An assassination, a sex scandal and a miniskirt ban: Murder of aide puts Peru Congress in a spot

The murder of a congressional aide in Lima in December last year and the subsequent investigation has found an alleged prostitution ring run by the Peru Congress itself. This comes at a time when the legislative body's reputation with the public has hit rock bottom.

An assassination that rocked Peru in December last year has now led to a miniskirt ban in the country.

Around mid-December, four people intercepted a car in the capital of Peru, Lima, and shot it up, leaving both the driver and the passenger dead.

While the car was riddled with around 40 bullets, nothing was stolen from the dying driver and passenger, suggesting to detectives that the hit was not a random crime, but a professional job.

The identity of the victim—a young lawyer and former congressional aide named Andrea Vidal—also puzzled cops, but the mystery began to unravel as investigators, within a week, uncovered what appeared to be a prostitution ring run by the Peru Congress itself to give sexual favours to lawmakers in exchange for votes favouring certain legislations.

In one case, 26-year-old Isabel Cajo, who was hired as a congressional aide, was found to not hold the required Bachelor's degree for the job. She, however, had an OnlyFans account, and was reportedly hired in 2024 at the personal request of then-speaker Alejandro Soto. It is understood that Cajo's case isn't a one-off incident.

The Telegraph UK reported that Vidal, prior to her death, was on the verge of revealing the workings of the ring, and although politicians initially tried to brush the scandal aside, they were forced to confront it eventually due to public pressure.

Evidence of some action came last week, when the Peru Congress banned female congressional aides from wearing miniskirts and shorts.

While investigations into the alleged ring are still under way, it has been reported the ring is thought to have been run by Jorge Luis Saravia, the former head of the Congress' legal office who has since been fired.

Saravia, who claims he had nothing to do with his "friend" Vidal's murder, is an associate of Cesar Acuna, the leader of one of Peru's largest political parties—the Alliance for Progress.

Acuna, for his part, has called for a full investigation into the alleged scandal, even as he accused the press of "taking advantage" of it to damage the image of his party.

This comes at a time when the Peru Congress' reputation with the public has hit rock bottom, with the public reportedly writing off the entire political class as corrupt. It also comes on the back of rape accusations against politicians, in a country where critics have described attitudes towards women in Parliament as being akin to those of the Taliban.

It should also be noted that over half of the 130 members of the Congress are currently under investigation, for alleged crimes ranging from domestic violence to bribery.

Further, since taking office in 2021, the current Congress has greased its own palms with pay rises for legislators, while ignoring pressing social issues in Peru.

The Telegraph also reported that the present Congress has passed laws that legal experts warn will make organised crime harder to prosecute, with these legislations set to benefit the cocaine trade, illegal mining, and extortion rackets.

Peru's president Dina Boluarte, meanwhile, is facing multiple probes, including allegedly abandoning office to get a secret nose job, and the 'Rolexgate scandal' related to alleged illicit wealth that does not correspond to her modest presidential salary.