The Congress of Peru denied this Thursday the President Pedro Castillo the permission for him to travel to Bogotá, where he planned to attend on August 7 the acts of transmission of command of the elected president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro.
In total, 67 members of Congress voted against granting permission to Castillo, 42 voted in favor and there were 5 abstentions, with which Parliament denied the permission that Peruvian presidents must obtain from the chamber for any trip abroad.
When speaking in plenary, the deputies used different arguments to deny the permit; some claimed that there was a flight risksince the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Castillo for several cases of possible corruption, while others alleged that there is “an unprecedented presidential crisis.”
Castillo stands in his innocence
The Peruvian president denied this Thursday that he was obstructing Justice in the alleged corruption cases opened against him, hours after he went to the Prosecutor’s Office to give his testimony for one of them.
“I deny any attempt to obstruct justice, on the contrary, I reaffirm myself in always collaborating with the investigations that are required,” Castillo wrote on his Twitter account.
Early this Thursday, the president went to the headquarters of the Prosecutor’s Office, where he stated that is not part of “any criminal network”, as he later clarified to the press. In this sense, he reiterated in his Twitter message that he is not part of “a criminal network.”
“I am going to prove my innocence in any space, just as I told the Attorney General today. I have robbed no one, I have killed no oneeither. The people have put me here and I will always answer for the people”added in that social network, some words very similar to those used when leaving the Prosecutor’s Office.
In this regard, he clarified that “speculations continue to be woven” about his “declarations”, for which he indicated that “always” will collaborate “with justice”.
“I will not deal with media cases because I was elected as president of the Republic to work for the needs of all Peruvians (as),” he asserted.