The Peruvian Ministry of the Interior recalled last week that since July meetings involving a concentration of people have been prohibited to avoid the increase in contagion of covid-19, anticipating possible parties for the day of the Creole song and Halloween, which coincide in Peru October 31st . Thousands of people broke the rule this Sunday, but one of them stood out from the others. The Minister of the Interior himself, Luis Barranzuela, organized a meeting in his house with loud music, which caused the neighbors to call the municipal police to complain. Not only did the agents arrive at the house, the television cameras recorded what happened.
The prime minister, Mirtha Vásquez, demanded explanations “in the shortest time”, but the official denied having celebrated anything. On Monday night, the chief of staff found the answer unacceptable. “I have received a response from the Minister of the Interior about the event held yesterday at his home, which I consider unacceptable. Tomorrow, upon the return of the President of the Republic and jointly, we will make the corresponding decisions, “tweeted the prime minister, slipping the possibility of a forced resignation.
Sunday night, the television channel Latin He filmed the minister at the door of the house, while a person left and returned with a drink in hand, and waltzes of Creole music were reverberating from the loudspeakers. When they noticed the reporters’ presence, some guests preferred to leave, including Guillermo Bermejo, a congressman from Peru Libre – the party with which President Pedro Castillo came to power. One person helped Bermejo and another individual to quickly enter a car – protecting their heads with his hand – and at the same time hindered the video recording of journalists.
“If these facts are confirmed, they would imply that a minister violates the norms issued by the Council of Ministers itself, which is even more serious considering that the Ministry of which you are head has a key responsibility in the State’s task of guaranteeing compliance with the measures against the covid-19 ″, indicates the office that the president of the council of ministers directed to Barranzuela at mid-morning on Monday. “I categorically deny that information, what we have had is a work meeting,” Barranzuela told the press who was stationed at the entrance of his house in the district of Surco, in Lima. Bermejo also maintained that the music came from other neighboring houses.
The minister described the matter on Twitter as “disinformation.” “I did not carry out any event or promote the concentration of people in my home, on the contrary, I am respectful of the current measures. The presence of few people in my home was due to a coordination meeting regarding conflicts within our Peru, and in no way of a social nature or massive event, ”he said. The minister has been questioned since he was appointed in early October because he was the lawyer of the ultra-left leader Vladimir Cerrón, the leader and founder of Peru Libre, who could not be a presidential candidate because he has a sentence for corruption for acts committed when he was regional governor of Junín.
Barranzuela was also a lawyer for Peru Libre congressman Guido Bellido, Cerrón’s henchman who served as prime minister between July and October, when he was replaced by the lawyer and former president of Congress, Vásquez. Last Monday’s statement from the Ministry of the Interior said: “Social gatherings are not allowed, including those held in homes and family visits, due to health reasons and in order to avoid an increase in infections.”
Join EL PAÍS now to follow all the news and read without limits
Subscribe here
Another flank of criticism
Neighbors of Barranzuela, a former police officer who received more than 100 reprimands when he was active, point out that the noise began around nine o’clock on Sunday night. The minister was a lawyer for arms traffickers who profited from corrupt purchases during Alberto Fujimori’s second government in the 1990s.
Barranzuela has opened with this case a new flank of attacks against the new cabinet, which this Thursday must return to Congress to resume the debate on the investiture vote, suspended a week ago due to the death of a congressman from Peru Libre. Opposition spokesmen have demanded that Castillo remove the interior minister and are gathering signatures to file a motion against him. In addition, the Defense Committee of Parliament has summoned the minister to answer questions about the meeting at his home on Wednesday.
The president has spent this Sunday and Monday – a holiday in Peru – visiting his parents in his homeland, Cajamarca, in the northern highlands, and until Monday night he had not commented on the controversy. The former Minister of the Interior, José Pérez Guadalupe, commented on the station Radio programs that the president had to make an urgent decision because Barranzuela was producing a “police schizophrenia”, because the agents could not continue under the command of an official who violates the rules.
Subscribe here to the newsletter from EL PAÍS América and receive all the informative keys of the current situation of the region.
#Perus #Interior #Minister #holds #Halloween #party #reminding #country #prohibited