The Prosecutor’s Office requested 18 months of preventive detention against Rocío Leandro Melgar, alias ‘comrade Cusi’and another 6 investigated for the alleged crime against public peace, in the form of belonging to a terrorist organization.
The presentation of the pretrial detention requirement was made after the formalization of the preparatory investigation, by the Second Office of the Corporate Supraprovincial Criminal Prosecutor Specialized in Crimes of Terrorism and related crimes, according to his official Twitter account.
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As recalled, on January 12, the Peruvian National Police (PNP) and special prosecutors from the Public Ministry, sent from Lima, arrested the president of the Ayacucho People’s Defense Front (Fredepa), Rocío Leandro Melgar, “Comrade Cusi”. The arrest occurred at the Casa del Maestro in the city of Ayacucho, in the province of Huamanga.
Leandro Melgar was detained together with the vice president of Fredepa, Stefany Alanya Chumbes, and the secretary of that organization, Alejandro Manay Pillaca.
Subsequently, on January 24, the Third Criminal Chamber of National Appeals confirmed the preliminary arrest warrant against Rocío Leandro Melgar and others investigated for the alleged crime of terrorism against the State.
WHO IS THE ‘COMRADE CUSI’?
Rocío Leandro has a record that the Peruvian authorities cannot forget, since in the past she was arrested and imprisoned for her participation in terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the Shining Path organization, according to Dircote reports.
One of those attacks was the assassination of Pedro Huilca, general secretary of the General Central of Workers of Peru (CGTP).
The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR) records the testimony of a senderista who points to alias ‘Cusi’ as one of the terrorists who organized the crime perpetrated on December 18, 1992.
According to this statement, Leandro “He was in charge of selecting the contingent that committed the crime”. Then, according to the demonstration, Sendero would regret having carried out the murder because Huilca had arrived with the workers, who turned him into a martyr.
After her release from prison, Rocío Leandro joined the Movadefthe political arm of Sendero Luminoso, on February 29, 2011, according to the records of the National Elections Board (JNE).
