State prosecutor Luz Loayza’s lawyer said he will appeal a decision by Peru’s Supreme Council of Prosecutors ordering Loayza’s return to her post in the city of Iquitos, where she would be at the mercy of drug traffickers. Aníbal Quiroga told daily La República they will appeal the decision in the judiciary and are prepared to bring the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights with support from the Lima Bar Association.
In November 2005, Loayza, 47, brought charges against Peru’s cocaine kingpin, Fernando Zevallos, who is currently serving a 20 year sentence for money laundering and drug trafficking. She reportedly received numerous death threats and escaped an assassination attempt in Iquitos during the year and a half trial against Zevallos.
Loayza has argued her life would be at risk if she returns to her post in the jungle city, capital of Loreto department, where drug traffickers have promised revenge.
However, the Supreme Council ordered Loayza’s return to Iquitos on Friday, arguing she failed to report death threats to her superiors. According to daily El Comercio, the Supreme Council echoed earlier comments by Attorney General Adelaida Bolívar saying prosecutors are inherently at risk.
Bolívar was the first to reject Loayza’s transfer request in September 2006, a day after the attorney general reportedly received a letter from Zevallos asking for Loayza’s transfer to be denied and her return to Iquitos.
But two months later the Supreme Council overruled Bolívar’s decision and granted Loayza a temporary transfer only to revoke it in December 2007.
The insistence that Loayza return to Iquitos has puzzled Peruvian media and politicians, including President Alan García. El Comercio reported García saying “it would be good to investigate the obsession with returning Loayza to Iquitos. I don’t know what the interests are or… if there is simply a foolishness that there must be respect for the chain of command, but you can’t put someone’s life in danger.”
Fernando Rospigliosi, a former Interior Minister and a vocal critic of Bolívar, said her “stubborn and suspicious insistence to send Luz Loayza to Iquitos, to the lion’s den, where drug traffickers have sworn to take revenge… is giving a clear message to all prosecutors. Those that act firmly and risk themselves in the fight against drug trafficking are humiliated and poorly treated. Those that are complacent are awarded and defended.”
