Hello again! In today’s post, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about one of the most prominent events in Peruvian politics; the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.

This event took place on the 17 of December 1996, when a high-profile celebration was taking place in the Japanese embassy. The Japanese ambassador to Peru at the time, Morihisa Aoki, was hosting a party in honor of Emperor Akihito’s 63rd birthday, and most (if not all) of Peru’s relevant political, military, and ecclesiastical figures were in attendance. There were around 600 guests.

The Japanese embassy was (They’ve since changed locations) one of the best-fortified buildings in Lima. There is a 12-foot wall surrounding the perimeter, the doors are made to sustain the impact of a grenade, and each window inside has grates while some even have bulletproof glass.

At 8 pm an ambulance passed through the security checkpoints and into the street behind the embassy. From it emerged fourteen members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement who hid for twenty minutes until they broke a hole into the wall surrounding the ambassador’s home and opened fire. Guests tried desperately to flee but were quickly overpowered by the shooters. All 600 were then ordered to enter one of the main salons and lay on the floor (Except ambassador Aoki who reportedly refused to lie on the ground).

For some important context, Peru had been deep within a terrorism crisis since the 80s with fear and violence reigning over the country. But after most major terrorist leaders had been captured life was returning back to normal. This hostage crisis plunged the country right back to the fear caused by twenty years under terrorist control.

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA; Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru) was a terrorist militant group under a Marxist-Leninist ideology. It aimed to change the government through a ‘radical revolution’. The group was first formed between 1980 and 1982. They named themselves after Túpac Amaru II, an indigenous rebel leader from the 18th century who in turn had named himself after Túpac Amaru the first, the last Inca. They were led by Víctor Polay Campos and Néstor Cerpa Cartolini. Néstor Cerpa Cartolini was the leader of the embassy assault.

Red Cross director, Michel Minnig, was the first mediator to be allowed within. After his intervention, most women and disabled people were released from the embassy; among the women were President Fujimori’s mother and sister, unbeknownst to the MRTA.

Quickly afterward, the Peruvian military and police surrounded the embassy while the Council of Ministers held an emergency meeting as the MRTA stated their demands; all emerretistas (MRTA members) under arrest had to be released and provided with financial compensation (Among them was Lori Berenson), revision of the country’s free-market reforms and Japan’s foreign assistance program, and better prison conditions.

The government offered a counteroffer of providing the fourteen members with passages in either Cuba or the Dominican Republic and a large sum of money, an offer which was immediately rejected.

Negotiations continued. The government sent Canadian Ambassador Anthony Vincent and Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani, Fujimori was even in communication with Fidel Castro (Supposedly to negotiate sending the MRTA members to Cuba as political exiles).

The MRTA continued to release hostages, mostly people who lacked political importance. 126 days later, by the 22nd of April 1997, only 72 hostages remained.

By this point, Luis Giampetri, an intelligence specialist from the navy, had established secret communication with the hostages through hidden microphones and secret signals to be informed of the MRTA movements. Furthermore, the military had established operations in the residences surrounding the embassy.

This is when Operation Chavín de Huántar took place. Promptly named after an archeological site famous for its underground passages, tunnels were secretly built connecting to the building where the MRTA hid with hostages. Explosions were set off the military broke from the ground (Quite literally). They separated and entered the residence from all sides.

Reportedly, six out of the fourteen terrorists died in the original explosions. From then on, the military found and killed every emerretista on sight and attempt to remove every one of the hostages. During the rescue three non-MRTA members died; Colonel Juan Alfonso Valer Sandoval, Captain Raúl Jimenez Chávez, and Supreme Court Justice Dr. Carlos Giusti Acuna.

After the initial celebration of the successful rescue, reports came out that the deaths within the embassy rescue were planned. The Chief of Military Intelligence, Vladimiro Montesinos, is set to have ordered the assassination of Supreme Court Justice Dr. Carlos Giusti Acuna (The only hostage who died) as he was a political rival of President Fujimori. Moreover, in later interviews with the hostages, it was revealed that many of the MRTA members surrendered and were killed anyways.

These accusations were taken to court in two instances. First, public prosecutors formally accused the military in the Peruvian Supreme Court of their crimes; the court ruled that the jurisdiction fell to the military tribunals which absolved them completely. Secondly, family members of the MRTA members killed sued the government in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) for denying the rebels the “right to life, the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection”. No further progress of convictions has been made by the CIDH.

Hello again! In today’s post, we’ll talk about a man who I would probably call Peru’s most loved politician in the last couple of decades; Francisco Sagasti. (Fun fact, he is my neighbor).

Francisco Rafael Sagasti Hochhausler was born on October 10th, 1944, in the city of Lima. His parents are Francisco Sagasti Miller and Elsa Hochhausler Reinisch, and his grandfather is, Francisco Sagasti Saldaña, a veteran of the War of the Pacific.

Sagasti finished his secondary education at La Salle School in Lima and attended the (Peruvian) National University of Engineering where he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering. Two years later, he enrolled at Penn State University and attained a master’s degree also in Industrial Engineering. Furthermore, he also completed a Ph.D. program in Operations Research and Social Systems Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1972, Francisco served as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Technological, Industrial Research and Technical Standards of Peru and as an advisor to the Minister of Industry. During this time, Peru was governed by the revolutionary government of the Armed Forces, a military dictatorship.

