Peruvian prosecutors are investigating a sex-for-votes scandal in the country’s Congress after uncovering an alleged prostitution ring there.
The investigation began after hired hitmen fired more than 40 rounds into a taxi carrying 27-year-old congressional lawyer Andrea Vidal in Lima earlier this month. She died of her injuries in the intensive care unit on Tuesday. The taxi driver was also killed in the attack.
The prosecutor’s office then opened an investigation into Vidal’s former boss, Jorge Torres Sarabia, Congress’s former chief legal and constitutional adviser, for allegedly running a prostitution ring that hired young women to have sex with lawmakers in exchange for votes. and was accused of sexual exploitation. Torres has denied any wrongdoing.
The latest scandal comes as trust and approval in the country’s Congress and its president, Dina Boluarte, have fallen to unprecedented levels and a crime wave of extortion and murder-for-hire engulfs the Andean nation .
Prosecutors said Vidal hired young women on behalf of Torres to serve as secretaries and administrative jobs with various political groups within Congress.
“She will take action to get votes from members,” said Juan Burgos, a congressman and chairman of the Congressional Oversight Committee.
“This clearly marks the end of any shame in the exercise of executive power,” independent lawmaker Sussel Paredes said. “This shows the corruption within the political parties that now have the power to hire staff in Congress.”
She said the main political parties had been given “absolute power and part of the sharing of power also involved the sharing of the work of the institution”.
Alvaro Henzler, leader of the Peruvian democratic NGO Transparencia, said that in recent years, “the minimum ethical standards expected of any public official in power have been lost at an accelerated pace.”
“Our politicians, both in Congress and the president, have reached the lowest approval ratings in history,” he said.
He accuses lawmakers of passing laws that weaken democratic standards and encourage organized crime to protect himself and his colleagues from corruption investigations.
“This reflects the terrible state of our democracy,” Henzler said.
A poll this month showed Boluate’s support hit a record low of 3 percent. Profitable surveys. She denies any wrongdoing.