Lawyer Marino (Vincho) Castillo criticized the government’s decision to indefinitely postpone questioning former President Hipolito Mejia. Castillo said that the decision to reject District Attorney Jose Manuel Hernandez Peguero’s summons to Mejia was reached after President Fernandez’s meeting with Interior Minister Franklyn Almeyda and Secretary of the Presidency Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace. As reported in the Listin Diario, Castillo said that the decision is a major frustration for the country and the present government’s most serious error to date.
Castillo said: “During the two hour discussion the prosecutor was asked to postpone the summons on the grounds of political circumstances and the argument that it was not the right timing, because allegedly military and police commanders connected to Quirino’s structure, but also those that might have had political connections to Hipolito Mejia, who frequently boasts in private that he still has his boys in the army, had not been removed.”
Castillo told the Listin that the decision was also influenced by the rumors that Quirino also had connections to the PLD, to the point that he had made contributions worth millions to their last electoral campaign.
Furthermore, Cesar Medina in his Fuera de Camara column in the Listin Diario today comments that there is talk that the United States government is applying pressure on President Fernandez to replace at least two officers in his government with ties to Quirino. “It remains to be seen if the prosecutor will summon the friends of Quirino who are in government. Because in these times, they should also go… Or perhaps not, Mr. Prosecutor?”