Movadef Ends Attempt To Register As Political Party

The Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, known as Movadef, has given up on its attempts to register as a political party in Peru, local media reported.

Movadef is known to be the political arm of the Shining Path, an insurgency that terrorized Peru in the 1980s and 1990s as it sought to overthrow the state and implement its Maoist ideology. Some 70,000 people were killed in the conflict, with the Shining Path responsible for some 54%, a truth commission found.

The group’s effort to register as a political party has been widely rejected by Peru’s Read more…

Movadef Appeals Election Board Resolution

The Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, known as Movadef, has appealed a resolution that prevents the group from registering as a political party and participating in elections, daily El Comercio reported.

The appeal was presented on Friday to the National Election Board, or JNE. “With the appeal presented, the JNE will program a public audience in the next few days to receive the arguments from the claimants,” said Virgilio Hurtado, the director of the JNE’s electoral school. The time frame for the decision is 30 days.

The JNE rejected Movadef’s request last week. In its resolution, the JNE said that Read more…

Ex-President Garcia Rejects Movadef As Party

Alan Garcia, Peru’s two-time president, came out hard Tuesday against allowing the Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights, known as Movadef, from registering as a political party.

Movadef has close links with the Shining Path, the Maoist-inspired insurgency that launched a bloody battle against the state during the 1980s and 1990s. The conflict led to some 70,000 deaths, with about 54 percent caused by the Shining Path, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Today, the Shining Path is a shadow of its former self, with little of its ideology and none of its original cadres intact. It reached its peak during the late 1980s, when Read more…

Legislators To Back Bill To Block Movadef Registration

Peruvian lawmakers from across the political spectrum said they will approve a bill that would prevent political movements with links to insurgents and other violent groups from becoming registered political parties and participating in local and national elections.

Congressman Yehude Simon of the center-right Alianza por el Gran Cambio alliance said that he will ask the president of parliament to include the bill in the next session.

“If there is a law it has to be approved immediately,” state news agency Andina reported Simon as saying.

Legislator Yohny Lescano of the center Alianza Parlamentaria group said he expects the bill would be approved unanimously, while Alejandro Aguinaga, of Fujimori’s Fuerza 2011 Read more…

Peru Appoints Garcia-Sayan to Lead Memory Museum Commission

Peru’s government has appointed the current president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to lead the commission in charge of developing the Memory Museum, state news agency Andina reported.

Diego Garcia-Sayan, who is also a former Peruvian Justice Minister and for many years a key figure in the Andean Commission of Jurists, has been appointed to lead the High Level Commission for organizing and developing the musuem, which has been renamed the  Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion Museum, Andina said.

The commission will also include Monsignor Luis Bambaren, bishop emeritus of Chimbote, as well as architects Leopoldo Schelje and Javier Sota, exhibition Read more…

Lori Berenson arrives in New York for the Holidays

Lori Berenson arrived in New York today with her two-year-old son Salvador, following clearance yesterday by Peru’s Immigration Office, Digemin, to leave the country temporarily for the holidays. 

Berenson, on parole, was granted a temporary absence from Peru by the National Criminal Court and had planned to leave last Friday when she was stopped at the airport by Immigration officials.  The initial statements at the airport were that she had arrived too late to board her flight, but the Immigration director, Edgard Mercado, yesterday clarified that his office needed to issue an order recognizing Read more…

Cabinet Chief Valdes Says Development Needed for VRAE

Following an attack Monday by traffickers that claimed the life of one military officer and wounded four soldiers, Peru’s new cabinet chief, Oscar Valdes, said the government will tackle drug trafficking in the Apurimac and Ene river valley, or VRAE, by increasing development and state-presence in the isolated coca-growing region.  

Valdes, the former Interior Minister, said that development in the VRAE will include the construction of roads by military engineers, state news agency Andina reported.

“We are going to bring in the state first. We are going to bring the engineer battalions. We are going to build Read more…

Shining Path Leader Seeks Truce, Denies Links To Drug Trade – Report

In the process of seeking a truce and political legitimacy, the leader of Peru’s Shining Path remnant group in the Upper Huallaga Valley, one of the country’s top coca producing regions, denied links to the cocaine trade.

In the second part of an interview with IDL-Reporteros published on Wednesday, Florindo Flores, known as “Comrade Artemio,” said that while the Shining Path has allowed drug traffickers to operate, they have not collected fees for protection or other services.

Artemio leads the some 100–300 insurgents based in the valley. The faction is known as Proseguir, or “to continue,” and has cut off ties with the other splinter group based in the Apurimac and Ene River Valley, or VRAE, which is another major coca growing area.

The Shining Path waged a bloody Maoist insurgency against the state in the 1980s 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…

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…

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