The former president Pedro Castillosentenced to 11 years in prison for attempting a coup d’état in December 2022, today asked the new president José María Balcázar to grant him a pardon and thus leave the Barbadillo prison.
The request, which he agreed to Peru21bears the signature of the coup plotter and his lawyer Walter Ayala, who was in charge of entering the document into the Government Palace at 2:21 pm.
In the document, Castillo indicates that he is a “victim of a judicial process” and of “political persecution” that has led him to be arrested and prosecuted.
“I was sentenced to eleven years in prison for the crime of “conspiracy to rebel,” a legal figure whose application in my case has been questioned by constitutionalists, given that there was no effective violence nor a successful coup d’état materialized. My intention was never to attack the people but rather in a context of political asphyxiation to call for a national reflection,” he apologized.
Furthermore, the Chotano professor reminded Balcázar that in order to be elected president, after José Jerí’s censure, he made a commitment to left-wing legislators that he would grant presidential grace.
“Mr. President, during the conversations and political agreements that preceded your election as interim president of Congress and, subsequently, as head of the Executive Branch, your commitment to addressing the situations of those who, like me, are imprisoned for political reasons was public knowledge. Your promise to grant me pardon was not a state secret, it was an explicit offer that generated legitimate expectations in the millions of Peruvians who gave me their vote at the polls,” he added.
Likewise, he required the head of state to evaluate his request “under the principle of humanity.”
Castillo Terrones was sentenced in November 2025 along with his former prime minister Betssy Chávez, currently sheltered in the Mexican embassy in Lima.
This Thursday the new internal regulations of the Presidential Thanks Commission were published in the newspaper El Peruano. In its article 3, subsection b), it is stipulated that pardon can only be granted to people with a consented or enforceable sentence. That is, with a sentence ratified in the second instance.
However, the sentence against the former ruler was issued only in the first instance, so it has yet to be evaluated by a higher criminal court. Therefore, he would not meet the requirement to be favored with the presidential grace.
