Barbadillo, that unique prison on the continent for only recruiting former presidents, has ceased to be at its maximum capacity. One of his guests, left his cell on Friday night. He did not recover his freedom, but was transferred to Ancón II, a common prison prison located north of Lima, the capital. Vizcarra will no longer occupy the same space as other men who sat on the palace throne and who are today deprived of their liberty for crimes of corruption and rebellion: Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala and Pedro Castillo.
Vizcarra, a civil engineer, to meet the preventive detention for five months. The Judiciary determined the measure within the framework of a trial where he is accused of having received alleged bribes in exchange for favoring two construction companies with the award of two works when he was governor of the Department of Moquegua, to the south of the country. A few days ago, the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) issued a statement in which it indicated that a new place of confinement corresponded to Vizcarra after the agency’s technical board breached “regulatory provisions.”
Different constitutionalists and even former presidents of the penitentiary raised their voice of protest when considering that there was no reason for Vizcarra to have a different treatment than other ex -presidents. “The dangerous thing for me is to ignore the nature of former president. It represents a risk person in any common prison,” said penalist Julio Rodríguez.
Javier Llaque, former president of the INPE, described the transfer of Barbadillo as “irrational and unjustified.” Even the Ombudsman advocated Vizcarra: “It is essential that the prison authorities apply the provisions objectively, guaranteeing human and safe conditions, especially those who occupied the highest magistracy of the nation.”
Criticism did not paralyze the process. A new board, made up of a lawyer, a psychologist and a social worker, evaluated the ex -president and this Friday the INPE arranged without giving major explanations that corresponded to Vizcarra, one of the most overcrowded in Latin America. By “security measures”, the politician will finally be held in Ancón II. The statement argues that the environment within that prison has the “appropriate conditions” for its permanence and the protection of its “physical and psychological integrity.”
Before being transferred to Ancón II, Vizcarra provided an interview with Radio Programs of Peru, where he showed that he is a victim of a political revenge. He even mentioned that the Board that evaluated it told him that he should continue in pretrial detention in Barbadillo and that if there was something else due to a “political decision of another level.” “Inpe depends on the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Justice depends on President Dina Boluarte. I say it here with all her letters. I am being veiled,” said Vizcarra.
Ancón II is a prison created fifteen years ago with a capacity for 2,300 male and female inmates, with comforts quite far from Barbadillo cells, which have 40 square meters, their own bathroom, dining room and garden. One of these housed, who died in September last year.
After spending his first night, a brief message was published in the Vizcarra account: “I will resist from the place they send me, but they will not bend me.” In the message it ensures that its legal defense will not present legal actions for this “unfair and arbitrary” failure and that it will continue to “fight for the recovery of democracy and the union of Peruvians against the mafia pact that governs us.”
Several political analysts consider that the new confinement of Martín Vizcarra could be a bunt by causing the opposite effect: strengthening it politically due to a decision with which even his adversaries do not commune. “This government and Congress are so afraid that they are making it a martyr,” said lawyer Rosa María Palacios. While Vizcarra has three disqualifications to exercise public office, there are those who fear that some failure can occur that can reverse your situation, allowing you to aspire to the general elections of 2026.
