Congress files constitutional complaint against Ombudsman Walter Gutiérrez

Congressman Alex Flores Ramírez (Free Peru) filed a constitutional complaint against the Ombudsman, Walter Gutiérrez, before the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Constitutional Indictments. The reason given by the legislator was for an alleged “abuse of authority” in the face of constant pronouncements against President Pedro Castillo.

Flores Ramírez argued that Walter Gutiérrez has been issuing constant criticism and politicized judgments for some time, which “exceed his powers to the detriment of democratic principles.”

He said that, although the Political Constitution establishes that the Office of the Ombudsman has the power to supervise compliance with the duties of the public administration, the head of this entity would have been exceeding its prerogatives and releasing unsubstantiated statements in the press.

Therefore, through the complaint, he requested his dismissal and disqualification from holding public office for ten years.

“On the weekend (Walter Gutiérrez) demanded the resignation of the head of state, arguing a series of concepts of a personal nature and uses the Ombudsman's Office to attack the government of the day. And they are not isolated events, but a pattern of behavior, who does not lose how much opportunity they have to express opinions in which they show a political stance against the president of the Republic,” the Peruvian Libre congressman told RPP Noticias.

JUSTIFICATION OF THE CONGRESSMAN

In the complaint document, Congressman Alex Flores justified his action by stating that the lawyer has “acted on his own behalf to favor a certain political sector that claims that the President of the Republic does not fulfill the constitutional mandate to hold office for the five-year period.”

He noted that Gutiérrez violated article 39 of the Constitution, which mentions that “all public officials and workers are at the service of the Nation”. In addition, he mentioned that he violated article 36 of the Penal Code, on abuse of authority.

“In this case he has taken a party for the presidential resignation; that is, that cannot happen in an ombudsman, because he is a defender of all Peruvians, not just those who ask for resignation and, therefore, he is misusing this noble institution to give personal, political, biased opinions”, said in an interview with RPP Noticias.

“Already having this biased prejudice in favor of resignation, I don't think I would be a guarantor on behalf of all Peruvians. Therefore, what we are asking here is that the Lord confine himself to fulfilling the functions of an Ombudsman, remembering that he is the defender of all Peruvians, not just a sector that does not agree with the Government,” he added.

OMBUDSMAN ASKED PEDRO CASTILLO'S RESIGNATION

The incident mentioned by the legislator, where the Ombudsman had chosen to request the resignation of Pedro Castillo, occurred after the the curfew on 5 April and all the outcomes of the demonstrations in the capital. In addition, after this event, protests over the stoppage of carriers continued and the number of deaths increased.

In itself, through a document released on April 9, Walter Gutiérrez made a request to the president to resign.

“Renunciation is a form of solution that former leaders have turned to when they have noticed the seriousness of the crisis and understood that they themselves were an obstacle to finding a way out,” the document states.

For this reason, and in order to safeguard fundamental rights and public administration, “the Office of the Ombudsman demands that you () carry out an act responsible towards the country and loyal to the Constitution, proceeding to resign from office to begin a course of exit from this serious crisis”.

The head of the institution also recalled that, since Castillo came to power, they repeatedly warned that the provisions of the Constitution and the legal order were not being respected.

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