March 2008

Since his inauguration in July 2006, I have felt incredible frustration observing Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s management of the country. It is very hard to realize what is happening unless you “see through” the day-to-day insidious manipulation of public opinion that is unleashed in a rather “special” way since the Garcia administration is largely backed by all of the major media entities (i.e., newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations).

However, negative events have indeed been happening, from increasingly serious inflation to new witch hunts that the population is not supposed to realize are actually occurring because of government smoke screens. Rather, in this period of increasing social unrest, for diverse reasons the Garcia administration is trying to remind people of the “bullets and bombs” in the days of intense political violence that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s in order to justify that there must be unity in the country and that nobody has the right to think differently from the official government positions. Dissent and political opposition are viewed not as normal expressions of the democratic process but rather as treasonous and terrorist tactics intended to destabilize the country.

Some examples detailing what has been happening follow:



* Several months ago, new legislation by executive decree was passed that increases the lengths of sentences given for supposed crimes committed by those who dare to protest. In addition, Peru’s armed forces and police were given impunity for any deaths they may cause during their actions while on duty.
* On and off, there have been media campaigns demanding the publication of a list of all ex-detainees and all ex-prisoners who had been jailed for terrorism. This latter list would violate a constitutional principle that incarceration is a form of rehabilitation. (Theoretically, once a sentence is served the person can no longer be seen as different from anyone else).
* A widely watched TV program dedicated a special report (obviously, with government intelligence information) to denounce the fact that ex-political prisoners were working together in legally constituted enterprises as though that were a crime. Clearly, the intent was to convince the Peruvian public that this is a crime.
* In recent days several people were detained and warrants for the detention of others were issued because they are alleged to belong to a leftist collective (Coordinadora Continental Bolivariana) that exists throughout Latin America and that does not carry out illicit activities in Peru, whatever ideological affiliation it may have.
* Perhaps not unrelated, yet a third congressional commission has now been formed to investigate the Casas del Alba, an NGO with a link to Venezuela that exists throughout Peru. This NGO is an organization that offers social programs such as medical assistance to Peru’s poor. But ever since the presidential campaign in 2006 in which Hugo Chavez supported opposition leader Ollanta Humala, the Venezuelan president has been painted by the Garcia administration as the most evil force in the Western Hemisphere. This NGO is also accused of promoting “ideological interventions of Peru’s sovereignty,” among other peculiar depictions.
* Narco-trafficking incidents are reported regularly but are always identified with the overly-abused word “terrorism” – connecting these to so-called terrorist groups.
* A few weeks ago, four agrarian protesters were shot dead. Last week, seven protesters in Junin were wounded and the commanding general of that region blamed the incident on terrorist group infiltration, a statement vigorously denied by the protest organizers.



From the very first days of the Garcia administration one could sense the possibility of political persecution of key opposition. Now the narrowly defeated presidential candidate Ollanta Humala is about to be put on trial – and many believe this is retribution. And there are reports indicating that Hernan Fuentes, the democratically elected President of the Region of Puno, is seeking political asylum because the Garcia administration is threatening his removal from office and charging him with treason or sedition for his suggestion that his very poor and under-supported region be granted autonomy.

The real fear is that people may hold different political views from those espoused by the Garcia administration. With all the events reported above, any reference to Peru as a currently participatory democracy must be viewed as highly questionable.

Unaccountably, the Peruvian human rights community has remained silent on these abuses of the democratic process. Why the silence? This needs to be debated on a national level because these are dangerous abuses that affect the well-being of a democratic society. It is indeed ironic that one of the only persons to call attention to “democratic malpractice” in Peru is the conservative writer Alberto M. Adrianzen (La Republica, March 15, 2008) who, in his article “Disidencias: El macarthismo peruano,” argues that Peru is becoming a “McCarthy-type state.”

Witch hunts are not intended to be part of a democratic process and the right to disagree, the right to dissent, the right to have whatever ideology, the right to assemble and the right to protest are intrinsic to any real democracy – but these rights have become largely prohibited here in Peru. People should not continue to be detained, punished or even killed for exercising their democratic rights.

Lori Berenson

Cajamarca, Peru

March 2008