Peru

Peru Human Rights

Human Rights Concerns

Segundo Alberto Pizango Chota, president of an Indigenous People's organization in Peru, is reported to be returning to the country on 26 May after several months in exile in Nicaragua. He is facing charges in Peru which seem to be unsubstantiated, and he may not be given a fair trial.
Alberto Pizango was charged with "rebellion, sedition and conspiracy against the state and the constitutional order", as well as with "apology of crimes against public order". However, at the time of the violence, Alberto Pizango was in Lima, hundreds of kilometers away. The evidence for the charges appears to rest solely on a press conference given by Alberto Pizango on 15 May 2009 where he called for an "Indigenous insurgence" against the government. At the press conference he apparently clarified that the call for insurgency was a call to the government to annul a series of laws which were being passed without the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous people, as a first step to initiating a dialogue as equals. He publicly retracted this call the following day in the presence of the Human Rights Ombudsperson and this retraction was posted on AIDESEP’s website as well as being reported in the press.