Two ministers in Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori's government failed to clarify what role Argentine businessman Damián Valenzuela actually played in her presidential campaign, as the businessman himself denied on social media that he has any criminal convictions against him.
Agrarian Development and Irrigation Minister Marco Vinelli was the first to address the matter, in an interview with radio station RPP. He did not confirm that Valenzuela had served as an adviser to Fujimori, saying only that the businessman spoke with her during the campaign and that he did not know what degree of influence Valenzuela might now have within the government. Vinelli said he had crossed paths with the businessman only once, on the day Fujimori was sworn in before Congress.
Vinelli was asked about a photograph showing him greeting Valenzuela. He said the picture was taken on July 28 in the Congress hemicycle, where he had introduced several invited guests, and added that the campaign had involved many advisers. Asked directly whether Valenzuela had been present in that circle, Vinelli said he was among those who spoke with the president.
Minister describes limited role
Vinelli said Fujimori consulted with many people during the campaign and that his own involvement was limited to technical support. He said he had given his contributions to the president, but that the campaign itself had been led by Fujimori, together with Vice President Rafael Galarreta and Miki Torres.
Health Minister Luis Dyer gave a different account, saying he met Valenzuela during the presidential campaign along with two other foreign nationals, Román Cendoya and Carlos Díaz. Dyer described the three men as advisers who shared their experience, and said they had supported Fujimori's campaign on a voluntary, unpaid basis. He said they had always been clear about that.
Health minister rejects government influence
Unlike his colleague, Dyer explicitly said Valenzuela has no influence over Fujimori's government. He said he could personally vouch that the businessman currently neither works for nor advises the president. Dyer said that in cabinet meetings and meetings at the Government Palace, he does not see Díaz, Cendoya or Valenzuela, and that Fujimori makes her decisions alone.
Dyer dismissed the controversy over Valenzuela's role, calling it what he described as gossip fit for a hair salon that was overshadowing the government's work.
Businessman denies criminal convictions
Three days after the weekly outlet Hildebrandt en sus Trece published a report on him, Valenzuela's lawyer, David Torres, posted a letter on the social media platform X in which the businessman said he has no criminal conviction against him in any country. In the letter, Valenzuela denied having been convicted of fraud, swindling or any similar property-related crime in Argentina, the United States, Spain, Uruguay, Peru or any other jurisdiction. He also said that none of the judicial proceedings referenced by the weekly outlet H13 fall within the criminal sphere.
Valenzuela said freedom of expression protects the right to report the news, not the attribution of false facts. He said that after a period without publishing anything, he intended to draw on his law degree to lay out, with facts, the difference between a genuine journalist and what he called a defamer.
Valenzuela, who described himself as a political and economic analyst who has worked with prestigious media outlets, said he respects the journalistic profession and that freedom of information must be guaranteed. But he said that when journalism is carried out in what he called a mediocre and defamatory way, defending the profession by separating fact from falsehood becomes necessary.
Fujimori, the leader of the Fuerza Popular party and daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, has run for the presidency in previous elections before taking office. She has previously confirmed that she visited a spa on July 11 and said the businessman had helped with her campaign.
