Spanish
Lima.- Retired Colonel of the Police of Peru Harvey Colchado, who investigated several of the most emblematic cases of alleged corruption in recent years in his country, including in the current Government of President Dina Boluarte, denounced this Thursday that he has received death threats and that his country is facing a time similar to that of the mafia led by Vladimiro Montesinos, the former 'strong man' of the Alberto Fujimori regime (1990-2000).
Colchado pointed out, in a press conference, that the current security authorities "would be using police officers to carry out these prohibited activities" and assured that he has identified an agent who followed him for several hours in front of his office on August 15th.
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The colonel, retired by the Boluarte government after leading the police team that raided the president's home in an investigation for alleged illicit enrichment, added that last Wednesday he received a message sent via the WhatsApp social network, in which he was insulted, told that he will "cry blood" and threatened his children.
"That is no longer something that can be a matter of subjective threat," he emphasized before reporting that he has filed a complaint with the Homicide Division of the National Police of Peru (PNP).
The former police chief added that his children are currently under the protection of an agent from the State Security office, but revealed that last May he was stripped of the security he had, so he is currently "paying for" his own.
He added that the author of the threats he is receiving has not yet been identified, but "what is identified is that there are police personnel and unknown individuals" who have gone to his children's school and his workplace.
“I am very worried, I call on the competent authorities, first to the Prosecutor's Office,” he remarked before adding that intelligence agents have informed him that “they know that adjustments are being made to prosecutors, police officers, journalists, witnesses and effective collaborators (rewarded informers) who are providing information and investigating corruption in power”.
Back to the 'fujimontesinismo' era
Colchado urged people who are suffering these threats to "report these events to the Attorney General's Office" and reiterated that he received the information about the surveillance after having spoken "with many agents" of the intelligence services.
"We are focusing on the era of Fujimontesinismo, how disastrous the use of the SIN (National Intelligence Service) and all intelligence agencies was at that time," he added.
He alluded in that way to the irregular use that was made in the 90s, during the Fujimori regime, of the information services, led "in the shadows" by Montesinos, the then presidential advisor who was later accused of human rights violations and of leading the largest corruption network in Peruvian history.
The retired colonel considered that, faced with this situation, "the only thing left" for those affected is to unite "and begin to make these facts visible" along with the press and he assured that the lawyer Juan José Santiváñez, who was Minister of the Interior when he was sent into retirement at the end of 2024, "cannot be" as the current Minister of Justice, a position for which he was appointed by Boluarte at the end of last August.
“I only remember these facts during the time of Vladimiro Montesinos, but after many years I see that they have entered that stage, the impudence is incredible, we must be very careful”, he warned before assuring that he is not afraid.
Colchado said, in this regard, that while the people who threaten him "act in a dark manner, behind the scenes, in secret," he "shows his face" and denounces "their tricks, their illegal acts."
“And I will continue to do it,” he concluded.
