Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Israel Ruiz

As more Peruvian citizens continue to come out with accusations against members of the country's national police, it is becoming more difficult for officers to clean up their name.

A recent accusation involves real estate agent Murphi Cruz Bardales and officers from the Limean district of Los Olivos.

According to Cruz Bardales, police men from the Laura Caller police station physically attacked him after he began making a scene outside their police station.

Murphi told El Correo daily that he had gone to the police station to report that he had been mugged. He was told by police officers they could do nothing about it.

Admitting he was under the influence of alcohol, it was at this time that the real estate agent began yelling at police officers.

"All I remember is them hitting and kicking me as I was on the ground," said Murphi. He was then jailed for 24 hours for resisting arrest.

Officers at the police station said Murphi arrived with blood on his clothes and began hitting a police officer. It was at this time that he was arrested.

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Reuters

The fate of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori will depend on how politicized his human rights trial becomes in its final weeks, his lead defense attorney said on Thursday.

Cesar Nakazaki said that if Fujimori is judged on evidence alone then he will be cleared of the charges against him, which include ordering two massacres that left 25 people dead and two kidnappings in the early 1990s when Peru was at war with leftist guerrillas.

But if the trial is tainted by what Nakazaki described as a parallel case, one running in Peruvian media, Fujimori, 70, will likely be convicted for up to 30 years, he said.

"Judges in Peru listen to and take the temperature of the headlines," Nakazaki told a group of reporters, referring to newspapers that have forecast a guilty verdict.

Although newspapers have been running negative stories about Fujimori, international observers have given the trial high marks for fairness.

Fujimori was once a hugely popular figure in Peru, where he is credited with pulling the country out of economic chaos and capturing the leadership of the deadly Shining Path insurgency.

But rights groups say he oversaw a dirty counterinsurgency that ensnared innocent people.

He quit in disgrace in 2000 as a series of wiretapping, bribery and corruption scandals sank his government. Fujimori sent his resignation by fax while visiting Japan, where his parents were born.

If Fujimori is found guilty, Nakazaki said he would appeal the decision as high as the Inter-American Court on Human Rights.

The trial is expected to wrap up at the end of March, or in early April, but Nakazaki said Fujimori's controversial legacy will likely take much longer to define.

"The last word on President Fujimori will not be decided by the courts, but by the people of Peru," he said.

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International Center for Transitional Justice

Prosecutors, defense attorneys and victims’ legal representatives expect the Special Criminal Chamber of Peru’s Supreme Court to issue its verdict in the trial of former president Alberto Fujimori in late March.

Fujimori is on trial for human rights offenses including kidnappings and murders carried out by a military death squad. He is the first former head of state in Latin America to be extradited and brought to trial for human rights violations.

The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), which has closely followed the trial, presented an amicus curiae brief to the court on legislation and judicial precedent in Latin America related to the criminal responsibility of senior officials accused of human rights violations committed by their subordinates.

The ICTJ also presented a study on the value of three types of documents in criminal proceedings: decisions of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, declassified US government documents, and truth commission reports.

“This trial is an emblematic criminal case in Latin America,” said Mariclarie Acosta, director of ICTJ’s Americas Program. “This is the first trial involving a former head of state who has been extradited and brought before a national court with all the judicial guarantees.”

Read ICTJ’s Q&A about the trial here.

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Latin American Herald Tribune

Suspected members of Peru’s Shining Path guerrilla group blew up an electricity transmission tower in the jungle province of Tingo Maria, located some 600 kilometers (373 miles) northeast of Lima, police said Wednesday.

The attack occurred Monday in Santa Rosa de Chapaguilla, a remote area in the Huanuco region, a police spokesman from the Huallaga unit told Efe.

Police suspect that the attack was carried out by the Shining Path, which threatened last month to continue its “revolutionary war” in the Vizcatan area, located some 600 kilometers (373 miles) south of Lima, and expand it to other parts of Peru.

Since August, the armed forces have been making an aggressive push in the Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers, known as the VRAE region, against the remaining Shining Path fighters, who officials contend have allied themselves with drug traffickers.

Some analysts, however, say the Shining Path may have transformed itself into a drug cartel.

On Dec. 23, “Comrade Artemio,” the only remaining high-profile fugitive of the Shining Path, which terrorized Peru in the 1980s, called on the government for a “political solution” to end the armed conflict.

Artemio told Radio La Luz, which broadcasts from the jungle town of Aucayacu, some 600 kilometers (373 miles) from Lima, that his fighters would continue to launch attacks as long as the security forces went after them.

The guerrilla commander, whose real identity is not known, repeated that his group wanted “a political solution” and accused the security forces of committing “a great many” violations.

Artemio did not comply with Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman’s order more than a decade ago to end the armed struggle. Guzman, for his part, does not recognize Artemio’s group as Shining Path members.

Click here to read complete article

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Living in Peru
Israel Ruiz

Representatives from the municipality of San Isidro in Lima have confirmed that authorities have removed 69 bus stops and 54 advertising panels that were illegally placed in the district.

The municipality affirmed that they were visually contaminating San Isidro.

It was reported that the bus stops and panels belong to AYN RAND S.A., a company that is currently not authorized to have them in the district.

According to municipal authorities they were illegally placed along Javier Prado, Arequipa, Republica de Panama and Del Parque Sur Avenues.

They could also be found on Salaverry, Canaval y Moreyra, Camino Real and Rivera Navarrete Avenues.

Despite having made money from these bus stops and advertising panels, AYN RAND S.A. did not pay municipal fees, said San Isidro authorities.

Have other topics you'd like to see in our news section? If you or someone you know would like to contribute a news article to Living in Peru, whether it's translated or based on a personal investigation, send it to editor@livinginperu.com.

Living in Peru
Israel Ruiz

Justice Minister, Rosario Fernandez assured on Tuesday that everyone responsible for the escape of two convicts from a Peru prison would be punished.

Fourteen prison officials have already been relieved of duties for having allegedly been involved in the escape of two men charged with drug trafficking.

It was reported that one of the men was Peruvian and the other was Colombian.

"I guarantee that we will not in any way be flexible with those found responsible," said the justice minister, affirming that fourteen prison workers had already been removed from their positions.

Among these was a national prison director.

The two men that escaped are Christian Motte (Peruvian) and Anibal Zapata (Colombian).

It is believed the men escaped by presenting fake release papers to prison guards.

Have other topics you'd like to see in our news section? If you or someone you know would like to contribute a news article to Living in Peru, whether it's translated or based on a personal investigation, send it to editor@livinginperu.com.