The historian Pablo Macera used to say that “Peru is a brothel” to describe the chaos of a divided country that has not overcome its traumas. In the 2016 general elections, a sex worker named Ángela Villón ran for a seat under the slogan that she was “a decent whore who would make Congress a respectable brothel.” In 2024, reality is no longer a provocative metaphor or a striking phrase. The uncovering of an alleged prostitution network inside Parliament, the most discredited institution in the country, can only be the confirmation, according to analysts, of the state of decomposition in which the Peruvian political class finds itself.
The murder of Andrea Vidal Gómez, a former employee of the Legal and Constitutional Office of Parliament, at the hands of hitmen has ceased to be news from the events or police section to point towards the investiture of senior officials in the country. Lawyer Jorge Torres Saravia, who until a week ago was head of one of the most important areas of the Chamber, has been accused of hiring prostitutes in his office under the deception that they were advisors or secretaries. The investigations indicate that he organized parties in rented houses where he offered the service of women victims of the network—recruited by Andrea Vidal—in exchange for getting votes on different motions and bills in the Plenary. Torres Saravia has been linked to Alliance for Progress, one of the parties with the most seats.
“It would be about involving these sexual favors to double the votes in Congress. I don’t think there was any money, but perhaps it was intended to favor a change in the voting. It would have reached that level. That behavior lumpenesque“It should not be allowed,” said Juan Burgos, president of the Congressional Oversight Commission. The Public Ministry, through the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Human Trafficking Crimes of Lima Centro, has opened a preliminary investigation against Jorge Torres Saravia for the crime of sexual exploitation.
In 2020, Torres Saravia was reported for doping and raping a woman in Pacasmayo, a city in the coastal region of La Libertad. In those days he was working as an advisor to the office of Congressman Luis Valdez, general secretary of the Alliance for Progress. From 2021 to 2023, he performed the same functions for Idelso García, another parliamentarian from the same political group, led by César Acuña, current regional governor of La Libertad and owner of the César Vallejo University. Jorge Torres Saravia was a well-known man in the halls of Congress, although always in the shadows.
“They woke up together. “They were dizzy”
“I don’t consider myself a rapist, or a pimp, much less a murderer. “I was not the person who recruited the ladies to work in Congress,” the former head of the Legal and Constitutional Office of Parliament has defended himself. An audio has been released in which Torres Saravia apologizes to the partner of the woman he raped four years ago and offers her compensation. While the accused alleges that the complaint has already been filed and the audio is “cut and taken out of context,” his lawyer Benji Espinoza has excused him in an unconvincing way: “They woke up together. They were dizzy. He apologizes because he believed they had consensual sexual relations. But it has been demonstrated with scientific evidence that this has not been the case.”
Despite this background, Torres Saravia received a very high position of trust during the period in which Alejandro Soto – also belonging to the ranks of the Alliance for Progress – presided over Congress. Specifically, Soto has been accused of having resorted on more than one occasion to one of Torres Saravia’s “advisors” named Isabel Cajo Salvador. According to the weekly Hildebrandt in his Thirteen,Cajo had a rapid rise in Parliament: in May he joined the Asset Administration Area with a salary of 4,700 soles (1,217 euros) and the following month his fees almost doubled to 8,000 soles (2,072 euros). Cajo, who has been selling sexual content for several years on OnlyFans, now works for parliamentarian Edwin Martínez, of the Popular Action party.
“It was evaluated by the advisor and I gave the go-ahead.” […] Some journalists forget that they are children of a woman or that they have female sisters and that is something that I want to vindicate in this lady. […] For the position I need, it is not even necessary to have a high school degree,” Martínez justified. Isabel Cajo has deleted the content of all her social networks since the attack suffered by Andrea Vidal Gómez, her boss until a few weeks ago.
Paolo Aguilar (EFE)
Last week, whoever was Torres Saravia’s right-hand man took a taxi to his home, when in the La Victoria district two cars and two motorcycles blocked his way. Four criminals fired a volley of bullets that instantly killed the taxi driver, and left the lawyer with serious injuries to her head, back and hands. Andrea Vidal died this Tuesday after a week of agony. In September, after some alleged discussions with Torres Saravia, she had been fired. Apparently he knew too much.
In these hectic days, another scene has emerged that refers to the latest revelations. In the documentary Peruvian of the BicentennialMirtha Vásquez, president of Congress between 2020 and 2021, narrates how she discovered that an underground suite was hidden in her office, with a large bed and a jacuzzi included, which used to have several glasses of champagne and which was known as El bunker. “It is a small apartment for a single man,” said Vásquez, who also maintained that the space was built during the mandate of Carlos Ferrero Costa between 2001 and 2003. The current head of Parliament, Eduardo Salhuana, has said that it is only a place “at the service of parliamentarians for work meetings.”
Jorge Torres Saravia’s file has been deleted from the official website of Congress, as if he had never served as the head of the Legal and Constitutional Office. The Alliance for Progress party has denied that it ever belonged to its ranks, despite having advised two of its congressmen, and appearing in various photographs with its leadership. Torres Saravia states that he is only a “technician who provides his professional services to whoever requires it.” These days, the word “brothel” became a trend on platform sincere.”
