(AFP/VOZ MEDIA) Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, the strong man of the Government of Peru, resigned this Tuesday amid a scandal for alleged influence peddling in favor of a woman he called "love" in audios revealed by the press.
President Dina Boluarte thus loses her greatest support in the Government, with whom she dealt with the crisis that unleashed the repression of protests against her rise to power in December 2022, replacing the dismissed and imprisoned Pedro Castillo.
"In the conversation with the President of the Republic, I announced my decision to tender my resignation as President of the Council of Ministers," Otárola said in a press conference after his meeting with the president at the government headquarters in Lima.
Otárola, a 57-year-old lawyer, has served as the head of state's right-hand man since December 22, 2022. The outgoing prime minister had to interrupt an official mission in Canada and return to Peru this Tuesday, after the scandal unleashed by the publication of the recordings over the weekend.
The Panorama program, on the Panamericana Televisión channel, uncovered the audios where Otárola's voice is heard expressing affection towards a woman who in 2023 obtained two contracts with the State for 53,000 soles (about $14,000), as a technical administrative assistant in the Ministry of Defence.
"Tell me, then, love, to talk. You know that these things bother, they bother, but you know that I love you too," Otárola says to the 25-year-old girl.
"I'm not corrupt"
The woman mentioned in the audios, Yaziré Pinedo, assured on Tuesday that the audios are not recent but from 2021, when Otárola was not an official. However, at that time, she acknowledged having had a "perhaps sentimental relationship" with him for a few days.
In his appearance before the media, Otárola denied being "corrupt" and said that his departure was engineered by his political adversaries.
"Of course I am going to submit to all the investigations, but the expert opinion is going to be absolutely clear regarding the crude way in which these audios have been edited and presented to public opinion," said the until now chief of staff.
Despite rejecting again and again any act of corruption, he said that he decided to leave his position to prevent "the baseness" of his enemies from affecting the "governance of the country." According to the presidential spokesperson, with his decision he hopes to give "peace of mind to President Boluarte so that she can recompose her cabinet."
His departure from the government was practically consummated after the prosecutor's office announced on the social network X the opening of an investigation for corruption crimes.
📢 #LoÚltimo
El Ministerio Público informa lo siguiente: pic.twitter.com/9Qn7lvi54Z— Ministerio Público (@FiscaliaPeru) March 5, 2024
Otárola now faces a process for "incompatible negotiation, (in) grievance of the State" and "illegal sponsorship," according to the Public Ministry. Right and left groups in Congress, where the government lacks a bench, also demanded the resignation of the official.
