“This (death penalty) must be reviewed. Of course, I also consider that the rules of the Inter-American Human Rights System, which are still in force, require a process. I assure you that I will study this proposal in great detail,” said the Minister of Justice, Eduardo Aranaresponded to the congressman Jorge Montoya (Honor and Glory), who proposed to denounce the American Convention on Human Rights in order to implement the death penalty in the country.
Montoya assured that the death penalty It should be applied to serious crimes, such as sexual rape of minors, contract killings, terrorism and feminicide. “In such a way that they do not go unpunished and we prevent our penitentiary centers from being overcrowded by irrecoverable criminals who do harm from inside and outside the prisons,” said the congressman.
Compared to the minister Eduardo Aranathe outgoing president of the Judiciary, Javier Arevalodecisively rejected the proposal. He asserted that the death penalty “is something that we have already overcome and that cannot be restored in Peru.” In any case, he indicated his agreement with imposing life sentences on criminals who commit serious crimes.
Along the same lines, the elected president of the Judiciarythe supreme judge Janet Tello Gilardiwho recalled that “Peru has already signed international agreements where the death penalty has been completely repealed.”
The judge indicated that she is sure that, in the dialogues that she will hold with the Minister of Justice, he “will analyze in a better way” the approach of Jorge Montoya. He recalled that on previous occasions the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice have agreed, such as rejecting the bill that seeks to adolescents of 16 and 17 years old can be criminally tried.
Experts react
In dialogue with The Republicthe lawyer Carlos Rivera indicated that Minister Arana’s statement should be seen as part of the position that the Peruvian State has assumed, through the Executivebefore him Inter-American System. “A position not only of disagreement, but also of contempt,” he noted.
For his part, the constitutional lawyer Heber Joel Campos He asserted that what the head of Justice said seems to be more of a “smokescreen, rather than a proposal that truly seeks to solve the problem of citizen insecurity in the country.”
Rivera He stated that “it is not so easy to develop a procedure in the way that Montoya or Cueto surely want it to happen. “It’s not that you report today and tomorrow you can shoot anyone.”
The lawyer of IDL He specified that, at least, a process of denunciation of the Convention would take two years and “we do not know if Boluarte will be in power within a year.”
For this reason, Heber Joel Campos He considered it “unlikely” that an exit from the Pact of San José would materialize.
On the other hand, Carlos Rivera He maintains that the current Government will not establish a position because it could get certain sectors of citizens to support it.
“This topic is used frequently and the Executive is going to allow it because it opens a debate on an issue that does not harm it, but rather gives it a kind of support from some groups, assuming that the death penalty is a citizen demand and Therefore you have to walk in that direction. Trying to take advantage of an issue that seems more like a political campaign issue,” he declared. Rivera.
Excuses and nothing is done
Both experts consulted agreed that, instead of the death penalty, criminal policy should be strengthened so that the State can prevent, pursue and punish citizen insecurity and crime.
“Penal populism has shown that it does not serve to protect us. (…) To put it in simple terms: measures such as the death penalty are a pretext to give the impression that we are fighting against citizen insecurity, when in reality nothing or very little is done,” he stated. Fields.
Fields He added that, if Peru leaves the San José pact, human rights would be at risk. “And it would violate an express constitutional article (art. 205) that states that we all have the right to access international courts created for that purpose by international conventions or treaties. That is, the practical consequence would be that the guarantees for our rights would be fewer. than those we have today. In addition, the terrible record that this would mean at the international level, in the region, the countries that have distanced themselves from the inter-American human rights system are countries that have significantly regressed in terms of rights and issues. democracy. Two eloquent examples: Venezuela and Nicaragua”.
Montoya’s subordinate interests
- Jorge Montoya presented a bill so that the Government denounce the American Convention. However, the opinion proposed the creation of a high-level commission to propose reforms to the Inter-American Human Rights System. The text included an article so that the Government consider reporting the American Convention In case the proposals made do not receive any response from the Organization of American States (OAS).
- During the support of your project, Montoya He said that they seek to recover “national sovereignty” and accused the Inter-American System of “having become politicized” and adopting a left-wing ideology.
