The IACHR admitted the lawsuit by the founder of the MRTA and sparks controversy in Peru

The measure on Victor Polay Campos, former leader of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, led the right to ask Dina Boluarte to “remove that crap from the Commission.”

Peru is involved in a new controversy that involves the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and this time it is because a report dating back to 2022. However, the document was not known until its recent dissemination by local media, which generated an uproar among the political class.

On March 20 of last year, the IACHR declared admissible the complaint against the Peruvian State presented by the founder of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), Victor Polay Campos, by the conviction for terrorism against him.

Campos was sentenced in 2006 to 32 years in prison for crime of terrorism against the State. Two years later, the Permanent Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice increased the sentence to 35 years, while rejecting the option of life imprisonment.

The IACHR concluded that this case could constitute violations of some precepts established in the American Convention on Human Rights, such as the right to judicial guarantees and protection.

The controversy

This measure has generated annoyance, especially on the Peruvian right. On Wednesday, parliamentarian Martha Moyano, from the Fujimori party Fuerza Popular (FP), called on the Government to go to Congress to explain in detail the State’s response.

Interviewed on the program ‘Beto a Saber’, broadcast by the local channel Willax, Moyano asked President Dina Boluarte that “we once and for all muster up the courage and withdraw from that crap of Commission and Court“.

Legislator Jose Cueto, from the far-right Renovacion Popular, expressed himself along the same lines. “It is outrageous for a people that fought against terrorism that the IACHR has admitted the lawsuit of the terrorist murderer Polay Campos to processing,” wrote in X.

“What good is it for the country to continue belonging to the IACHR?” asked Congresswoman Patricia Chirinos, of the right-wing Avanza Pais. “Is it not evident that For years they have been playing against the terrorists“, seeking with their decisions and pronouncements to whitewash the enemies of Peru?” he added.

A position with which even some national newspapers agree, such as Correo, which headlined on its front page this Thursday that “The IACHR plays against Polay”.

Fujimori’s influence

This day the leader of FP, Keiko Fujimori, published the cover of Correo and assured that “it is time to respect the decisions of our country regarding an entity that has always protected terrorists and harmed the president who defeated them“.

The former presidential candidate referred to her father, Alberto Fujimori, who in 2022 benefited from a ‘habeas corpus’ endorsed by the Constitutional Court (TC) of Peru, until the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordered the State to refrain from releasing him.

“The same IACHR that today embraces and benefits Victor Polay of the MRTA is the one that blocked the TC ruling for the immediate freedom of Alberto Fujimori,” added the FP leader on the social network.

The official position

The Minister of the Interior, Vicente Romero, confirmed that the Executive will respond to the lawsuit filed by Polay. “He has been treated as he should be”he told the press after participating in an event located in the district of Pucusana, province of Lima.

For his part, the permanent representative of Peru to the Organization of American States (OAS), Gustavo Adrianzen, clarified that the IACHR does not have the power to annul the 35-year prison sentence.

In fact, in its document the supranational organization emphasized that his “purpose is not to determine innocence or guilt of Mr. Polay Campos, but to define whether or not the judicial authorities have affected obligations stipulated in the Convention”.

Questioned by the RPP radio station, Adrianzen pointed out that the State will make a statement after Polay’s defense presents its observations. Meanwhile, he highlighted that Peru’s international defense is “solid and permanent.”

“We do not have to worry about these alarmist messages”he emphasized.