Poll: Fujimori maintains lead for presidential race with 23 percent support

Lawmaker Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori, continues to lead potential candidates for Peru’s presidential elections in 2011, according to a poll by Datum Internacional. Fujimori has 23 percent support in the poll, while Luis Castañeda has 21 percent support. Castañeda resigned as Lima’s mayor on Monday to run in the presidential [...]

Peru ex-minister arrested in Florida for extradition to Lima

Federal agents in Florida today took Augusto Blacker, Peru’s former minister of Foreign Affairs, into custody and are holding him at a facility south of Miami, pending extradition to Lima. Blacker, who is held in contempt of court by Peru’s Supreme Court, was accused with other former cabinet ministers of aiding and abetting the “self-coup” led [...]

OPINION: The Innocence of the Guilty

By José Luis Mejía All politicians are guilty, or almost all of them. If they were judged by a court made up of good men (in the true sense of the word) –as the Spanish poet Antonio Machado would say—nine out of ten would land up, bones and crimes, in jail. Power corrupts and few [...]

Ex-President Fujimori sentenced to 25 years on charges of human rights violations

Peru‘s former President Alberto Fujimori has been sentenced to 25 years imprisonment, following a verdict of guilty on four counts of human rights violations. The sentence, announced at 12:10m, was read at the end of the opinion given by the three-judge panel headed by Chief Judge César San Martín. The sentence, and the verdict, are [...]

Former President Fujimori allegedly targeted new premier Yehude Simon for assassination in 1992

Jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, on trial for allegedly sanctioning the Colina group paramilitary death squad, targeted the new cabinet chief, Yehude Simon, for assassination in the early 1990s, said state prosecutor Avelino Guillén. “We think that, yes, (Fujimori was involved),” said Guillén, who said that Fujimori also ordered the assassination of Javier Diez Canseco, [...]

Fujimori gets an eight-day break from human rights abuse trial for treatment of pre-cancerous mouth lesion

Jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori will get an eight-day break from his human rights abuse trial for allegedly sanctioning a paramilitary dead squad during his decade-long authoritarian regime so that doctors can treat him for a pre-cancerous lesion in his mouth.

Fujimori’s precancerous mouth lesion a ploy, critics say

Critics believe former President Fujimori’s precancerous mouth condition, leukoplakia, is being used as a ploy to obtain a mistrial and to distract public attention from the testimony given by retired army Gen. Rodolfo Robles, who has told the court that Fujimori was fully aware of the Colina death squad’s assassinations of Maoist Shining Path sympathizers [...]

Former third man from the top of the Peruvian army hierarchy says Fujimori is guilty of sanctioning death squad

The former third highest ranking officer in Peru’s army testified yesterday that ex-President Alberto Fujimori is directly to blame for the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres, carried out by the Colina group paramilitary death squad. “The President of the Republic, in this case the accused, Fujimori, is the one who decides what type of [...]

Former SIN chief Julio Salazar Monroe convicted for Colina group death squad massacre

A former chief of Peru’s National Intelligence Service was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison Tuesday for the notorious 1992 kidnapping and murders of a professor and nine student from La Cantuta University by the Colina group paramilitary death squad. The court tribunal led by Judge Inés Villa Bonilla found retired army Gen. [...]

Ex-President Fujimori resorts to sandals to ease numbness during trial

Ex-President Alberto Fujimori showed up to court in suit, tie and cheap sandals Monday to hear continuing testimony in his trial for allegedly sanctioning the Colina group paramilitary death squad. Fujimori, 69, donned the odd attire one week after he apologized for falling asleep in his chair and not wearing socks. Judge César San Martin [...]