 days agoChina, Israel and Burma, the countries in the world with the most journalists imprisoned in 2024
-
International2 days agoTrump to sign over 200 executive orders, declaring National Emergency at U.S.-Mexico Border
-
International3 hours agoDeaths in a hotel fire in a ski resort in Turkey rise to 69
-
International4 hours agoHamas calls for counterattack on Israeli soldiers during their incursion in the West Bank
-
International4 hours agoThe Israeli Chief of Staff submits his resignation for October 7
-
International3 hours agoIndigenous candidate Leonidas Iza predicts a new social explosion if there is no change in Ecuador
-
International4 days agoAntony Blinken assures that the Panamanian sovereignty of the Panama Canal “will not change”
-
International4 hours agoSheinbaum says that “it will remain the Gulf of Mexico for the whole world” despite Trump
-
International4 days agoAt least five peace signatories and social leaders are killed in fighting in Colombia
-
International1 day agoPope Francis hopes Trump will build a more just society free of hatred
-
Sin categoría2 days agoParaguayan president Santiago Peña meets Venezuela’s opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia in Washington
-
International4 days agoForeign Affairs confirms the kidnapping of a Spaniard in North Africa by a jihadist group
-
International1 day agoBrazil’s Lula wishes Trump a successful term focused on prosperity and peace
-
International1 day agoTrump to sign executive order recognizing only two sexes
-
International1 day agoIran hopes U.S. will adopt realistic approaches under Trump administration
-
International4 hours agoTrump begins his first day in power with a mass in Washington Cathedral
-
International4 hours agoRubio promises to work for “a safer world” after swearing in as US Secretary of State
-
International4 hours agoMexico will return migrants affected by Trump’s restrictions to its countries
-
International4 hours agoTerrorism, prisoners and the Vatican: autopsy of the agreement between the US and Cuba that was born dead
-
International4 hours agoAt least 409 minors were recruited in Colombia in 2024, according to the Ombudsman’s Office
-
International4 hours agoWhat are the first measures approved by Trump after taking office as US president?
-
International4 hours agoIsrael shifts the spotlight to the West Bank with a large-scale raid and kills 9 Palestinians