Ex-secretary and two nephews of Peru’s president accused of corruption

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A Peruvian judge ordered on Tuesday three years of preventive imprisonment for the former presidential secretary and two nephews of President Pedro Castillo while they are investigated at the prosecutorial level for corruption.

Former secretary Bruno Pacheco and the two nephews, Gian Marco Castillo and Fray Vásquez, are fugitives. They are under investigation for allegedly favoring a company that did not meet the requirements to build a bridge in the Amazon. They are accused of aggravated conspiracy, influence peddling, and criminal organization against the State.

Prosecutor Karla Zecenarro told the judge that her hypothesis included President Castillo but that this investigation corresponds to the Attorney General’s Office, which in January indicated that the investigations against the president were frozen until the end of his government in 2026.

A would-be collaborator has told the prosecutor’s office that the president was the leader of a criminal organization that sought to receive money in exchange for infrastructure projects. Castillo has denied these allegations.

In March, a government commission offered an US$8,000 reward for key information on former secretary Pacheco, 51, whose US$20,000 was discovered by prosecutors in November in a bathroom at the presidential palace and whose provenance he could not consistently explain.

The commission also offers US$4,000 for each of the president’s nephews. The three defendants are prohibited from leaving the country.

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