By Rodolfo Aliaga
After several hours of debate, the Chamber of Deputies rejected the Law for the Protection of Children and Adolescents from Sexual Abuse. Likewise, other bills that were on the agenda were stopped.
By a vote of 44 in favor, 54 against and three blank, the legislative body decided to adjourn the long session of legislators.
“According to the results obtained, the bill is rejected in its large station. Taking care of the welfare of each one of the deputies, the treatment of the other points of the agenda is postponed, consequently, the present session is suspended”, said the head of Deputies Jerges Mercado, at the closing of the session.
The situation of the ruling party congressman Juan José Jáuregui was the trigger for the paralyzation of the approval of the norm. A bloc of the Movimiento Al Socialismo (MAS) and the opposition demanded the departure of the deputy, implicated in a case of sexual harassment.
The aforementioned requested a leave of absence for the session that began on Thursday afternoon and lasted until the early hours of Friday.
Bill
After the session, Mercado highlighted the recovery of lost time by reinstating another day of legislative work. “I am satisfied because finally my fellow deputies have not had the possibility to impede legislative work. For three weeks, by one means or another they prevented us from working. Today we have made up for lost time,” he congratulated.
But he regretted the attitude of rejection of the law.
“I must lament the lack of morals and false discourse of some. What they have rejected prevents the statute of limitations for crimes of sexual abuse against children; they are the same ones who opposed the other laws and yet went on strike so that we would unconstitutionally pass a law for judicial ones,” he argued.
In turn, Patricio Mendoza, from the pro-evolution wing, expressed his opposition to the Truth Commission, on paper, headed by the Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, saying: “Who is going to trust a minister who is working unjustly (…). “Who is going to trust a minister who is working unjustly (…). For this reason and other elements it is not opportune to approve it because it is not going to stop what is happening with the children”, argued Mendoza.
Mendoza starred shortly before in an embarrassment in the corridors of the Legislative Assembly with a heated verbal exchange with Jáuregui. “Why don’t you debate? Why don’t you tell the truth? What are you going to do to me! You have a process (accused of asking for sex in exchange for work in the Government)”, he said against the also president of the Constitution Commission.
Jáuregui replied: “Why don’t you unmask yourselves as Palmaflor? Start reasoning, stop being a liar! Go ask your senators what they have done.”
Lima presented to the Chamber of Deputies Bill 372, which deals with the punishment of impunity in crimes of violence and mistreatment of children and adolescents.