This year, Pedro Castillo, the high-crowned sombrero music teacher who represented the hope of excluded regions, was sentenced to 11 years and five months in prison for conspiracy. Three years ago, on December 7, 2022, the President addressed the nation with his fearful brothers. He dissolved Congress, formed an exceptional government, issued a decree abolishing it, and announced the reorganization of the judicial system. The country entered a state of chaos. Castillo committed a self-coup, just as Alberto Fujimori did in 1992.
But his political maneuvering only lasted the blink of an eye. There are no war tanks on the streets. The armed forces died on its back and the union leader was arrested while heading to the Mexican embassy to seek asylum. Congress vacated her due to the inability to expand the position of mayor and appointed Dina Bolwarti as his successor. Hobo Queens said he was drugged, and that he was not in his cabalistic state. His lawyers and supporters denied the existence of the coup. All this time I maintained that it was just an attempt because he never fired a single weapon, and that more Castillo was a victim of the political class and power groups, which never lost the possibility of governing.
Born in the mountains north of Cajamarca, Pedro Castillo surprisingly won the 2021 election. He did not show up at the polls, and some journalists even joked about his chances. The second trip took place only with less than 20% of voters, in a struggle in which the vote was divided to the minimum level of expression. It was assumed by the Free Peruvian Party after the incapacitation of its leader, Vladimir Ceron, a doctor with Marxist-Leninist tendencies. Although he rejected the communist label on more than one occasion, Castillo was unable to completely isolate himself from the founder of his group. However, he managed to defeat Alberto Fujimori’s heir, his daughter Keiko.
Within 500 days of his term, the rural school teacher was accused of corruption and accused of conducting secret sessions outside the Palacio, in addition to favoring his family. He nominated 78 ministers, in a high rotation that reflects the instability of his period. The business community has always been on alert and this translates into lower private investment and slower economic growth. While he lost the support of the popular classes, a section of society was disappointed that his candidate was unable to bring about a turning point.
The judiciary decided that Castillo committed the crime of conspiracy only with Anibal Torres, the former head of the Council of Ministers who holds the same position as December 7, 2022: Betsy Chavez. According to the judge, both of them on the ground fully understood the content of the message addressed to the nation, as they participated in drafting it, in the palace. In addition, Chavez invited ministers on a day he considered “historic” and also irregularly joined a group of journalists. For a month, Chavez has been taking refuge in the Mexican embassy in Lima, awaiting safe conduct. The executive authority is resisting extraditing him, which has sparked a diplomatic crisis with the country headed by Claudia Sheinbaum.
In a desperate attempt, Pedro Castillo’s defense requested that the court be annulled before the verdict was read “to warn him of the serious and irreparable damage to the guarantees of impartiality and judicial independence.” However, the court found that the former president “attempted to attack the state authorities and the constitutional order” and that he intended to go to the Mexican embassy because he was being detained “red-handed in committing a crime.” True, during the hearing the judge decided to classify the crime as a conspiracy and not as a rebellion due to which the weapons were not attacked.
If the prosecution requested 19 years for the previous term due to the aggravating circumstances of being the country’s top official, the judge issued a prison sentence of 11 years, five months and 15 days without taking into account previous records. In addition to being banned from holding public office for two years. The court sentenced Betsy Chavez to the same penalty, even though she enjoys the protection of diplomatic asylum granted to her by the Mexican government.
For his part, lawyer Anibal Torres was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison. The conviction in the failed attempt was also set for former Interior Minister Willy Huerta, who was sentenced to 11 years, five months and 15 days in prison. Regarding former Minister Huerta, the fallen Sinala Chamber believed that Castillo had summoned him to the palace half an hour before the message and that this had facilitated his telephone call for the President to order the Congressional Office.
The execution of the sentence was temporarily suspended for both Torres and Huerta. In this way, Pedro Castillo will continue to abide by the rules in Barbadillo prison, along with former bosses Ollanta Humala, Alejandro Toledo and Martín Vizcarra, the last tenant.