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News > Latin America

Families of Victims Reject Fujimori Pardon, Vow to Demand its Annulment

  • Relatives of victims of massacres committed under the government of Alberto Fujimori.

    Relatives of victims of massacres committed under the government of Alberto Fujimori. | Photo: EFE

Published 27 December 2017
Opinion

Human rights lawyers have also announced that they will also seek to overturn Fujimori’s pardon.

Families of the victims massacred during the dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in Peru rejected his recent pardon, vowing to demand an annulment.

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Peru's Culture Minister Resigns After Fujimori Pardoned

Gathered at a press conference, the families announced they will seek a ruling to send Fujimori back to prison, through both the Peruvian legal system and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAHRC).

Raida Condor, the mother of Armando Amaro, a student at the University of Education who was killed in the La Cantuta massacre, said there was no credibility to the pardon, and expressed hope the Court would annul it.

Norma Mendez, the mother of a journalist killed in 1991 by a military detachment dedicated to illegal executions, described it as a “manipulation of public opinion.”

Since Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski announced the pardon three days ago, more than 5,000 Peruvians have taken to the streets of Lima to protest against the pardon and "impunity." Some demonstrators were met with police violence as they neared Kuczynski's house.

More protests are planned in the coming days with youth groups, social organizations and trade unions all set to take part.

Earlier on Wednesday, human rights lawyers in Lima, Peru announced that they will also seek to overturn Fujimori’s recent medical pardon.

“The pardon does not conform with the Inter-American Human Rights Court ruling,” said Francisco Soberon, director of the Pro-Human Rights Association.

Soberon said the IAHRC, which tried and convicted Fujimori on two charges of human rights violations, does not permit pardons and sentence reductions on their rulings.

Since the pardon was announced, at least six officials in Kuczynski’s government have resigned.

Fujimori orchestrated the killings of 25 people by an army squad. He was also found guilty of kidnapping journalist Gustavo Gorriti and businessman Samuel Dyer and directing the killings of nine students and one professor from the Enrique Guzman and Valle National University.

RELATED: 

Peru: Human Rights Lawyers Plan to Revoke Fujimori Pardon

Along with former Army Captain Vladimir Montesinos, Fujimori has been linked to forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the war against insurgent groups Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. Fujimori was also accused of forced sterilizations affecting 300,000 women between 1996 and 2000.

President between 1990 and 2000, his most notable political rights violation was his 1992 "self-coup." This political move allowed Fujimori to dissolve Congress and the Supreme Court, consolidating his power under an authoritarian regime.

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