Scandal Over Garcia’s Presidential Pardons Deepens
April 11, 2013 by Andean Air Mail & PERUVIAN TIMES ·
Huaman, Manuel, ApraA scandal over presidential pardons during President Alan Garcia’s administration took on a new twist on Wednesday, when daily El Comercio revealed that a member of the presidential pardons committee was a convicted drug trafficker.
According to a front page story by the newspaper, Manuel Huaman, a 53-year-old lawyer, worked for the pardons committee when it was led by Miguel Facundo Chinguel from 2008 to 2010. Garcia’s second term in office was from 2006 to 2011.
Huaman was arrested in 1999 and sentenced in 2000 to 8 years in prison for his role in trafficking tons of cocaine to Mexico in the 1990s. Huaman reportedly worked with the Los Norteños gang, led by Peruvians and working closely in Mexico, to produce cocaine in Peru and traffic it to other countries.
Drug kingpins Jorge Lopez Paredes, the head of Los Norteños, and Fernando Zevallos, who laundered drug money through his now closed airline Aero Continente, were also convicted in the Los Norteños case.
Huaman was released from prison early, in 2004. According to anti-drug officials cited by El Comercio, Huaman showed up in prison again in 2009, but this time as part of the committee that granted pardons to inmates. Huaman is a card-carrying member of former President Garcia’s Apra party, according to the newspaper.
More:
http://www.peruviantimes.com/11/scandal-over-garcias-presidential-pardons-deepens/18745/
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Peru’s Attorney General Says Will Investigate Garcia on Pardons for Drug Traffickers
April 8, 2013 by Andean Air Mail & PERUVIAN TIMES · Leave a Comment
Pelaez, Atty Gen JoseAttorney General Jose Pelaez said Friday that his office will be opening an investigation into former President Alan Garcia and other officials who were involved in granting pardons to hundreds of drug traffickers during the ex-President’s administration.
“The attorney general’s office is undoubtedly close to these concerns that citizens and some civil servants have and we are going to start an investigation,” Pelaez told Ideeleradio. In addition to Garcia, his former justice ministers will also be investigated, Pelaez said.
Local media reported earlier this week that during Garcia’s second term, 2006 to 2011, 5,500 prisoners were pardoned, including 400 individuals who had been convicted of drug trafficking. The information was leaked to the media this week from a congressional commission investigating Garcia’s administration.
The leak has set off a firestorm of accusations and counter-accusations between Garcia and his Apra party and President Ollanta Humala’s ruling Gana Peru party.
Tejada, SergioThe “mega” commission, led by Gana Peru congressman Sergio Tejada, has been investigating the Garcia administration’s decisions on a number of different issues —including over-budget spending on upgrading and refurbishing of key state schools, upgrading the national football stadium, and the more recent scandal of secret and overpriced military acquisitions— but none can necessarily be connected directly to the former President.
More:
http://www.peruviantimes.com/08/perus-attorney-general-says-will-investigate-garcia-on-pardons-for-drug-traffickers/18705/
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Ex-Peru President Pardoned 400 Drug Traffickers: Commission
Written by Michael Tatone
Monday, 01 April 2013
Former President of Peru Alan Garcia granted 400 presidential pardons for convicted drug traffickers during his second term in office in a controversial policy that has provoked political debate over Garcia's security policies.
The findings come from the congressional "mega-commission" formed to investigate constitutional infractions and allegations of corruption from the second Garcia administration, reported El Comercio.
According to the commission, the Garcia administration pardoned 5,500 individuals between 2006 and 2011, including 400 people incarcerated on drug charges.
InSight Crime Analysis
Members of the Garcia administration have been quick to defend the pardons. Garcia himself denied any wrongdoing. The former president said no gang members or high level traffickers were among those pardoned and claimed those released were only low-level drug mules, suggesting a humanitarian approach to those who often suffer harsh penalties for getting caught up on the bottom rung of the drug trade.
More:
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-briefs/ex-peru-president-pardoned-400-drug-traffickers
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