Justice Minister: Fujimori Pardon Not On the Agenda

Peru’s new Justice Minister, Juan Jimenez, said Thursday that the government has not raised the issue of a possible pardon for jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori.

“We are not at this moment discussing the issue. Please take it off the agenda,” Jimenez, who was appointed to the post on Sunday during a major cabinet shuffle, told reporters.

During a televised press conference, Jimenez told reporters to “not speculate, there has not been any request for a pardon.”

Fujimori’s family has presented no request either to the President or the Read more…

Keiko Fujimori: Moment Is Coming To Request Pardon For Father

Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, said Tuesday that she is increasingly considering requesting a pardon for her father, citing medical reports that the 73-year-old’s health is deteriorating.

“There is a medical report that indicates that he is a cancer patient, has severe depression with ups and downs, that in an accident  he hit his head, and that he has several intestinal problems,” said Keiko Fujimori, daily El Comercio reported.

She added that: “I think that the moment is coming to request a pardon.” Read more…

Nineteen Years Later, Death Squad Victims Given Burial in Santa

The remains of nine men, kidnapped and executed almost 20 years ago by the Colina death squad, were buried this past Sunday at the cemetery in their home town of Santa, following a service led by Bishop Piorno of Chimbote.

A representative for Cabinet chief Salomon Lerner was present, as well as relatives of the La Cantuta university students who were killed in Lima, also in 1992, by the same death squad.

According to statements made by the families to the Truth Commission, CVR, the peasant farmers were taken violently from their homes, in the countryside around the coastal town of Santa, in the early hours of May 2, 1992, by seven or eight uniformed, masked men and one woman who travelled in several Read more…

Peru, EU & UN Sign Agreement for Memory Museum

The European Union, United Nations and Peru’s government signed an agreement at the end of the week to finance the Memory Museum, according to a statement from the EU.

According to the agreement, the EU has committed to provide 2 million Euros ($2.8 million) that will be administered by the United Nations Development Program for the implementation of the museum.

The museum is being built overlooking Lima’s Costa Verde ocean front on a lot donated by the Miraflores municipal government.  A bid was called for the Read more…

Szyszlo to Resign Presidency of Memory Museum

Peruvian artist Fernando de Szyszlo is presenting his resignation from the presidency of the Memory Museum, daily La Republica reported.

Szyszlo said that President Ollanta Humala’s government had asked him to stay on as head of the museum’s commission when the new administration took office July 28.

“Nevertheless, two months have gone by and it is time for me to leave,” Szyszlo said. “There are a lot of paintings to finish and not a lot of years left to live.” Before presenting his resignation and making his decision public, he had spoken privately Read more…

Amnesty International calls for approval of prior consultation laws

Amnesty International called on Peru and other Latin American countries on Friday to enact laws to improve consultation for indigenous peoples in relation to projects in the extractive industries, state news agency Andina reported.

The group said there is a “false and dangerous dichotomy” between development and indigenous rights, the report said.

“There is a belief based on the false premise that projects in the extractive industries or other types, that multiply the wealth and are favorable for national interests, shouldn’t be ‘blocked’ by indigenous peoples who are ‘only’ a small part of the population,” Amnesty International said. Read more…

Gov’t awards Szyszlo the Order of the Sun

Peru’s government awarded painter Fernando de Szyszlo on Tuesday the country’s highest accolade, the Order of the Sun, in recognition of his artistic work and defense of human rights.

Foreign Affairs Minister Jose Antonio Garcia-Belaunde said during the ceremony that Szyszlo’s art presents “intense abstraction” of Peru’s culture.

“As well, the master is a fierce defender of human rights,” state news agency Andina reported Garcia-Belaunde as saying. Read more…

Humala, De Szyszlo meet to discuss Memory Museum

President-elect Ollanta Humala met Monday with the acclaimed painter Fernando de Szyszlo to discuss the creation of Peru’s Memory Museum.

De Szyszlo was appointed president of the commission to create the Museum in September last year, after author Mario Vargas Llosa resigned from the post.

The museum, under construction on the cliffside overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Miraflores, will cost 100 million soles (about $36 million). Financing for the project includes 2 million euros from the German government. Read more…

Cusco community defenders: planting hope to root out violence

By Annie Thériault—

Where is the justice? In Peru, a nation still struggling to recover from a sordid 20-year cycle of terror, political uncertainty and corruption, this simple yet poignant question has become an almost daily litany. And for victims of intra-familiar or domestic violence – or every third woman in Peru – it has become a cry of despair. There are countless numbers who continue to be failed by a legal system plagued by inefficiency and delay, and permeated by machismo and discrimination. Read more…

Lawmaker: Fujimori pardon by Garcia is feasible

Congressman Jose Vargas of President Alan Garcia’s ruling Aprista party said Tuesday that the head-of-state could pardon jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori due to the latter’s age and declining health, daily El Comercio reported.

“I think that because Fujimori is elderly and that, apparently, he has cancer, a pardon is feasible could be considered, for strictly humanitarian reasons,” Vargas said.

“It is a personal opinion. I have not talked with the President or anyone else [about the matter],” Vargas added. Read more…

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