Pablo Sánchez replaces Zoraida Ávalos and becomes the new interim prosecutor of the Nation

One of the supreme prosecutors of the Nation, Pablo Sánchez Velarde, becomes the new prosecutor of the Nation on an interim basis, he will take office until June of this year. Zoraida Ávalos left office yesterday, March 29, after holding office for three years for which she was elected.

Sánchez Velarde became public prosecutor of the Nation in accordance with the Organic Law of the Public Prosecutor's Office, in his capacity as the oldest senior supreme prosecutor. According to this rule, when the Board of Senior Supreme Prosecutors cannot meet and therefore cannot elect a national prosecutor, the position rests with the highest tenured supreme prosecutor in office.

This is the second time that Sánchez has taken over the Office of the Prosecutor of the Nation on an interim basis, since he did so between January and July 2015, following the suspension of the then prosecutor of the Nation, Carlos Ramos Heredia. In July 2015, the Board of Supreme Prosecutors ratified it and elected it as the incumbent prosecutor of the Nation for the three-year term, until July 2018.

Remember that in 2019, Pedro Chávarry had to resign from office in January 2019, due to the confrontation he had with the Lava Jato Special Team and ; the scandal of 'Los Cuellos Blancos del Puerto'. In addition, Avalos also held the Office of the Prosecutor of the Nation on an interim basis, following Chávarry's resignation, but by agreement of the Board of Supreme Prosecutors. Today the Board of Supreme Prosecutors, which requires a minimum quorum of three incumbent supreme prosecutors, cannot operate, so Pablo Sánchez must assume.

What is expected is that by the first week of June, the National Board of Justice will have already elected two new incumbent supreme prosecutors, which would allow the Board of Supreme Prosecutors to regain a quorum and be able to elect a new prosecutor of the Nation.

According to our sources, Zoraida Ávalos and Pablo Sánchez evaluated for several weeks the legal possibility of extending the mandate of the current national prosecutor. However, no legal way out was found.

At another time, the former prosecutor of the Nation recalled the difficult conditions in which she had to hold office, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that is not yet ending.

“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 of 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.

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