The importance of fighting crime together, by Federico Salazar | Opinion

Interior Minister Juan José Santiváñez said Public Ministry He was seen as a “thorn in the eye” of the fight against crime. He said that at times he was an “enemy of the police.” He added that “the system of this agency is rotten.”

State prosecutor Juan Carlos Villena responded by saying the criticism was due to a case filed in July against the minister for alleged abuse of office.

It is true that some prosecutors are not doing their jobs. On more than one occasion, criminals have been arrested and released. It is frustrating and infuriating.

Individual cases must be identified and reported. Public Ministry The misconduct of some prosecutors was arbitrary and inappropriate.

The Minister of the Interior cannot join in the shouting or generalizations. You must collect the cases of complaints and take them to the Attorney General’s Office.

The Attorney General, for his part, said he preferred to be seen as an enemy “rather than a good friend of the ministers, the executive or those whom we have a constitutional obligation to investigate” (El Comercio, August 17, 2024, p. 6).

The investigation against the minister is due to an audio recording in which he asks Marco Sifuentes, a journalist from the La Encerrona portal, to “control”. Santibanez denies that it is his voice, but the truth is that only an expert report can confirm this. The voice in the recording sounds too similar to the official one.

The case is not insignificant. However, apart from him, it is impossible for a representative of the executive branch to be dedicated to the dispute between the media and the Attorney General. It is also impossible that the Attorney General stepped on the stick and fell into the temptation to respond at this level, as they say.

We need close cooperation between the national police and the police Public MinistryThere is a need to review and report cases of disorders, wherever they originate.

The highest authority, the President of the Republic, must intervene. It must lead a joint fight against crime at all levels.