Peruvian Senator Mirtha Vásquez has denounced the office assigned to her by Congress as a converted rooftop space that she herself declared uninhabitable when she served as president of the legislature.
Vásquez, a member of the Ahora Nación caucus, said she visited the space and found it consisted of drywall-divided rooms inside what appeared to be a storage area on a rooftop. One small room is meant to accommodate all her assigned staff, but she said not everyone can fit inside it. A second room serves as a meeting area. The third, her main office, sits against an old shared wall covered in mold, according to the senator.
The office also has no bathroom. Vásquez said she was told to use a restroom accessible only by crossing a large courtyard and navigating two or three separate passageways around the building.
The complaint comes as Congress has spent more than 85 million soles on infrastructure upgrades to adapt its facilities to the new bicameral system, according to an investigation by the program Punto Final. Congressional chief administrator Giovanni Forno said the spending covers electrical and sanitation work costing 29 million soles and technology implementation costing 56 million soles, with additional funds going toward office rentals.
Vásquez noted that fellow senators López Chau and Jaime Delgado were placed in the main congressional building on Avenida Abancay, where most caucuses are housed. When she toured that building and found empty offices, she asked Forno why she could not be assigned one. He told her that vacant offices are not necessarily unallocated.
The senator said she is not asking for anything beyond basic working conditions for staff who will occupy the space until 2031.
