Congressmen's trip to Russia: Jaime Quito denies Alejandro Soto and presents authorization

Last Wednesday, September 27, the president of Congress, Alejandro Soto, issued a statement in which it flatly denied having authorized the trip of a group of legislators to the parliament of the Russian Federation. Among these congressmen was the legislator Jaime Quito Sarmiento, who was captured by the cameras of a television channel at the boarding gate heading to that country.

The trip could have gone completely unnoticed, had it not been for the fact that Soto Reyes' statement assured that the nine congressmen who traveled to the Eurasian country had not been authorized for said trip, nor for "the Board of Directors, nor for the presidency of Congress", which raised alerts about the case. However, a document sent to the office of the same Quito legislator partially reduces the weight of the accusations of the head of Parliament.

Its about Official Letter No. 115-2023-2024-ADP-CD/CR, signed by the Senior Official of Congress, Giovanni Forno Florez sent to the Parliamentary Office of the ex-perulibrist legislator, which details the existence of a previous document sent by Quito to Soto, informing him about the trip to be made from September 29 to October 2 of this year.

In the document there are a series of relevant details to highlight. One of them is the existence of an initial letter from the office of Quito Sarmiento identified with No. 146-2023-2024/BJQS-CRwhich specifies the event to which the legislator will go and the travel license time for which he will be away from Peruvian territory.

The dates of his absence are from September 26 to October 3 and correspond to the development of the Russia - Latin America International Parliamentary Conference to be held in the city of Moscow, Russia, with all expenses paid for a total of 10 congressmen.

But the most notable detail of the document is that it details that the same president of Congress, Alejandro Soto, “specially commissioned” Forno Florez to communicate the approved travel request in favor of Quito. Fact that he goes directly against what Soto Reyes asserted in a statement to the public in which he even “expresses his support for the Ukrainian Republic,” as a way of disapproving of the trip.

“I have the pleasure of addressing you by special order from Mr. President of the Congress of the Republic to inform you that the Board of Directors of Congress, in its session held on September 18, 2023 and with exemption from the procedure, approved your request,” the document details.

As the specialists warned Hugo Rovira and César Delgado Güembes in exclusive interview for Infobae Peru; To begin with, there would be no sanction for congressmen to travel without authorization.

While Delgado Güembes asserted that there was no sanction for failing to comply with the week of representation, and in fact, the only problem would lie in the rendering of accounts for the money given to the congressmen for this; Rovira explained that even in the event that they skip the representation work, the parliamentarians “They must have definitely had a license.”

Said and done, the same document details the exoneration of Quito from the responsibility of complying with the week of representation. “Your request to be exempt from the representation week for the month of September 2023 was approved,” the document details.

With this authorization, Quito will be able to travel to Russia with complete comfort, without being required to present a report on what was done during the week of Congress representation, nor will he be assigned the respective travel expenses to carry out said work.