at the plenary session of the Congress Peru This Tuesday approved the project to advance the April 2024 general election in the country.With the goal that the mandate of the current authorities of the Executive and Legislature will expire at the end of July of that year and not in the same month of 2026. The project, presented by the chairman of the Congressional Constitutional Commission, Fujimori Hernando Guerra, received 93 votes in favor, 30 against and 1 abstention in the first vote that must be approved in the next ordinary legislature. A constitutional reform, the norm required a minimum of 87 votes to be submitted to a second vote in the next legislature, or 66 votes to be put to a referendum.
The current legislative session, which was due to finish last week, has been extended to February 28 by the general assembly, while the second legislature of the regular term 2022-2023 should begin on March 1 next year. approved standard Changes the constitutional length of President Dina Boluarte’s term130 members of Congress and representatives of the Andean Parliament through a provisional provision stating that the President’s term ends on July 28, 2024, and legislators two days earlier, on July 26.
The decision by Congress was made after the approval of the plenary session on the same Tuesday to reconsider the initial project for December 2023 election progress, following a vote last week rejecting the initiative. To be precise, Peruvian electoral system organizations noted this Tuesday that the closest date for the completion of a new presidential and legislative election process is December 2023.
parliamentary debate
Congressman Guerra initially argued that parliamentarians should “leave by December 2023”, but later added that “there are different positions” and that Congress should “have a democratic debate.” In this sense, the final project restarted the Executive’s initial approach, which originally suggested that elections be held in April 2024. to include electoral system and political parties reforms in the country. During support for the project, which was approved this Tuesday, Guerra said it was “considering what has been stated by electoral bodies, which confirms the need to keep deadlines”. He thought that the “between the first and second vote” that should be held in Congress, the consultation of a possible referendum for the constituent assembly, the debate on electoral proposals such as bicameralism, splitting the legislature in half, renewing it, should continue. Elimination of electronic voting and vote of confidence in the Council of Ministers.
During the debate, left-wing lawmakers approved their demands consultation on the convening of a constituent assembly, a position rejected by representatives of right-wing party boards. While Guerra wanted the lawmakers to vote positively for the project, “It will be our votes that can bring peace to our country today.” said.
President Boluarte assures himself that he is a “transitional government” and has decided not to terminate his term, interpreting “the will of the citizens in the broadest way”, referring to the protests and violent demonstrations that erupted in the country. It has left 26 dead so far. Boluarte took office on December 7, replacing Pedro Castillo, who was dismissed by Congress after ordering the dissolution of Parliament.
expulsion of the Mexican ambassador
Peruvian Government Pablo Monroy, Mexico’s ambassador to Lima, declared persona non grata this Tuesdayand gave him 72 hours to leave the country of the Andes in response to what they thought was “interference” by the “high authorities” of the North American nation. gave the former president’s family safe passage to this country, which granted asylum. “I declare that the Peruvian Government has declared Pablo Monroy, the Mexican Ambassador in Peru, persona non grata because of repeated statements by the highest authorities of that country (…) of an interfering and damaging nature in our internal affairs. Foreign Minister Ana Cecilia “Gervasi violates the principle of non-intervention,” he said in a statement to the press.
Also, the foreign minister announced that the Government has given security clearance to Mexico, which granted asylum to former President Pedro Castillo’s wife, Lilia Paredes, and their children. And he pointed out that he had informed the Government of that nation that Paredes was being investigated for a petty crime and not “political persecution”. “The State Department has taken action to ensure safe passage to the named persons. The Mexican Government has been informed by this State Department that Ms. Lilia Paredes has been included in a preliminary investigation as the author of the prescribed and foreseen crime syndicate sanction,” said the State Department. Minister.
While he said he gave the trust to Paredes and his “two underage children”, he did not mention Yenifer Paredes, who is Castillo’s wife’s younger sister but who was raised as a daughter by the presidential couple and who is also. An investigation was launched by the prosecutor’s office on the allegation of membership in a criminal organization. “The Government firmly reiterates that there is no political persecution and that respect prevails over the guarantees of the Rule of Law, separation of powers and administration of Justice, including due process,” Gervasi said.
A short time later, in a statement made by the same Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “They The statements of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are particularly worrying. He spoke of the state of emergency declared by the Peruvian Government on 16 and 19 December, and the democratic order and legality in the country, and the arrest of former President Castillo. “The Mexican president’s statements are particularly serious in conditions where the country is facing a situation of violence incompatible with the exercise of everyone’s legitimate right to peacefully demonstrate,” the ministry said.
This Tuesday, the Mexican Government confirmed that the country granted political asylum to the Castillo family. “Asylum has already been granted because they are on Mexican soil, that is, they are at our Embassy and you have given them asylum when they are in the Embassy, it is an independent and sovereign decision of Mexico,” said Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. , at López Obrador’s morning press conference.