The Congress of the Republic has suspended the decentralized plenary session in the department of Arequipa due to the lack of a plane, this measure arises after the Ministry of Defense will refuse to provide an aircraft of the FF.AA. (Armed Forces), so the Board of Directors decided to suspend the plenary session due to lack of transportation.
From this point, it was decided to program the decentralized Plenary until next Thursday, the 23rd of this period. It should be remembered that last Friday, July 16, the president of the congress, Manuel Merino, sent an official letter to the defense minister, Walter Martos, to request an aircraft in order to transfer and collect the congressmen on their return.
However, the defense minister’s response made his point clear, since according to the defense minister’s argument, said planes are used for activities in the context of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).
«All the available aircraft are being used daily to meet the urgent needs of the regions with a growing pandemic, transporting all the necessary materials and personnel,» said Walter Martos. In this sense, members of the same parliament assumed different positions, such is the case of Jim Ali Mamani of Union for Peru, who mentioned in a document to Merino that said trip was an unnecessary expense and exposure of the health of the staff of the Parliament.
Likewise, the MINSA reported that the department of Arequipa is the sixth region in the country with the highest cases of coronavirus (COVID-19).