Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

ELECTIONS-PERU: The Disturbing Past of Humala’s Men

Ángel Páez

LIMA, Apr 7 2006 (IPS) - Unlike the other 20 candidates running for president in the Sunday elections in Peru, front-runner Ollanta Humala has not presented the members of his campaign team to the public.

It turns out that several of them are military officers who had ties to Vladimiro Montesinos, ousted ex-president Alberto Fujimori’s notorious former intelligence chief.

Most of the officers who are now close associates of the nationalist Humala – who is himself a retired lieutenant colonel – signed the “Acta de Sujeción”, a document drafted by Montesinos, in March 1999.

By signing, they committed themselves to opposing any investigation of members of the military who took part in Fujimori’s April 1992 “self-coup” or are accused of committing human rights violations during the 1980-2000 “dirty war” against the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) Maoist guerrillas.

Retired Colonel Estuardo Loyola, in charge of organising Humala’s campaign rallies, not only signed the “Acta de Sujeción” but served as personal secretary to former army chief José Villanueva, who formed part of the vast network of corruption orchestrated by Montesinos.

Villanueva is now in prison, as is Montesinos himself, who faces over 60 charges ranging from drug trafficking to murder.

In charge of running Humala’s tours through outlying provinces is retired Colonel Adrián Villafuerte, who also signed the “Acta de Sujeción”.

Fujimori, who first took office in 1990 and was removed by Congress in 2000, dissolved the opposition-controlled parliament, suspended constitutional guarantees and the activity of political parties, took over the courts, and began to govern with the support of the armed forces in 1992. A constitutional reform made his reelection possible in 1995.

His authoritarian regime collapsed in 2000 under evidence of widespread corruption and anti-democratic practices, including fraud in the elections that year, in which he won a third term. He resigned by fax from Japan, and was sacked by Congress.

The disgraced former president lived in exile in Japan until late last year, when he flew to Chile, where he was arrested. He is wanted in Peru on numerous charges, and is in prison in Santiago awaiting the outcome of an extradition trial.

In the last three years of the Fujimori regime, Villafuerte was the personal assistant of another shady figure who is also in prison for corruption: General César Saucedo, who served as minister of the interior and defence and as head of the army and the joint chiefs of staff between 1997 and 2000.

One of Villafuerte’s classmates in the military academy was Colonel Jorge Zerillo, who now works in the army personnel office, where documents from Humala’s military service record, relating to his counterinsurgency activities, disappeared from the files.

In addition, Colonel Zerillo’s brother Manuel is a candidate to the legislature on Humala’s list, and is married to one of the presidential candidate’s relatives.

Another officer close to Humala is retired General Benigno Cabrera. He was Humala’s commanding officer when the candidate was the commander of a counterinsurgency army base in 1992 in Madre Mía, an Amazon jungle village in a region where Sendero Luminoso was active.

Cabrera and Humala are both under investigation for human rights abuses committed in Madre Mía in 1992.

“The presence of these people (on Humala’s team) is a sign that should be studied and investigated in depth,” Sofía Macher, a former member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the “dirty war”, told IPS.

“The Truth Commission documented human rights violations committed in 1992 in that area (Madre Mía), as well as drug trafficking cases. For that reason, the appearance of these individuals next to Humala is disturbing,” said Macher, an analyst with the non-governmental Legal Defence Institute.

Cabrera received special treatment from Montesinos, who promoted him to general for the role he played in the rescue of the hostages held by members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in the Japanese ambassador’s residence in 1997.

Two years later, Cabrera became one of the signatories of the “Acta de Sujeción”.

In its August 2003 report, the Truth Commission documented nearly 70,000 victims in the military’s counterinsurgency war on Sendero Luminoso, the majority of whom were indigenous people.

Before the identity of his associates came to light, Humala had called the officers who signed the pledge to Montesinos “traitors of the fatherland,” and announced that he would carry out a purge targeting them if he was elected. But he later underwent a change of heart, stating that merely having signed the “Acta de Sujeción” did not “invalidate” them.

However, new controversial figures continue to appear among those close to Humala – in this case, former military academy classmates.

One of them is retired Major Ítalo Ponce, head of planning in Humala’s campaign, who admitted to visiting Óscar López Meneses, one of Montesinos’s closest collaborators, in prison, on the argument that López Meneses is his friend.

The incident strengthened the conviction among the public that Humala has surrounded himself with advisers who had – or have – contact with Montesinos or his accomplices.

A month ago, Humala’s weekly publication, “La Olla”, harshly attacked the candidate’s main rivals: the right-wing Lourdes Flores and social democratic former president Alan García.

Another former classmate of Humala, retired Lieutenant Germán Alfaro, is allegedly one of the people who finance the publication.

During the Fujimori years, Alfaro set up a front company for carrying out illegal business using public aircraft. And in 2003, he was implicated in the theft of airplane and helicopter parts from the air force, which were then sold back to the air force itself.

When the local press revealed the identity of controversial members of his team, Humala claimed it was part of a media smear campaign against his candidacy.

“It was very difficult for Peruvians to get out of the dictatorship, which is why it is so important to keep people with links to things that are currently under investigation out of the campaign,” said Percy Medina, secretary of the civil association Transparencia, which is participating in the electoral process as an observer.

“It is important for Humala to publicly distance himself from these individuals,” Medina told IPS.

Although the case of Humala has received the most attention, it is not the only one in which a candidate is surrounded by advisers lacking in democratic credentials, or who have been implicated in corruption.

Among the assistants to former president Alan García (1985-1990), who is statistically tied for second place in the polls with the pro-business Flores, are two retired officers who had links with Montesinos: Admiral Luis Giampietri and General Carlos Tafur.

Giampietri is an outspoken enemy of human rights organisations who struck up a friendship with Montesinos when he assisted in the rescue of the hostages held in the Japanese ambassador’s house from December 1996 to April 1997.

Giampietri, who was one of the hostages, sent signals to the army commandos that staged the rescue operation.

He later formed part of the campaign team of Juan Carlos Hurtado, candidate for mayor of Lima for Fujimori’s party.

One of the hundreds of videotapes secretly recorded by Montesinos to document the bribes he paid out to politicians, judges, members of the business community and journalists shows him handing over 250,000 dollars to Giampetri for Hurtado’s campaign.

Tafur also signed the “Acta de Sujeción”. Named army chief by Valentín Paniagua, who succeeded Fujimori after the collapse of his regime, Tafur was removed shortly afterwards, when the caretaker president discovered that he had signed the controversial document.

Meanwhile, businessman Arturo Woodman is a key figure in Flores’s campaign. Woodman held several different posts in the Fujimori administration, while working for business tycoon Dionisio Romero at the same time.

Woodman, a friend of Montesinos, allegedly arranged several meetings between Romero and Montesinos. Flores, however, does not see that as a worrisome precedent, and has kept him on among her advisers.