Renowned French university financed alleged “terrorist colloquium”

The legal defense of Rocio Leandro Melgar presented before the Eighth Preparatory Investigation Court of the National Superior Court documentary evidence that questions one of the main arguments of the provincial prosecutor specializing in terrorism Ketty Garibay Mascco to request 18 months of preventive detention against the leader of the Ayacucho People’s Defense Front (Fredepa).

They are documents that certify that the international colloquium called “Internal armed conflict (1980-2000) and the Bicentennial Generation” was financed by the Le Havre Normandie University, France, and organized by the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of San Cristóbal de Huamanga (UNSCH), and the National Association of Relatives of Kidnapped, Detained and Disappeared in Peru (ANFASEP).

Prosecutor Ketty Garibay, based on information collected by the Directorate against the Terrorism (Dircote), accuses Rocío Leandro belong to a supposed “New Red Fraction” of Sendero Luminoso. And he attributes alleged illegal activities to her in her capacity as president of Fredepa. And she points out as “party activities” -read terrorists-, the organization and financing of the aforementioned colloquium.

The defense of the accused Rocío Leandro Melgar has delivered to the judicial authorities that show that the event had funds from the Le Havre Normandie University, and the support of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the UNSCH, that of Huamanga (UNSCH) and ANFASEP.

The “International Symposium on State Violence in the Peru of the Internal Armed Conflict (1980-2000) and the Bicentennial Generation” was held from August 3 to 6, 2022. It had originally been convened between September 14 and 17, 2021. The pandemic motivated the change of dates.