The session culminates a rapid process, after several failed attempts due to lack of legal support, to behead a judicial body whose importance lies in the fact that it evaluates, appoints and dismisses judges and prosecutors from all over the country and at all levels.
The vice president of the JNJ, Aldo Vásquez, declared today that a sector of the (majority) congress intends to overwhelm the justice system with the defenestration of the members of the board, which would affect democratic stability and the fight against corruption.
Vásquez added that he trusts a sector of Congress that has avoided attacks against the junta, will prevent decapitation of the JNJ, which is promoted by extreme right-wing groups that defend the suspended prosecutor.
The board added that the total or partial dismissal of its members would leave it without a quorum and paralyze the ongoing disciplinary processes, the main one being the investigation of the Attorney General, Patricia Benavides, for improper exchange of favors with congressmen.
The organization also appoints the heads of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONP) and the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (Reniec), officials who are in the process of renewal and who are also the object of parliamentary hostility.
Social and human rights organizations closed ranks in defense of the JNJ and called for popular mobilization against the parliamentary escalation against them.
The leader of the National Human Rights Coordinator, Jennie Dador, warned that the congressional offensive aims to “control and capture Peruvian democracy” with the dominance of electoral organizations, which includes the National Election Jury.
Germán Altamirano, representative of the National Unitary Struggle Command (CNUL), a bloc of social organizations and progressive parties, stated that Congress seeks impunity for those responsible for 50 deaths in the repression of social protests and to do so seeks to reinstate the suspended prosecutor Benavides.
On the external front, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about measures against the JNJ, which were also raised by US parliamentarians Ben Cardin and Tim Kaine.
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