A couple of weeks ago, ten soldiers were convicted of systematically raping a group of peasant women in the 1980s, in the so-called Manta and Vilca case. That glimpse of justice for which they had to wait 40 years is in danger due to a bill approved this Thursday by the Permanent Commission of Congress. With fifteen votes in favor, twelve against and no abstentions, bill No. 6951 was approved in a second vote, which will exempt from judicial proceedings and a sentence anyone who has committed crimes against humanity or war crimes before July 2002, the date on which the Rome Statute came into force in Peru.
“It is not a law with a proper name,” said Congress President Alejandro Soto during the debate on the first vote in early June. But several parliamentarians and analysts have pointed out that it directly favors former President Alberto Fujimori, sentenced to 25 years in prison for crimes against human rights —of which he served only sixteen due to a questionable humanitarian pardon—, who still has a pending trial for the Pativilca case, where he is accused of being the indirect author of a massacre of six farmers in 1992. An issue for which he could return to prison, and which has taken a turn with the actions of the Chamber, but also with the closure of the Chamber that heard the case a few days ago.
The other beneficiaries are the high command of the armed forces, such as the paramilitary group Colina, who carried out the massacres in Barrios Altos and La Cantuta, claiming that the victims, university students, teachers and civilians, were terrorists. It is no coincidence that one of the co-authors of this bill is the retired admiral, former head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, José Cueto. “The only thing that is being attempted is that our police and military who fought against terrorism in that period (between the 80s and 2000) are treated like any other citizen,” he told France 24.
This bill, which only needs to be reviewed and signed by President Dina Boluarte, will also benefit, for example, Telmo Hurtado, a commander who in 1985 perpetrated the Accomarca massacre, where 69 Ayacucho residents were killed, including twenty children. Hurtado has been in prison since 2007 and his sentence will end in May 2026, but with the approval of the Permanent Commission of Congress his release remains to be seen. The so-called Amnesty Law It would also benefit Daniel Urresti, former Minister of the Interior and former parliamentarian, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in April 2023 for being the co-author of the murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos in 1988, when he was a captain serving in the Army. Urresti was close to becoming mayor of Lima in the last elections.
In mid-June, a group of UN human rights rapporteurs issued a joint statement warning that if this bill were approved, it would be “obstructing access to justice and the right to truth and reparation for victims” and that, therefore, the Peruvian State would be violating its obligations under international law. “The imprescriptibility of crimes against humanity is a norm of ius cogens and customary international law, from which no derogation is permitted and to which Peru must adhere,” Experts such as jurist Bernard Duhaime pointed outSpecial Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition, and also the president of the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances, Aua Baldé, among others.
On the eve of the second vote in Congress, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued provisional measures against the relatives of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres—for which Fujimori was convicted—and also demanded that the Peruvian State “through its three branches of government take the necessary actions to ensure that (this bill to prescribe the statute of limitations for crimes against humanity) is not adopted, revoked or not given effect.” In light of the facts, the House has ignored the measures and acted in contempt.
The Amnesty Law will, of course, also benefit terrorist commanders. An aspect that apparently has not mattered much to the benches that voted in favor. “A window of impunity will be created and many people will escape. Will the elderly military officers who are currently in prison escape? No, the terrorists who will also be released will escape. […] “One should not think of a rule in terms of who it benefits or who it harms. The rule should be blind,” said former Minister of Justice, Marisol Pérez Tello.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the proposal aims to release defendants in approximately 600 cases related to serious human rights violations. A report from the Ojo Público website states that in just one of the prosecutor’s offices that handles emblematic cases of the internal armed conflict between the 1980s and 2000, 22 ongoing cases will be affected. If the cases are shelved, 558 victims would be affected.
The Institute of Democracy and Human Rights of the Pontifical Catholic University has explained that after this approval, the following scenarios exist: that the Executive observes the Law and returns it to Congress; if Congress approves it by insistence, the judges could have the power to not apply it, arguing unconstitutionality; civil society, together with the Ombudsman, could file a complaint before the Constitutional Court. It remains to be seen whether President Dina Boluarte signs it.
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