[News] Former Peruvian Military Elites Call for Coup Against Castillo’s Victory

Anti-Imperialist News news at freedomarchives.org
Sun Jun 20 11:01:45 EDT 2021


https://orinocotribune.com/former-peruvian-military-elites-call-for-coup-against-castillos-victory/
Former
Peruvian Military Elites Call for Coup Against Castillo’s VictoryJune 20,
2021
------------------------------

Retired senior commanders of the Peruvian Army, Navy and Air Force, in
addition to junior officers, sent a letter to the Joint Command of the
Armed Forces (CCFA) in which they claim that there is an alleged “electoral
fraud,” and that if Pedro Castillo is proclaimed the winner of the
presidential election, the military institutes would not recognize him.

The letter, which cites incorrect information and unverified data, will not
be answered by either the CCFA, nor by the general commanders of the
military institutes, to whom the written communication was also sent,
sources from the Ministry of Defense reported.

The Ministry has refused to respond to the letter because it has detected
that at least four of the signatories are deceased persons: retired
Peruvian Army colonels Luis de la Cruz Centellas and Walter Núñez Carbajal,
Captain Alejandro Muñante Salazar and Commander Carlos Mascaró Solís. The
Republic verified in the identity records of the aforementioned officers
that they have indeed died. For this reason, the Ministry of Defense
considers the letter to be of doubtful origin.

Among those who signed the letter are four retired generals of Army
divisions, 17 retired vice admirals, and 27 retired lieutenant generals of
the Navy. Several served during the Alberto Fujimori regime and were
involved in notorious corruption cases, such as the Police Military Pension
Fund and the purchase of war equipment.

RELATED CONTENT: Peru at the Brink of Civil War? The Uprising of the
Dispossessed
<https://orinocotribune.com/peru-at-the-brink-of-civil-war-the-uprising-of-the-dispossessed/>

Also noteworthy among the signatories are the former heads of the CCFA,
Vice Admirals (retired) José Aste Daffós and Frank Boyle Alvarado, and
Major General (retired) Benigno Cabrera Pino who is currently a congressman
for UPP. In addition, the former Army commanders during the Ollanta Humala
government, Major Generals (retired) Víctor Ripalda Ganoza and Ricardo
Moncada Novoa.

Without providing any proof, and only referring to the Fujimori press
campaign, the signatories attribute to the National Office of Electoral
Processes (ONPE) and the National Elections Jury (JNE) a supposed
conspiracy to ignore allegations of irregularities in the second round, for
which “an illegal and illegitimate president” would be proclaimed, they
claim, in reference to Pedro Castillo.

*They invented a fraud*
“We believe that the Armed Forces would not be able to accept an
illegitimately proclaimed supreme leader as a result of fraud,” the
ex-military men pointed out in the letter, without providing any evidence
supporting their claim. So far, neither the ONPE nor the JNE have detected
any proof of electoral fraud in the second round of the presidential
election in Peru, held on June 6.

In one of the most questionable aspects of the letter, the signatories
demand the intervention “of the highest commanders of the military” so that
they can prevent “the highest authority of the country from being
designated illegally and illegitimately as a consequence of a crime [the
alleged fraud].”

In addition, they even insist that the military institutes “would have the
right to non-obedience and therefore to ignore as president and supreme
head of the Armed Forces a person who has been appointed in violation of
the Constitution.”

RELATED CONTENT: Astounding Victory in Peru of Socialist Candidate for
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The signatories do not provide evidence in support of their statements;
they simply repeat the falsehoods that are circulating on social media and
reproduce the reports of the media that support Keiko Fujimori and her
claims of alleged electoral fraud.

“It is unacceptable that these ex-military people think they can address
the nation,” denounced constitution expert Walter Albán. ”This confirms
what some had suspected and I am now inclined to believe it. We are in a
situation where there is a strategy that seeks to create an environment of
anxiety to incite provocation. This is in line with what is happening in
the streets, with mobilizations, harangues and sit-ins.”

Albán, interpreting the content of the letter from the retired officers,
considered that the signatories may be involved in a conspiracy to commit a
rebellion.

“What this group of retired officers is doing is that they are urging the
commanders of the Armed Forces and the head of the Joint Command of the
Armed Forces not to recognize the next president to be proclaimed, in the
event this announcement is made, and the bogus complaints by Keiko Fujimori
over the second electoral round get dismissed,” explained another
constitution expert, Omar Cairo.

“The Armed Forces do not have the right to determine whether the procedure
carried out by the National Elections Jury is valid or not,” continued
Cairo. ”There are mechanisms to question them in the legal system, and none
of those mechanisms consists of the Armed Forces examining and deciding
whether the resolutions issued by the National Elections Jury are valid or
not. Neither can the Armed Forces denyrefuse to recognize a president,
claiming that the complaints filed in the second round of the election have
not been dismissed. It appears that we are facing an instigation to commit
the crime of rebellion.”

About 400 retired officers from the Army, 600 from the Navy and 300 from
the Air Force have reportedly signed the letter.

*Featured image: The Peruvian Ministry of Defense considers apocryphal the
letter signed by several ex-military men, including some who have already
died (Photo: La Radio del Sur).*

(Mision Verdad
<https://misionverdad.com/ex-altos-mando-militares-peruanos-llaman-al-golpe-contra-el-triunfo-de-castillo>
)

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/JRE/SC


<https://orinocotribune.com/author/orinocotribune/>
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