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<font size="1"><a href="https://orinocotribune.com/former-peruvian-military-elites-call-for-coup-against-castillos-victory/">https://orinocotribune.com/former-peruvian-military-elites-call-for-coup-against-castillos-victory/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Former Peruvian Military Elites Call for Coup Against Castillo’s Victory</h1>June 20, 2021</div>
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<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><a href="https://orinocotribune.com/peru-at-the-brink-of-civil-war-the-uprising-of-the-dispossessed/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT: Peru at the Brink of Civil War? The Uprising of the Dispossessed</a></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><strong>They invented a fraud</strong><br>
“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.</p>
<p>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].”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p><a href="https://orinocotribune.com/astounding-victory-in-peru-of-socialist-candidate-for-president/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT: Astounding Victory in Peru of Socialist Candidate for President</a></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>About 400 retired officers from the Army, 600 from the Navy and 300 from the Air Force have reportedly signed the letter.</p>
<p><em>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).</em></p>
<p>(<a href="https://misionverdad.com/ex-altos-mando-militares-peruanos-llaman-al-golpe-contra-el-triunfo-de-castillo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mision Verdad</a>)</p>
<p>Translation: Orinoco Tribune</p>
<p>OT/JRE/SC</p>
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