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image source, Getty Images
Lilia Paredes with members of her family during a breakfast in the second round of the presidential vote in June 2021, in Chota, Peru.
From an elementary school teacher to the first lady of Peru and, from there, to the asylum in Mexico, going through a plot of accusations once morest her and her family.
This has been the last year and a half of Lilia Paredes, the wife of former President Pedro Castillo, who has been detained since December 7 accused of rebellion following trying to dissolve the Peruvian Congress and being dismissed by the same chamber.
This Wednesday, Lilia Paredes landed with his two children in Mexico, a country that has granted them political asylum. Before the flight, Castillo’s family was at the Mexican embassy in Lima.
They traveled following the chancellery granted Lilia and her children, Alondra and Arnold, a safe conduct.
“There is no such thing as political persecution,” emphasized Peruvian Foreign Minister Cecilia Gervasi in a no-questions-asked meeting. But she did issue a warning, that Peru can request the extradition of Paredes at any time if required.
Because the former first lady, 49, is the object of a preparatory investigation “as a co-author of the crime of criminal organization”.
And not just her. Alsothree his sixhbrothers.
Accusations that Paredes rejects, although he insists on his respect for justice and his willingness to collaborate with it.
“Silent, no gravitating influence”
Lilia Paredes was born in April 1973 in Anguía, in the province of Chota (Cajamarca), one of the poorest departments in the country.
In the local media they detail it as artisan, weaver and farmer. And with a focus: religion, since his family belongs to the Christian Church of the Nazarene.
He met Castillo in elementary school and, following a few years without seeing each other, they resumed contact in secondary education. They have been married 21 years.
Until Pedro Castillo was elected president of Peru in 2021, he lived in the Chugur countryside, seven hours from Lima.
There she worked as a teacher and got involved in farm work and livestock.
“We are never going to forget where we are from,” he said in the local church shortly before leaving for the Peruvian capital.
Back in Lima, Paredes began his role as first lady with acts of a social nature. He was also in charge of the Spouse Support Office of the President of the Republic.
“Unlike other first ladies [de Perú], Lilia has had a low profile, hasn’t had much exposurepublic“, Peruvian journalist Martín Riepl tells BBC Mundo.
image source, EPA
The Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted safe conduct to Lilia Paredes, wife of former President Pedro Castillo, and their children to go to Mexico, following that country granted them asylum.
And it has been, he says, “silent, has not had a gravitating influence”as for example, Nadiene Heredia did have in his day, “the power behind the power of Ollanta Humala.”
Very active in networks has not yet removed from his Twitter profile his paper first lady of the Nation.
The accusation
Paredes was not on the journalistic radar, explains Riepl, until the courts called her to testify for the corruption cases in which, in principle, only one of her sisters, Yenifer, was involved.
In August, a prosecutor from the Special Team once morest Power Corruption pointed out to Paredes as part of a network in charge of granting public works for the benefit of his family along with his brothers and businessman Hugo Espino.
“It is considered to be the coordinator within the criminal organization headed by Pedro Castillo and the plot is related to the adjudication of public works through the Ministry of Housing, whose former owner Geiner Alvarado is a fugitive,” says Riepl.
After a hearing in October, where the prosecution said that, if Paredes’ participation was proven, he might receive a sentence of between 8 and 10 years with four months in effective prison, The judge imposed a series of restrictions on the former first lady.
Specifically, submit to monthly control before the prosecutor’s office, report their activities and not be absent from their place of residence without judicial permission. All this for 36 months.
So, when Paredes applied for asylum in Mexico following her husband’s arrest, it was not clear if she might, in fact, leave Peru for the North American country.
image source, Getty Images
Before the announcement of the safe-conduct issued by the Peruvian Foreign Ministry, the Appeals Chamber of the National Superior Court of Justice annulled the restrictions it had Paredes.
“His asylum generates some debate [en Perú] from the point of view that someone who is being investigated for corruption is being released. But she is the mother of the two minors, if she gives them asylum to get out of a politically polarized, aggressive environment, it is very difficult for them not to be with either of their parents, “says the Peruvian journalist.
The boys: Walter and David
Paredes is not the only one in her family who is involved in the investigation known in Peru as the “Anguía case.”
The prosecution also pointed to Walter and David, Lilia’s brothers, for the crimes of money laundering and criminal organization.
In the case of David, 32, the use of a company to prepare the technical file for some works in the province of Chota is being investigated. Walter, 40, is being targeted for allegedly making payments for the same purpose.
Both, according to the hearing last October, They might face a sentence of 16 years in prison..
image source, Congress of the Republic of Peru
Yenifer Paredes, the younger sister of Lilia Paredes, is almost a daughter to the Castillo couple and is also in the crosshairs of justice.
Until this week, David and Walter they had the same restrictions as their sister Liliathat is, the monthly control before the prosecutor’s office, the report of their activities and not absent from their residence without permission from the judge.
In addition, they were prohibited from going to the Government Palace, the headquarters of the Transport and Housing ministries, as well as various municipalities where these irregularities were allegedly committed.
But, as with the former first lady, the courts overturned these restrictions.
Yenifer, like a daughter
Of the Paredes siblings, Yenifer, the youngest, is like a daughter to the Castillos. The 26-year-old grew up with the couple since I was a child.
For the Peruvian prosecutor’s office, Yenifer supposedly fulfilled a different role in the “Anguía case” plot, specifically, the one of lobbyist.
According to the Public Ministry, it was she who allegedly recruited different mayors with the aim of accelerating projects in their municipalities and connected them with different owners of fictitious companiescreated and directed by people close to former President Castillo, to obtain public works contracts.
The preventive measures once morest Yenifer did go further and, in August, a judge ordered 30 months of preventive detention once morest her while the investigation continued.
Yenifer gave herself up following the authorities searched his house and the president’s palace and tAfter the dissemination by the State prosecution of a controversial video where Castillo’s sister-in-law is seen taking steps to build a sanitation work in a town even though she did not hold any public office.
He was confined in the Chorrillos Women’s Prison until Octoberwhen a judge revoked the measure and she was released with restrictions, which, for now, include not leaving her home without notifying the Public Ministry and appearing promptly before the authorities if requested.
A story of corrupt families
In the case of Lilia Paredes, still undergoing a preliminary investigation, the alleged crime might have occurred in “apparent collusion with small businessmen and local governors” in eastern and northern Peru, in areas close to Cajamarca, “areas for which she has been moved,” says Riepl.
This type of plots will have previously given in the upper echelons of Peru.
“Nadine Heredia (Ollanta Humala’s wife) is being prosecuted for acts of corruption, her trial is already in the oral stage and she was also in pretrial detention; Eliane KarpAlejandro Toledo’s first lady, is also being investigated for corruption and is waiting to see if the extradition request from Peru to the US, where they both live, is resolved,” explains Riepl.
“It is not something new that the presidential family and presidents are in cases of this type“reaffirms.
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