Eighteen months after one of the gravest episodes of widespread human rights violations in Peru since the internal armed conflict the country experienced almost three decades ago, multiple questions remain about the actions of security forces during protests that took place throughout the country between December 2022 and March 2023. Fifty people and one policeman lost their lives, and more than a thousand were seriously injured during these protests. To date, no public official has been criminally charged in relation to these events.
This report analyzes the role that senior police and military commanders, as well as senior civilian officials, played during these tragedies and the responsibility they may have for the acts committed, some of which could be considered crimes under international law.
The current investigation represents the second chapter in an ongoing research effort that Amnesty International began in December 2022, when the state crackdown on protests began. In May 2023, the organization published a report that detailed the grave human rights violations committed during protests and deemed them widespread attacks by security forces including possible extrajudicial executions. The document also pointed to the marked racist bias of the repressive tactics of security forces
The body of evidence presented in this report reveals a series of actions and omissions from the highest levels of the Peruvian State that appear to have had lethal consequences over a prolonged period and that could have been avoided. International human rights law contains clear criteria for assessing the responsibility of superiors in the chain of command, including those in the highest positions of hierarchical institutions, and who knew or should have known that grave human rights violations were being committed or were about to be committed.
Similarly, the report presents multiple examples of a possible omission on the part of police and military commanders and senior civilian officials to prevent or punish any repetition of repressive tactics. Far from condemning the illegitimate acts committed by security forces, which grew in magnitude every day and could be configured as crimes under international law, superiors in the chain of command endorsed the actions committed during operations in protests. As such, it is more urgent than ever that authorities tasked with ensuring justice for victims prioritize the analysis of the chain of command in its entirety.
In light of the above, Amnesty International urges Peruvian authorities to redouble their efforts to guarantee the rights to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition for the hundreds of victims of grave human rights violations committed during the protests. Any effort to account for these events must urgently analyze the role of the chain of command in its entirety, and not omit the top ranks, including the former commander generals of the PNP, the former head of the PNP General Advisory Command, and the former director of Special Operations of the PNP, in addition to the former head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. These in addition to the president as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and police, as well as government ministers. Only by taking these steps may it possible to begin healing the deep pain of hundreds of families and put in place lasting measures that guarantee the non-repetition of such crimes.
Read “Who Called the Shots? Chain of Command Responsibility for Killings and Injuries in Protests in Peru”