Thousands marched in Lima on July 7 to demand that Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski [8] not pardon the country’s former strongman Alberto Fujimori, now serving a 25-year prison sentence for human rights violations. Kuczynski pledged on the campaign trail last year that there would be no pardon, helping him win a narrow victory against the ex-dictator's daughter, Keiko Fujimori [9]. But last month Kuczynski broached a potential pardon for Fujimori, now 78, for ostensible health reasons. Interestingly, the move came as his finance minister Alfredo Thorne [10] was ousted by Congress, dominated by Fujimori supporters.
On the same day as the Lima march, the elder Fujimori was transfered from his prison cell taken to a hospital, after reportedly showing signs of hypertension and irregular heartbeat. Kuczynski said a potential pardon for Fujimori would depend on a pending medical report. Fujimori has been convicted of ordering massacres [11] of suspected guerilla supporters, we well as more prosaic charges such as embezzlement and bribery.
Alfredo Thorne was removed over claims that he had sought to pressure Peru's comptroller into supporting a contract for the construction of an airport near the colonial city of Cuzco. The comptroller, Edgar Alarcón, has also been ousted over corruption charges. (EuroNews [12], July 8; Andina [13], Peru21 [14], July 7; Japan Times [15], July 6; Jurist [16], July 4; LAHT [17], June 16)
The imprisoned leader of the Shining Path guerillas, Abimael Guzmán [18], is meanwhile fighting an attempt by prosecutors to have him slapped with an additional life sentence for a 1992 bombing in Lima that killed 25 people. Although already serving a life term as leader of the Shining Path insurgency, Guzmán is denying any responsibility in the car-bomb attack on Tarata Street [19] in the upscale district of Miraflores. He told the judge hearing the case: "I had nothing to do with Tarata. When will you understand?" (RPP [20], June 28; VOA [21], Feb. 28)
