Zoraida Ávalos ends her term as Prosecutor of the Nation

After three years, on Tuesday, March 29, Zoraida Ávalos ceased to be in charge of the Public Ministry and said goodbye to those with whom he worked through a message from the institution's Twitter account. The former prosecutor of the Nation recalled the difficult conditions in which she had to hold office, especially in the midst of the pandemic of COVID-19 that is not yet over.

“During the three years of administration, two were spent in the midst of a pandemic; and the entire period in times of upheaval and political crisis. One fact that allows us to graph the criticism of the times we faced is the fact that in such a short period of time the country has had four presidents of the Republic and three different Congresses of the Republic,” said Ávalos.

In addition, he stressed that given the difficult political scene he had to cross, he had to make various complaints to members of the political class. “I have had to hold the dignified position of prosecutor of the Nation in the most difficult times in recent republican history, and this shows that, in these three years, my office has filed more than 40 constitutional complaints against senior officials from presidents of the Republic, ministers of state, congressmen of the Republic, judges and supreme prosecutors, among others,” he said on the Twitter account of the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Among the most memorable allegations is that made against the former president of the republic, Martín Vizcarra Cornejo, originated after the Richard Swing case for the crimes of aggravated traffic in influence, willful embezzlement for appropriation for third parties and the crime of incompatible negotiation. The complaint also reaches former Ministers of Culture: Patricia Balbuena Palacios, Ulla Holmquist Pachas and Sonia Guillén Oneeglio, for events related to the hiring of Richard Cisneros to the Ministry of Culture, between 2018 and 2020.

“A clear evidence that supports this statement is the fact that those investigated and denounced belong to different political sectors and different institutions, which is, in addition, tangible proof that they held office with total autonomy and independence, without any bias,” he added.

COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP

If anything has characterized the passage of Ávalos in charge of the Public Ministry, it has been the tense relationship between the political class that demanded actions from him at times while in others accused her of colluding with those who considered her political rivals. During his three years in office, he received several attacks that he mentioned in his farewell statement.

“If the personalization of attacks puts institutions and their autonomy to good safety, and we have not gone back a millimeter in their defense, that will be the cost to be paid. Our main duty has been and will be to defend the autonomy and independence of the institution against all alleged interference,” he stressed.

At the end, Zoraida Avalos said she had “sufficient authority” and stressed that she never tried to influence in lower instances in order to harm or favor anyone. “My statements are fully consistent with my actions,” he said. It should be recalled that there were those who accused her of favoring President Pedro Castillo so that he could not be investigated.

In addition, the president of the republic himself, Pedro Castillo, pointed to her as part of a plot that seeks to destabilize the country after the statements that Karelim López offered to the prosecutor's office in his attempt to become an effective collaborator were known. “In this regard, I strongly reject the saying of the President of the Republic that we as the Public Prosecutor's Office would be in a plot. That's a lie. It is common knowledge that we have various investigations against various sectors. Nobody is going to say that the Public Prosecutor's Office works with political bias,” Avalos said at the time.

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