Correspondent in Lima
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The Minister of the Interior of Peru, Avelino Guillén, resigned on Friday after noting that the President Pedro Castillo cut off communication with him after he asked the president to withdraw the General Commander of the Police, Javier Gallardoaccused of corruption. Guillén’s departure opens a new crisis in the Peruvian government that could cause the departure of the prime minister, Mirtha Vásquez, leader of the moderate left.
“I hoped that the President of the Republic would support his minister, but he preferred to remain silent and put himself in profile. It expresses a position of direct support for the Commander General of the Police,” Guillén said in an interview with the newspaper ‘La República’, adding, “assuming this portfolio is a huge challenge, not only because of what they have in front of them, but by internal enemies, who are the most dangerous».
In statements to the ‘Epicentro TV’ portal, he revealed that «Prime Minister Mirtha Vasquez He intervened more than once before President Castillo to get him to support my decisions in office, but (the president) only listens to his group of advisers, whom I think he should change because they do not contribute for the better. Peru should not be managed like a union full of fights between different factions,” Guillén said.
The leader of New Peru, from the moderate left, Verónika Mendoza, “deeply” regretted the resignation of Avelino Guillén, «an honest and brave man who always faced corruption and authoritarianism». And he asked the Peruvian president through his Twitter account: “President Pedro Castillo, the country deserves an explanation for what happened and firm actions that specify the direction of your government.”
According to the IDL reporters portal, Guillén asked for Gallardo’s departure because he was seeking to behead the police in key areas and that he maintained a parallel system of black payments to get promotions and positions throughout the country.
A shadow cabinet
Sources close to the Ministry of the Interior told ABC that Gallardo is part of Castillo’s circle of friends, who have formed a “shadow cabinet” led by the presidential adviser, Biberto Castillo León. This shadow cabinet supports the idea of having people “loyal” to the president as chiefs of the Police in key positions such as the High Complexity Crime Investigation Division (Diviac), which investigates the leader of Peru Libre, Vladimir Cerrón, party by which Castillo came to power.
Speaking to ABC, the former Minister of the Interior, José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, pointed out that “in six months, the Government has already had three interior ministers. The departure of Guillén, who is an honest person, shows that Castillo will not allow himself to be helped. It is inexplicable that with all the accusations he has, Gallardo remains in office.”
In Pérez Guadalupe’s opinion, Castillo supports Gallardo and everything is at stake “for someone questioned and not at stake for Guillén’s honesty. It is a bad deal to change a general for two ministers, because what comes as a domino effect is the departure of the prime minister, Mirtha Vásquez, who supported Guillén until the end.
“Beyond left or right, Castillo shows great ineptitude as president in general. Castillo broke with the radical left and with the departure of Guillén he will break with the democratic left. In Peru there is an ‘ineptocracy’», denounced the former head of the Interior while adding that «in my modest opinion, Castillo suffers from permanent psychological unconsciousness. As if he were an actor in different successive works in opposing roles where he acts in all the works without causing problems. On the other side, I see no alternative either in Congress or elsewhere, because the majority of the political class has the same moral incapacity as him.
www.abc.es