Crime & Justice

Police search Peruvian presidential palace to arrest Castillo’s sister-in-law

Lima, Aug 9 (EFE).- Peruvian prosecutors and some police officers Tuesday searched the Presidential Palace to arrest President Pedro Castillo’s graft-accused sister-in-law.

The police did not find Jenifer Paredes at the palace.

The search operation at his office and residence sparked the president’s fury.

The president said the raid was illegal, accusing the opposition, the media, and the prosecutors of trying to “break the constitutional and democratic order.”

He denied any wrongdoing, saying nothing would come out “no matter how much they look for issues like this, which are historical in Peru.”

In a speech, Castillo said they were the same people who cried over “a non-existent electoral fraud to dismiss my election.”

Paredes is under the scanner for allegedly offering some businessmen a sanitation project in Cajamarca, the president’s home province.

Prosecutor Hans Aguirre led several search operations, arresting two businessmen and the mayor from the Cajamarca region.

The arrested are implicated in an alleged graft ring.

The preliminary arrest warrant against the three detained and Paredes, whose whereabouts remained unknown.

The arrest warrant against Paredes, raised as a daughter by the presidential couple, was issued after a fiscal investigation following a report by the América Televisión network.

The footage shows Paredes talking to people in the Chota district in Cajamarca to inform them that she needed to census them for sanitation work, even though she held no executive position.

The video shows Paredes standing alongside Hugo Espino from the JJM Espino engineering and construction, which won the tender worth over $1 million for the sanitation work.

Espino was among the arrested on Monday. He visited the Presidential Palace five times between August and November last year.

Paredes has testified before the congressional oversight commission, denying she interfered in the tender processing.

She admitted that she worked for the company.

According to the judicial resolution that issued the four arrest warrants, the investigation could lead to Castillo. EFE

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