AMERICAS PRESS REVIEW
In the spotlight: arrest of three senior police officers in Peru suspected of corruption
Impeached Peruvian President Pedro Castillo and former Prime Minister Anibal Torres during their appearance before anti-corruption prosecutors at the attorney general's office in Lima on December 7, 2022 (illustrative image).
© Peru's General Prosecutor's Office/Handout via REUTERS
Text by: Stefanie Schüler Follow
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In Peru, the public prosecutor and criminal police officers carried out a large-scale operation on Monday, December 26, against a system of corruption within the Peruvian army and police.
A system linked, according to the authorities, to the ousted president, Pedro Castillo.
Six people, including three generals of the PNP, the national police of Peru, were arrested at the same time in several cities of the country, announces
La Republica
.
“
The agents also searched two residences of the former Minister of Defense, Walter Ayala, and seized computers and documents there
”
.
The newspaper explains that the personalities targeted by this real "
net
" are suspected of having promoted, in exchange for money, officers within the PNP and the army, so they did not meet the conditions. required for the positions thus obtained.
The conservative newspaper
Correo
hails "
a very healthy purge of the state
": the ex-president "
Castillo thought that by having pawns, particularly in the provinces, people capable of mobilizing the population in his favor and against the Congress, he could avoid jail.
But he was wrong
, ”rejoices the editorialist.
Moreover, it will be necessary "
as a matter of urgency to repair the damage inflicted by the government of Pedro Castillo on Peruvian institutions
"
, warns
El Comercio
.
“
It is only with the actions taken by the Public Ministry regarding the cases of irregular promotions in the Armed Forces and the Peruvian National Police that we are beginning to understand the full extent of the problem.
»
Haiti: Do Haitian police officers use armored vehicles as “
taxis
”?
This is in any case what reveals the RNDDH, the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights.
In Croix-des-Bouquets, a fully gang-controlled commune not far from Port-au-Prince, police "
found a way to make money by using armored vehicles from the Haitian National Police as a means transportation ,
”
reports
Le National
.
"
A service to the highest bidder
"
, continues the daily, with prices ranging from the equivalent of "
17 to 500 US dollars per passenger
"
.
Still according to information from RNDDH, the police also get paid to accompany convoys of goods: “
A truck that transports vegetables pays between 2
500 and
5,000 gourdes
;
the sum varies between 700 and
1,000 US dollars if it is a question of protecting containers coming from the Dominican Republic.
"The actions of these agents "
are in contradiction with the code of ethics and the internal regulations of the national police of Haiti
"
, underlines
Le National.
These revelations can be found “
in correspondence sent by the National Network for the Defense of Human Rights to the chief inspector general of the PNH, Fritz Saint-Fort
”, reports
Le Nouvelliste
.
These questionable practices by the police at Croix-des-Bouquets seem to be the cause of the death of one of their brothers in arms, Lincoln Bien-Aimé.
This member of the Office for the Fight against Drug Trafficking was unable to board a PNH armored vehicle on the morning of December 2.
The police inside the vehicle told him that there was no more room.
Lincoln Bien-Aimé was then assassinated by the 400 Mawozo gang, without his colleagues on board the tank coming to his aid, the newspaper explains, citing information from RNDDH.
The organization for the defense of human rights also underlines the new blow that this case has on the credibility of the police institution.
“
Today, how can we believe that the police are actually working to restore order in Haiti, when the material and the equipment are trafficked by those who are called upon to fight banditry, in a context of generalized insecurity where life costs nothing
?
asks the RNDDH
.
Chile on the way to a new constitutional process
The Chilean Senate committee unanimously adopted on Monday December 26 the timetable on which the right and left parliamentarians had agreed on December 12.
“
The new process which will take place in three stages
”
, recalls the portal
Bio Bio Chile
: from January, the parliament will appoint 24 people.
This committee of experts will draft the new Constitution.
This text will have to be validated by a Constitutional Council of 50 representatives elected by the Chileans in the spring during a compulsory ballot.
And finally, a committee made up of 14 specialists will have to guarantee the legal feasibility of the new Constitution, which will be submitted to a referendum on November 26, specifies the website.
But before being definitively launched, this new constitutional process must still pass the examination of the plenary session of the two chambers.
According to
La Nacion
, this vote could take place as early as Wednesday, December 28.
The law, which sets the timetable, must then obtain at least an absolute majority.
The daily
La Tercera
specifies that “
parliamentarians will still be able to make changes to the form, but nothing more to the substance
”
.
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