Daniel Lozano
Updated Wednesday, March 6, 2024-02:07
There are loves that kill, as the song that is being sung again in Peru says after the scandal involving the all-powerful prime minister,
Alberto Otárola
.
The disclosure of a
conversation with the young Yaziré Pinedo
has placed the strong man of the government and
the main pillar of the parliamentary alliance that keeps President
Dina Boluarte
on Pizarro's Chair against all odds
.
The scandal that mixes love and corruption has sentenced Otárola, a specialist in surviving one crisis after another: from the fifty deaths from the repression of December 2022, when he was Minister of Defense, which continued in January 2023 as ' premier', until the controversial pardon of former dictator Alberto Fujimori.
All of this without support from the country, since the
very low popularity ratings
of an administration disliked by Peruvians barely exceed 10%.
The president ordered Otárola to
immediately return from Canada
, where he was on an official trip.
Local media report that despite the closeness between the two (Otárola served as a lawyer for the vice president of the coup plotter Pedro Castillo), Boluarte
has asked him to resign immediately
.
The Prosecutor's Office has also opened proceedings after learning the content of the audios and eight parliamentary groups have demanded the resignation of the politician.
Despite the political earthquake unleashed in Lima, Otárola does not give in, one of his great specialties.
"I reiterate that I have not committed any illegal act
," said the prime minister when getting on the plane to Lima, a political destination even more cruel after the statements of the Fujimori spokesman, Eduardo Castillo, who after the first hesitation encouraged his ally. to "step aside."
"The premier of love"
and
"Hot audio demolishes Otárola"
headlined the most belligerent Lima newspapers on their front pages, after hearing how the prime minister spoke in words directed at his young friend, 25 years old, hired by the Ministry of Defense. at a rate of 53,000 soles, 13,000 euros at the exchange rate.
Covers that will be nourished for a time by his adventures, since
up to seven women obtained contracts
with the State after visiting Otárola in his office.
Among them, Sandra Inés Ramírez, Nathaly Torres and Rosenith Pinedo stand out, who appear in the parliamentary interpellation motion launched by Cambio Democrático.
"If you don't want to see me, it doesn't matter, but pass it on to me (résumé), I want to help you," the audio broadcast to Otárola is heard addressing the young woman, who reluctantly answers, "it's okay, I'll pass it on to you."
Immediately, the prime minister launches into asking Pinedo: "
And when do you show yourself to be seen? And when do I see you?"
.
"I don't know, I don't feel well,"
the young woman continues without any enthusiasm, unlike her interlocutor, who insists: "Tell me then, love, to talk. You know that these things bother, they bother, but
you know that I "I want too
. And I'm very sorry that you feel that you don't."
Reluctantly convinced, Pinedo gave in: "Well, okay. Okay, okay."
Otárola then insisted on seeing her the next day and the young woman agreed, which she took advantage of to insist that he send her her resume.
After the brilliant reconciliation, the president's former lawyer asks her about her kittens, who apparently are accompanying her in her love mourning.
"
Do you love me?
The only thing I want to know is whether you love me or not," the man asks, to which she responds with her usual reluctance: "
That doesn't change
, I've already told you."
Convinced, Otárola says goodbye with "that's enough, I love you and I adore you."
The young woman took advantage of the situation to appear on television on Monday, in what seemed like a defense of the politician with whom she claimed to have had a romantic relationship "for a week or so."
Pinedo maintained that the audio dates back to 2021, when Otárola was not a public official, and that behind its dissemination lies a conspiracy hatched by former president Martín Vizcarra and Nicanor Boluarte, the president's brother, with the aim of "putting his people (in the government)".
The expected dismissal of Otárola will mean a before and after for Boluarte, who succeeded the leftist Pedro Castillo, now imprisoned.
"The regime built on brutal repression is dying. Three options on the horizon: Congress and economic power finish taking over the cabinet; transition to 2026 agreed above with a large cabinet and presidential resignation and elections for 2025," said political scientist Juan de la Puente .