Social scientists have not yet deciphered what happens every December in Peru, a month of revelations, betrayals, breakups, under-the-table agreements and the return to the fore of its old ghosts. As if the scriptwriters of a streaming platform had started working overtime, this week former President Alberto Fujimori – sentenced in 2009 to 25 years in prison for being the direct perpetrator of two massacres and two kidnappings – was released thanks to a controversial ruling of the Constitutional Court that challenges the Inter-American Court of Human Rights; National Prosecutor Patricia Benavides was suspended for six months for being the alleged leader of a criminal organization; Former president Pedro Castillo served a year in prison for his frustrated self-coup d'état; Dina Boluarte reached her first year in office with an approval rating of 11%—the lowest of the last six presidents; and protests were restarted at the national level, although still without the noise or massiveness of the recent past.
On Wednesday, the Fujimoristas achieved their most dearest wish: for their leader to leave his cell and cross the gate of the Barbadillo prison, in Lima. Unlike December 24, 2017, when he left between midnight and was pardoned on the eve of Christmas Eve, this time the ruling was known a day in advance and caused his fans to gather outside the prison. Uncertainty reigned until the last moment. Mainly, because the Executive did not make public that it would abide by the resolution of the Constitutional Court, knowing of the order of the Inter-American Court to refrain from releasing him. It was only when everything was consummated that the Minister of Justice, Eduardo Arana, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Javier González-Olaechea spoke about it on television. “Compliance with the ruling of the Constitutional Court in no way ignores the obligations derived from international treaties and the inter-American human rights system,” said the chancellor.
The truth is that this Friday the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights issued a statement highlighting its rejection of the decision made by the Peruvian State. “The Commission reiterates that granting pardons or other exemptions from responsibility to people convicted of serious violations of human rights and crimes against humanity can generate a serious form of impunity,” they indicate. In the same letter they remind the country that “it is obliged to abide by the measures that the Court adopts in the exercise of its powers.”
Added to this is the complaint by the judges of the Constitutional Court, Manuel Monteagudo and César Ochoa, who have indicated that they were not consulted on a matter as delicate as the release of Fujimori. Despite these irregularities, the scene took place: the Peruvian-Japanese who governed Peru in the nineties and staged a self-coup in 1992 left the prison, with an oxygen cylinder, in the company of his children Keiko. and Kenji. “Finally, justice and humanity prevailed,” said the Fuerza Popular leader, alluding to her father's 85th birthday.
The relatives of the victims of the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres offered a press conference where they described Fujimori's release as “illegal” and mentioned that they will take the case to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS). According to the State Attorney General's Office, Fujimori has not so far paid the 57 million soles (15 million 405 thousand dollars) of civil reparation in favor of the State for three cases in which he was sentenced by the Judiciary. His lawyer Elio Riera has avoided the topic, but has also made it clear that he will seek the annulment of the rulings for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta cases and the kidnappings of journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer. “These sentences can be questioned through constitutional action. They are in process. “I hope to discuss these cases and demonstrate the innocence of the former president.”
While the population was captivated by what was happening with the Fujimori, a pot of crickets was uncovered in the Public Ministry. The Prosecutor of the Nation, Patricia Benavides, was suspended for six months by the National Board of Justice (JNJ). Benavides is accused of pulling the strings of a criminal organization entrenched in her sector that would have plotted the election of the Ombudsman, the disqualification of a supreme prosecutor and the removal of the JNJ in exchange for shelving investigations of congressmen. Her closest advisor, Jaime Villanueva, took advantage of the effective collaboration and claims to have acted on the orders of his boss.
On December 7 there was a double anniversary, both sadly famous: Pedro Castillo's attempt to establish an emergency government and dissolve Congress and, with it, his direct passage to prison; and the first year of Dina Boluarte holding power. A year where while she managed to stay afloat, her legitimacy only declined. According to Datum Internacional, only 11% of Peruvians approve of her management. Last week, the president was constitutionally denounced for qualified homicide, along with her Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, for the deaths of demonstrators who protested seeking her resignation in the first months of her administration. The complaint – questioned for being late – was formalized by the questioned Benavides on the same day that she was accused of leading a criminal network, producing a rupture between the two.
Through a supreme decree, Boluarte named December 7 as the “Day of Institutionality, the Rule of Law and the Defense of Democracy,” in reference to the capture of Pedro Castillo. However, that same Thursday, in twenty provinces, thousands of citizens demanded his departure. The slogan remains unchanged, as does the request for early elections and a Constituent Assembly to draft a new Magna Carta. The mobilizations this time have been peaceful and there have been no clashes or seizure of roads like a year ago. It was believed that anti-Fujimorism, considered by several analysts to be the largest informal political group in Peru, would take to the streets en masse, but this has not yet happened. Of course, spirits are still mixed. Trade union organizations, university unions, and independent groups continue to fight. It's just another December in Peru. And it's just beginning.
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