Questions swirl after Peru's Congress chooses new ombudsman.
| Autor | Jana, Elsa Chanduvi |
After failing for more than five years to designate a national ombudsman (defensor del pueblo), Peru's Congress agreed earlier this month to assign the post to attorney Walter Gutierrez Camacho. The decision is clouded, however, by conflict-of-interest concerns and by recent fraud accusations against Gutierrez.
The unicameral legislature made the decision Sept. 6, putting Gutierrez in charge of the Defensoria del Pueblo, the ombudsman's office, for the next five years. As established by the Constitution, the Defensoria is an autonomous body tasked with ensuring good governance in favor of citizens and in defense of their fundamental rights. Gutierrez will replace attorney Eduardo Vega, who had served as the institution's interim head since 2011.
The selection process was managed by a special congressional committee made up of the spokespeople for the six legislative blocs and the members of the Mesa Directiva (the congressional leadership board), currently headed by Luz Salgado of the Fuerza Popular (FP). The FP is led by Keiko Fujimori, the runner up in this year's presidential election (NotiSur, May 27, 2016, and July 1, 2016). Fujimori is the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), whose policies and political ideology, known as Fujimorismo, continue to hold significant sway in Peru.
The committee chose three candidates for the ombudsman position: Gutierrez, a former dean of the Colegio de Abogados (a professional lawyers association) in Lima, the capital; constitutional attorney Samuel Abad, who worked in the Defensoria for 11 years; and Enrique Mendoza, a former president of the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones (National Board of Elections) and the Corte Suprema de Justicia (Supreme Court of Justice). Gutierrez was nominated by the FP and the Partido Aprista Peruano (APRA) parties. Abad's name was put forth by the leftist Frente Amplio.
Interestingly, the committee chose not to include Vega, the interim Defensoria head, on the short list of candidates. The reason, it explained, is that in May, when the previous legislature tried to vote for a new ombudsman, neither of the candidates in contention then--Vega and Gaston Soto, a former president of the Consejo Nacional de la Magistratura (National Council of Magistrates)--obtained the required minimum of 87 votes. The May vote was the last in a series of failed attempts since 2011 to choose an ombudsman. In each case, the various congressional blocs were unable to...
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