Peru’s electoral jury resumed work to settle poll result amid stormy waters

Peru’s electoral jury resumed work on Saturday to determine the winner of the elections, although he sails in troubled waters after discovering maneuvers from Vladimiro Montesinos prison to buy magistrates and turn the scales in favor of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of his former boss.

The magistrate Víctor Raúl Rodríguez joined the jury this Saturday, ending the paralysis caused by the desertion of another member three days ago, which impeded progress in the slow process of settling the vote challenges and proclamation of the new president.

In a brief ceremony, Rodríguez was sworn in in front of a crucifix and a Bible, while Peru still does not know who will be its new president after the tight ballot on June 6, the final vote of which gives leftist Pedro Castillo a 44,000 vote lead over his right-wing rival.

“Electoral justice cannot be paralyzed or blocked”said National Elections Jury Chief (JNE) Jorge Luis Salas, who was besieged by Fujimori even with protests outside his home, said after Rodriguez was sworn in.

The JNE has found a quorum to be able to meet, but He has no fixed mandate to resolve challenges and proclaim the new president.

The Catholic Church launched this Saturday a new call to respect “the results indicated by the electoral bodies”.

“It costs you three clubs”

The JNE is in the eye of the storm after the audio disclosure of Montesinos, Alberto Fujimori’s former intelligence chief, giving instructions over the phone from Callao Naval Base prison to buy three magistrates from the jury.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation, as did the Navy, since Montesinos, serving 25 years, called retired Fujimori soldier from landline phone in prison from the Base, although he was not allowed to call his partner.

The audios were released on Thursday by the former lawmaker Fernando Olivera, the same one who broadcast on September 14, 2000, on a cable channel, a video which showed Montesinos, then right-hand man of President Alberto Fujimori, bribing an opposition MP to join the ruling party.

During his first call, Montesinos asks the retired commander Pedro Rejas to speak with lawyer Guillermo Sendón so that He contacted three of the four JNE members to bribe them and prevent them from finally proclaiming Castillo the winner.

“This pod costs you three clubs [tres millones de dólares]. A stick for each ”magistrate, Sendón tells Rejas. The head of the JNE would not be contacted, according to the audios.

The lawyer alleged that he only colluded with Rejas to report an attempted fraud. “There was never any intention to buy anything because it’s absurd to think about it,” Sendón told RPP radio.

The first calls were made on June 10, but on June 23, Montesinos called Rejas again to insist on the marches.

“This is the only way, there is no other”, Rejas tells Montesinos in the audios, released on the same day that marks the 20th anniversary of the arrest of the once-all-powerful Peruvian intelligence chief in Venezuela.

“There is no other, there is no other, because it has been a long time […], But make you understood, dad or daughter [Alberto o Keiko]I don’t know who you’re talking to, what […] We are trying to help achieve a common goal, ”Montesinos, 76, told him.

And add: What do I get out of it? Nothing. I’m not interested and I’ll never ask for anything. I’m just trying to help because otherwise they fuck each other: the girl will end up in prison ”.

To lose the presidency, Fujimori on trial for money laundering in illegal contributions scandal by Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which also splashed four former presidents of Peru. The candidate, who denies the charges, faces a 30-year sentence and did not comment on the audios.

“Vladivideos”

When he came to power in 1990, Alberto Fujimori puts Montesinos at the head of the intelligence services, from where he becomes the gray eminence of a government then in open combat with the guerrillas of the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru.

A decade later, in September 2000, and with the government on the ropes, Montesinos fell out of favor with the release of videos that showed him bribing lawmakers to support Fujimori, who had just been re-elected for a third term. A crisis erupts which leads the president to leave for Japan and to fax his resignation.

In the following weeks, more “Vladivideos” and Montesinos fled to Venezuela, where he was arrested on June 24, 2001 and returned to Peru.

Carlos Mandujano and Francisco Jara for AFP

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