Second day of protests against release of Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Deutsche Welle (AFP, AP, Reuters)



Protesters have labeled Peru's current president a traitor for pardoning jailed former strongman Alberto Fujimori. The 79-year-old was serving a 25-year sentence for human rights violations.

Date 26.12.2017

- video -

Clashes erupted on Monday for a second day between protesters and Peru's police following the decision to grant a medical pardon to jailed former president Alberto Fujimori.

At one point, police in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse dozens of people gathered on a side street in the capital Lima.

TV footage showed more than a thousand people on the streets, and many of them denounced Sunday's decision by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to free his predecessor.

Fujimori was serving a 25-year sentence for corruption and human rights abuses — including the ordering of death squads against his political opponents.

Read more: http://www.dw.com/en/second-day-of-protests-against-release-of-perus-ex-president-alberto-fujimori/a-41931488

[Pachamama]

1. I don't believe that Fujimori deserved a pardon...

And the Peruvian people don't either and very soon the current President will know he made a mistake and will likely be removed from office by some means....

Especially since he promised during his election campaign he would not pardon Fujimori....

[rpannier]

2. I'm good with the President going as long as it isn't another Fujimori that is elected

[Pachamama]

3. Unfortunately, given the history of politics and government in Peru, that might be unavoidable...

It makes me so sad because I love Peru and know so many wonderful people there and my hope has always been for that nation and its people to be able to move forward from this kind of corruption and abuse of power from within its government....

Then again, look at us here in the US....and the direction we are going under the GOP....

[Hortensis]

4. The people he murdered are still dead, those whose

lives he ruined still living ruined lives.

[Judi Lynn]

5. The Americas Pardon of Peruvian autocrat Fujimori brings his powerful family back into the spotlight

By Simeon Tegel December 27 at 3:11 PM

LIMA, Peru — Alberto Fujimori, the former hard-right autocrat who led Peru in the 1990s, has offered an ambivalent apology for his administration’s endemic corruption and serious human rights abuses after his abrupt early release from prison.

In a Facebook video posted Tuesday, Fujimori, 79, expressed his “profound gratitude” to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, vowed to support national “reconciliation” and apologized to those he disappointed “with all my heart.”

But his words are unlikely to assuage mounting anger over the pardon, which has convulsed Peru and sets up a power struggle within the Fujimori family, the dominant force in politics here, with its Popular Force party holding a large majority in the single-chamber Congress.

It has also led to unrest in the streets: Police corralled demonstrators in Lima on Christmas Day, and nationwide protests are scheduled for Thursday.

More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/pardon-of-peruvian-autocrat-amid-political-maelstrom-brings-fujimoris-back-to-spotlight/2017/12/27/2a88b736-ea90-11e7-956e-baea358f9725_story.html?utm_term=.43e3aec0e88b

[Judi Lynn]

6. Peru's culture minister resigns after Fujimori pardon

Peru's culture minister resigns after Fujimori pardon
45 minutes ago


AFP
Image caption
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski beat Keiko Fujimori to the presidency but did he do a deal with her brother?



. . .

Why is the decision controversial?
Protests erupted soon after news of the pardon came to light on Sunday, with many demonstrators waving pictures of victims of the counter-insurgency campaign.

"We believe the pardon was carried out in an illegal manner," one protester told Reuters.

"The reality is that this sadly was a political agreement between the Fujimorists and the current government."

Was a deal done?
The conservative Popular Force party, led by the former president's daughter Keiko Fujimori, controls Congress and on Thursday tried to impeach President Kuczynski over a corruption scandal.

More:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42495939

[Judi Lynn]

7. Wikipedia on Fujimori's sterilization of indigenous women in Peru, another form of genocide:

Compulsory sterilization

. . .

Peru[edit]
In Peru, President Alberto Fujimori (in office from 1990 to 2000) has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity as a result of a sterilization program put in place by his administration.[61] During his presidency, Fujimori put in place a program of forced sterilizations against indigenous people (mainly the Quechuas and the Aymaras), in the name of a "public health plan", presented on July 28, 1995. The plan was principally financed using funds from USAID (36 million dollars), the Nippon Foundation, and later, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).[62] On September 9, 1995, Fujimori presented a Bill that would revise the "General Law of Population", in order to allow sterilization. Several contraceptive methods were also legalized, all measures that were strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Catholic organization Opus Dei. In February 1996, the World Health Organization (WHO) itself congratulated Fujimori on his success in controlling demographic growth.[62]

. . .

On October 21, 2011, Peru’s Attorney General José Bardales decided to reopen an investigation into the cases, which had been halted in 2009 under the statute of limitations, after the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights ruled that President Fujimori’s sterilization program involved crimes against humanity, which are not time-limited.[64] It is unclear as to any progress in matter of the execution (debido ejecución sumaria) of the suspect in the course of any proof of their relevant accusations in the legal sphere of the constituted people in vindication of the rights of the people of South America (en el foro legal del pueblo en reivindicación del derecho del pueblo sud-americano). It may carry a parallel to any suspect cases for international investigation in any other continent, and be in the sphere of Medical Genocide.

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization

[Judi Lynn]

9. U.N. human rights experts appalled by pardon of Peru's Fujimori

DECEMBER 28, 2017 / 8:50 AM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
Reuters Staff


GENEVA (Reuters) - Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s pardon of his predecessor Alberto Fujimori is an appalling “slap in the face” for his victims and a major setback for the rule of law, a group of U.N. human rights experts said on Thursday.

”A humanitarian pardon has been granted to someone convicted of serious crimes after a fair trial, whose guilt is not in question and who does not meet the legal requirements for a pardon,” they said in a statement.

Kuczynski pardoned the ailing Fujimori three days after Fujimori loyalists in the opposition-ruled Congress saved Kuczynski from being ousted in a corruption scandal.

“We are appalled by this decision. It is a slap in the face for the victims and witnesses whose tireless commitment brought him to justice,” said the statement, issued jointly by the U.N. working group on enforced disappearances and by U.N. special rapporteurs Agnès Callamard and Pablo de Greiff.

More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-fujimori-un/u-n-human-rights-experts-appalled-by-pardon-of-perus-fujimori-idUSKBN1EM1CU?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29&&rpc=401