Vacunagate: in Peru, they will test members of Congress to detect if they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus

LIMA.- The Congress of Peru unanimously approved an order of submission to all your legislators and many officials to a test to detect if any of them were illegally vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The measure, which was voted on yesterday after a five-hour debate and initially announced as mandatory, is “in fact an exhortation and not an obligation”, said today the leader of the popular action bench (AP, the party who proposed the motion), Franco Salinas, according to the Andina news agency.

Decision includes all 130 members of Congress, even those licensed, like the president Francisco Sagasti, as well as all those who have held positions of ministers and deputy ministers since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary committee investigating the scandal sparked by the revelation that nearly 500 people, including the former president Martin vizcarra and two women ministers of the current government were vaccinated before the start of the vaccination campaign. He continued to work today with the receipt of two testimonies, reported its chairman, Otto Guibovich, also from the PA.

In the meantime, the parliamentary sub-committee on constitutional charges will continue tomorrow its investigations into the misuse of vaccines by Vizcarra and former ministers Pilar Mazzetti and Elizabeth Astete, who have resigned in recent days after admitting to being unduly immunized, according to the president of this group, Carlos Pérez Ochoa (AP).

Sagasti confirmed that the case involved at least 487 people, including many officials and their spouses. Former Supreme Prosecutor Avelino Guillén, of outstanding work in the trial in which former President Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against humanity, said today that the The prosecution should charge a “criminal organization” to those involved in the irregular vaccination scandal.

“I think it’s practical to incorporate the type of criminal organization into investigations; This would give the prosecutor’s office greater legal tools to conduct a more thorough and speedy investigation, ”Guillén told Andina.

Guillén argued his position that, in his opinion, “everything shows that there has been planning and consultation at certain levels of public administration, particularly at the level of the vaccine negotiation and purchasing committee ”. Since the start of the pandemic.

Peru has accumulated 1,275,899 confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which 54,894 people had the active infection (14,693 of them were hospitalized) and 44,877 died of the disease, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, released yesterday evening.

Agency: Telam

THE NATION

More information