Santiago Peña “interfered” in the Erico Galeano case and maintaining it is a “hypocrisy,” says former minister
Former Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez said today that the President of the Republic, Santiago Peña, “interfered” in the case of the Cartista senator Erico Galeano, accused in the framework of the operation A Ultranza. “It is really very worrying and we are talking about a constitutional violation,” she said.

During the opening session of the 54th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), President Santiago Peña had declared that “organized crime is a threat that transcends borders” although there are people in his entourage who are being investigated for this, such as the Cartista senator Erico Galeano , indicted and accused of criminal association and money laundering from drug trafficking .

In this regard, former Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez considered it “very worrying” that Peña had interfered in the handling of the case as president, since this would imply a “constitutional violation” in reference to the powers of the State and their independence.

“He said it was a judicial issue and this is no small matter; we are talking about political issues that do not exist in our National Constitution, invented or created to give a cloak of impunity because it is not that the Prosecutor's Office acquitted him. We are talking about interfering in the process and he did not do it just once,” he said.

He even said that this attitude of the president corresponds to a "disastrous message from any point of view for a president, be it Santiago Peña, Mario Abdo Benítez or whoever . "


“Hypocrisy” for keeping Erico Galeano
In reference to the Senate, which he described as being in “absolute deterioration ,” he also declared that it is “hypocrisy” to defend and maintain Erico Galeano with arguments such as “de-impeachment.”


President Santiago Peña during his speech at the opening ceremony of the OAS General Assembly in Asunción.

“A figure is created that does not exist, the crisis escalated and it is a negative precedent. It is the risk of these temporary majorities and their disastrous decisions for the functioning of a Republic with a system of three powers that must avoid interference. By maintaining and defending them we are in a hypocrisy by giving a speech of strengthening but looking at the other side we see consonances between the majority sector and the President,” he said.