Pedro Castillo maintains his current teaching position and is ready to move to request house arrest | Since 2021, four teachers have had to replace him | House arrest | Barbadillo prison | Preventive detention | Coup | Public teaching career | Policy

From 2021 to date, the Primary Education Center had to temporarily hire four different teachers to replace him. First, within the framework of the election campaign led by him Free Peru Later, when he came to power in the middle of that year, and then when power became vacant, as he was able to confirm Ministry of Commerce.

precisely, Castillo He has applied for four licenses as an appointed professor since 2021. The first three occurred between March and June of that year and were due to “special problems” in the context of the conflict; while the last one came into effect on August 1 of that year, after being sworn in as president, “for the performance of public functions or the holding of a public office.”

However, his requested departure was abruptly cut off on December 7, 2022, when he attempted a coup (broadcast live across the country) and was removed from office by the government. Congress He has been charged with treason and is about to stand trial. But the judicial process is independent of the administrative process.

A square, stuck?

Walter Ayala, lawyer for former President Pedro Castillo, told Business News that the teaching position he sponsored is “valid” and awaits his return to the educational center. He said he did not abandon his position, which would mean being fired, but that he “cannot” go to his workplace due to his arrest by the authorities in 2022.

“He will no longer be a teacher because he is disabled and he cannot play this role. The square is there, but it is due to force majeure (which did not happen) because it escaped from it. If he had given up the job, the situation would have been different. He argued that it was not because he did not want to do it, but because he could not do it,” Ayala told the newspaper.

Despite repeated insistence, UGEL Chota director Richard Martos did not respond to this newspaper’s questions. However, Minedu confirmed that the plaza Castillo Still active and considered “absent”.

Jurisprudence Constitutional Court – The department said – it was determined that absence for reasons other than this (such as preventive detention) could not be considered a serious crime. Sewell also considered that such a restriction was a reasonable absence. In view of this, no administrative penalty could be initiated. Everything was put on hold.

Legal Strategy

Certificate signed by IE 10465 Director Hualter Coronel (APP and former militant) Free Peruindicating the specified Castillo In the institution, he will govern “to date” and his position is currently “covered by a temporary teaching contract”.

Through this document, Ayala – who has not yet lost his job – sought to prove to the judiciary the “employment roots” of his sponsor. Another document signed and certified by the regional authorities Castillo He owns a residence in the heart of Chugur (Anguilla, Chota) and is trying to prove the roots of the residence.

Therefore, through lawyers on both sides Castillo Seeking to reverse in the coming weeks the preventive detention applied to their guarantor; recently extended for another 18 months. Ayala confirmed to El Comercio that they will once again ask Supreme Court Justice Juan Carlos Chikli to end the preventive detention.

However, the intended strategy now is to demand house arrest. “A new demand must be made to end preventive detention, with the demand for freedom (as a central point) Castillo), or house arrest,” he pointed out. Where could he end up under house arrest? He mentioned his residence in Chota.

This is a “pretty weak argument”, assures criminal lawyer Carlos Caro. “You can keep the position, but the return to practice (teaching) depends on a series of conditions. One of them is obviously that he is released from prison, but it is not automatic. The position is already occupied and it cannot be dismissed overnight. “It is a procedure. “

Asked if it was a drill, he said: “No doubt about it. Castillo It has no job roots. Although he is a teacher, he is also a union leader and does not actually work as a teacher. The question of whether to keep the position is different from the job roots. The man currently has no job. With it, it means that he can be released from prison today and go to work tomorrow. But this is not your case. There will definitely be reports, measures and a series of procedures for him to eventually restore this place. “

Criminal lawyer Andy Carrion added that “regardless of the circumstances, this was a strategy he employed to prove the roots of his work and it did help his defense, but the strongest argument the prosecution had to keep him in jail was the risk he was a prison escape.”

“What guarantees does it provide? Castillo If he is released, will he be investigated? One must consider that he is on his way to Mexico (the embassy) (after the coup) and that his family is in the country. Even if he shows working roots, there are some loose ends that do not justify his release. (…)

Recently, the Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court stated that Castillo still poses a risk of absconding. For this reason, he decided to extend preventive detention until December 2025.

Viewpoint

Lucio Castro, secretary general of the Unified Union of Peruvian Educators (SUTEP), said administrative and judicial proceedings could be carried out separately, but in Castillo’s case, politics also played a role.

To that end, he said the judiciary should “speed up” its ruling, which would also determine Castillo’s employment status, since only a conviction would mean automatic dismissal.

“The effect of the judicial process, that is, the verdict or acquittal will have effect in the administrative process. Therefore, it is necessary to move forward, speed up the proceedings and reach a situation of acquittal or conviction. (In the case of the latter) yes, the dismissal is automatic,” he explained.

Likewise, former Education Minister Idel Vexler told El Comercial that as long as he is not sentenced to death, Castillo’s situation will remain unresolved, regardless of whether the judicial process against him will last one, two or several years.

Only once convicted, he said, “the position automatically ceases to be reserved for the professor” and should be “declared void and filled by appointment” through a competition for public teaching careers.

“What the judiciary and the public ministry must do is to expedite the corresponding decision, which is obviously inevitable, to make the judicial decision final, conferring the position as an appointed professor. This is a regrettable situation, but this is what the Public Teaching Profession Act provides for,” Wexler pointed out.

Fugitive Silva and his accomplice Pacheco

Unlike Castillo, the fate of one of his most trusted men, Juan Silva Villegas, a former minister during his government, who has remained at large for more than two years. Before becoming a minister, Silva was the principal of a school in Ponte Piedra.

In November 2023, the National Civil Service Administration rejected Silva’s appeal on the grounds of secret status and confirmed the decision of UGEL 04, which ultimately dismissed him from public teaching career on the grounds of abandonment of his position.

Previously, he had been provisionally expelled twice through administrative channels, in August 2022 and December 2022. Silva has been at large since June 7, 2022, and is currently presumed to be a refugee from Venezuela.

“It has not been proved that the challenger was prevented from working because he was in fact serving a detention order, serving preventive detention or receiving a criminal sentence. It follows, therefore, from the challenger’s argument that while there was a provision for preventive detention, it was also not effectively enforced given the challenger’s secrecy.see Resolution No. 004062-2023, which has been accessed Ministry of Commerce.

For his part, former Palace Secretary Bruno Pacheco still retains his position, having surrendered to the authorities in July 2022 after almost four months on the run. Pacheco worked as a teacher at a school in Chorrillo and, as confirmed by El Comercio, his permit is valid until December 31, 2024.