image Source, fake images
Lilia Paredes with members of her family during a breakfast in the second round of the June 2021 presidential election, in Chota, Peru.
From an elementary school teacher to the first lady of Peru and, from there, to the asylum in Mexico, going through a web of accusations against her and her family.
This has been the last year and a half of Lilia Paredes, wife of former President Pedro Castillo, detained since December 7 accused of rebellion after trying to dissolve the Peruvian Congress and being dismissed by the same chamber.
This Wednesday, Lilia Paredes landed with her two children in Mexico, a country that has granted them political asylum. Before the flight, Castillo’s family was at the Mexican embassy in Lima.
They traveled after the chancellery granted Lilia and her children, Alondra and Arnold, a safe conduct.
“Political persecution does not exist,” emphasized the Peruvian Foreign Minister, Cecilia Gervasi, in a meeting without questions. But she did warn that, at any time, Peru can request the extradition of Paredes if it so requires.
Because the former first lady, 49, is the object of a preparatory investigation “as co-author of the crime of criminal organization”.
And not just her. alsoThree his sixhbrothers and sisters.
Accusations that Paredes rejects, although he insists on his respect for justice and his willingness to collaborate with it.
“Quiet, without gravitational influence”
Lilia Paredes was born in April 1973 in Anguía, in the province of Chota (Cajamarca), one of the poorest departments in the country.
In the local media they detail it as craftsman, weaver and farmer. And with one focus: religion, since his family belongs to the christian church of the nazarene.
She met Castillo in elementary school and, after a few years without seeing each other, they reconnected in high school. They have been married 21 years.
Until Pedro Castillo was elected president of Peru in 2021, he lived in the Chugur countryside, seven hours from Lima.
There she worked as a teacher and became involved in agricultural and livestock work.
“We will never forget where we are from,” he said in the local church shortly before leaving for the Peruvian capital.
Back in Lima, Paredes began his role as first lady with acts of a social nature. He was also in charge of the Spouse Support Office of the President of the Republic.
“Unlike other first ladies [de Perú], lilia has had a low profile, hasn’t had much exposurepublic“, Peruvian journalist Martín Riepl tells BBC Mundo.
image Source, EPA
The Peruvian Foreign Ministry granted safe conduct to Lilia Paredes, wife of former President Pedro Castillo, and her children to go to Mexico, after that country granted them asylum.
And it has been, he says, “silent, it has not had a gravitating influence”For example, Nadiene Heredia did have, in his day, “the power behind the power of Ollanta Humala.”
Very active in networks has not yet removed from his Twitter profile his paper first woman of the NATION.
the accusation
Paredes was not on the journalistic radar, explains Riepl, until the courts called her to testify in the corruption cases in which, in principle, only one of her sisters, Yenifer, was involved.
In August, a prosecutor from the Special Team against Energy Corruption singled out Paredes as part of a network in charge of granting public works for the benefit of his family along with his brothers and businessman Hugo Espino.
“It is considered to be the coordinator within the criminal organization headed by Pedro Castillo and the plot is related to the award of public works through the Ministry of Housing, whose former owner Geiner Alvarado is a fugitive”, says Riepl.
After a hearing in October, where the prosecution said that, if Paredes’ participation was proven, he could receive a sentence of between 8 and 10 years with four months in effective prison, The judge imposed a series of restrictions on the former first lady.
Specifically, submit to monthly control before the Public Ministry, report their activities and not be absent from their place of residence without judicial permission. All this for 36 months.
So when Paredes applied for asylum in Mexico after her husband’s arrest, it was not clear if she could, in fact, leave Peru for the North American country.
image Source, fake images
Before the announcement of the safe-conduct issued by the Peruvian Foreign Ministry, the The Appeals Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Nation annulled the restrictions that Walls.
“His asylum generates some debate [en Perú] from the point of view that someone who is being investigated for corruption is being released. But she is the mother of the two minors, if she gives them asylum to get out of a politically polarized, aggressive environment, it is very difficult for them not to be with any of her parents, ”says the Peruvian journalist.
The boys: Walter and David
Paredes is not the only member of her family involved in the investigation known in Peru as the “Anguía case.”
The prosecution also stated Walter and David, Lilia’s brothers, for the crimes of money laundering and criminal organization.
In the case of David, 32, the use of a company to prepare the technical file for some works in the province of Chota is being investigated. Walter, 40, is under attack for allegedly making payments for the same purpose.
Both, according to the hearing last October, They could face a sentence of 16 years in prison..
image Source, Congress of the Republic of Peru
Yenifer Paredes, the younger sister of Lilia Paredes, is almost a daughter of the Castillo couple and is also in the crosshairs of justice.
Until this week, David and Walter they had the same restrictions as their sister Liliathat is, the monthly control before the Public Ministry, the report of their activities and not absent from their home without authorization from the judge.
In addition, they were prohibited from going to the Government Palace, headquarters of the Transport and Housing ministries, as well as to various municipalities where these irregularities were allegedly committed.
But, as with the former first lady, the courts struck down these restrictions.
Yenifer, like a daughter
Of the Paredes siblings, Yenifer, the youngest, is like a daughter to the Castillos. The 26-year-old grew up with the couple. since I was a child.
For the Peruvian prosecutor’s office, Yenifer supposedly played a different role in the plot of the “Anguía case”, specifically, the one of lobbyist.
According to the Public Ministry, it was she who allegedly they recruited different mayors with the aim of accelerating projects in their municipalities and connected them with different owners of fictitious companiescreated and directed by people close to former President Castillo, to obtain public works contracts.
The preventive measures against Yenifer did go further and, in August, a judge ordered 30 months of preventive detention against her while the investigation continued.
Yenifer gave herself up after the authorities searched his house and the president’s palace and tAfter the dissemination by the State Prosecutor’s Office of a controversial vIGod where Castillo’s sister-in-law is seen taking steps to build a sanitation project in a town despite the fact that she did not hold any public office.
He was confined in the Chorrillos Women’s Prison until Octoberwhen a judge revoked the measure and he was released with restrictions, which, for now, include not leaving his home without notifying the Public Ministry and appearing promptly before the authorities if requested.
A story of corrupt families
In the case of Lilia Paredes, still under preliminary investigation, the alleged crime could have occurred in “apparent collusion with small businessmen and local governors” in eastern and northern Peru, in areas close to Cajamarca, “areas through which it has been transferred”. ”Riepl says.
This type of the plots are have previously given in the upper echelons of Peru.
“Nadine Heredia (Ollanta Humala’s wife) is being prosecuted for acts of corruption, her trial is already in the oral stage and she was also in pretrial detention; Eliane KarpeThe first lady of Alejandro Toledo, is also being investigated for corruption and is waiting for the request for extradition from Peru to the US, where they both live, to be resolved,” explains Riepl.
“It is not something new that the presidential family and the presidents find themselves in cases of this type“reaffirms.
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