The National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP) and the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) denounced this Wednesday that the Peruvian Minister of the Interior, Juan José Santiváñez, andHe sent threatening messages to the head of the Panamericana Televisión Investigation Unit, Karla Ramírez, after a publication she made on the social network X.
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The ANP said in a statement that Ramírez told its Human Rights Office that he received messages from the minister, after he replied to a Panamericana TV publication about a document sent by the president of the Congressional Oversight Commission, Juan Burgos.
“In this, Burgos warned Minister Santiváñez that he should not coordinate private meetings through third parties, referring to a call received from a person identified as Rosa Medina, who had requested a meeting on behalf of the minister,” the ANP detailed.
He added that, after that publication, the journalist received a message from the minister, who told her that he was “directly accusing” her and asked her to “be more serious” in her comment “which is absolutely defamatory.”
Ramírez responded by saying that they would report her version, but Santiváñez replied by asking her not to defame him and accusing her of not “informing,” and finally telling her to wait for his “legal actions.”
“What he is doing is not freedom, it is a crime,” concluded the message attributed to the minister and quoted by the ANP. The union recalled, in this regard, that Ramírez is investigating the details of the relationship between Santiváñez and Police Captain Junior Izquierdo, known as ‘Culebra’, who has provided the Prosecutor’s Office with chats and audios allegedly linked to the minister.
The ANP added that it “rejects, once again, the actions of the Minister of the Interior, who has repeatedly had hostile treatment against critical journalists and media.” The IPYS pointed out, for its part, that Ramírez published “a conversation on WhatsApp with the Minister of the Interior, Juan José Santiváñez, in which the official threatens to sue her for defamation.”
“This is not the first time that Santiváñez has engaged in manifestly hostile behavior towards the press,” the organization stressed, before adding that “journalists and directors of various media outlets have reported to IPYS the aggressive behavior that Santiváñez has towards the press that questions and investigates his work and, in general, that of the current government.”
On September 2, the Interior Minister said he would report the media that linked him to the audio recordings in which he allegedly offered details about the escape of politician Vladimir Cerrón, leader of the Marxist party Peru Libre, who has been a fugitive from justice for more than 300 days.
He also said he would file a complaint against anti-corruption prosecutor Carlos Ordaya, who has linked him to another investigation into Nicanor Boluarte, the Peruvian president’s brother. A survey by the private company Datum, published last Sunday by the newspaper El Comercio, indicated that 79% of citizens disapprove of the president keeping Santiváñez as Interior Minister.
On its X account, the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Peru reported that the “Special Team of Prosecutors against the Corruption of Power #EFFICOP expanded the preliminary investigation against lawyer Juan José Santiváñez, for the alleged crimes of generic active bribery, real concealment and influence peddling to the detriment of the State.”
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