In 1976, he married a Chilean woman named Leonor Giusti and adopted her four daughters but they divorced in 1992. In 1993, he remarried Costa Rican politician Silvia Charpentier Brenes and had a daughter with her. The couple divorced in 2005. It is said that he married a third time and divorced but not much is known about this.

From 1978 until 1992, he was involved in a variety of advisory positions internationally. Sagasti was the advisor to the Vice President of the International Development Research Center in Bogotá;  a guest lecturer to multiple Ivy League universities for the Fulbright Program; president of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development; and later working in the World Bank as Chief of the Strategic Planning Division and Senior Advisor to the Policy Evaluation and External Relations Departments.

Sagasti returned to Peru during the 1992 Constitutional Crisis (Ex-president Alberto Fujimori’s self-coup d’etat) and became a strong advocate against Fujimori. Four years later, he was taken hostage by the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (A guerrilla terrorist group) during the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis.

Here, he became a very controversial figure as he was quickly released due to his minor political relevance at the time but brought back with him a diary with the signatures of the kidnappers. Many considered the signatures to be ‘autographs’ and Sagasti was publicly shamed for ‘supporting’ terrorists and attention-seeking behavior.

Nevertheless, he continued serving in government positions such as President of the Board of Directors of the Science and Technology Program until 2013. In 2016, he helped found and operated as the ideological leader of Peru’s Purple Party (A center-left political party). In March 2020, he was elected to Congress and was a very vocal advocate against the impeachment of Martín Vizcarra. In November of the same year, he was selected as President of Congress.

Due to the lack of a 1st or 2nd vice president, after Manuel Merino’s resignation, Francisco Sagasti was elected as (acting) President of the Republic in November 2020.

One of his most recognizable actions as president was the reformation of the National Police due to their use of violence against protestors (And their responsibility for the deaths of protestors). He removed the Commander General and eighteen more generals. Two ministers resigned in protest and former heads of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and former general commanders of the Army, Navy, and Air Force denounced his decision and supported the claim that the protestors had initiated the violence. Nevertheless, this reform was very well received by the public.

Furthermore, he is attributed with probably the best management of the Covid-19 pandemic as he secured 48 million vaccines and did not face any corruption accusation afterward (Unlike Vizcarra).

Other characteristics that promoted his support in the country were his political stances; he openly supported the removal of parliamentary immunity, same-sex marriage equality (Which is still illegal), and abortion rights for rape.

Due to his support and likeability with Peruvians, he was given a variety of affectionate nicknames.

Don Quij(x)ote, due to his resemblance to the fictional character, and ‘the old KFC man’ (Many thought he also resembled the old man in the fast food chain logo), Bolognesi (Due to his resemblance to the Peruvian war hero), Dr. Strange, etc.

On the 28th of July 2021, Francisco Sagasti completed the 2016-2021 presidential term (Which began with the election of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and had four different presidents) and was succeeded by Pedro Castillo.

Welcome back! In this post, we’ll talk about the most intense Tuesday to Sunday I’ve ever lived; Manuel Merino’s presidency.

Manuel Merino Arturo de Lama was born in the city of Tumbes on the 20th of August 1961. He spent his early childhood and completed both his primary and secondary education in Tumbes.

In 1979, Merino began his undergraduate studies for the major of agro-economics at what is now known as the National University of Tumbes but he dropped out before completion. Shortly after, he joined the right-wing political party ‘Acción Popular’ (Popular Action) and integrated Tumbes’ Youth Command.

Four years later, Manuel solidified himself as an agricultural and livestock producer and a merchant leading multiple agricultural associations in Tumbes. One of his most recognizable accomplishments was in the year 2000, Merino coordinated and brought together multiple agrarian organizations from the Northern Region of Peru and achieved the complete cancellation of debts to the government and the refinancing of their debts to the private sector.

The following year, Acción Popular chose him to run for a seat in Congress during the General Election and he succeeded, nevertheless, he was not re-elected in the next election in 2006 as most of the congressional seats were given to candidates from the capital.

Following this loss, Merino took a more active role in Acción Popular’s National Executive Committee and in the next general election, he became one of the representative candidates of the newly-founded Alianza Electoral Perú Posible (Possible Peru Electoral Alliance). This alliance joined three political parties; Acción Popular (Right-wing), Somos Peru (Christian-Democratic), and Perú Posible (Centre-Left).

As a representative of this alliance, Manuel was elected to congress for the Tumbes constituency from 2011 to 2016. In 2016, he was not re-elected for any position.

In the 2020 General Election, he was once again elected to congress and was even appointed as President of Congress. Later that very same month he was accused of nepotism as it was discovered that both his siblings and mother were contracted by the state for over 50,000 dollars each; the accusations were later dismissed and the charges were dropped with little explanation.

In September of the same year, proceedings began in Congress to vacate President Vizcarra. Merino was one of the most insistent advocates for this as there was no First Vice-President and the Second Vice-President, Mercedes Aráoz, had resigned months before; which meant he would ascend to President of the Republic once Vizcarra was vacated.

He was appointed the day after Vizcarra’s resignation and almost immediately prompted massive protests all across the country as the deposition was viewed as unconstitutional and politically motivated. This was such a controversial issue that the Secretary General of the OEA urged the Constitutional Court of Peru to judge its legality.

The following five days consisted of extensive and violent protests in all the major centers of the country, mostly concentrated on the historical centers of the capital. Many international organizations for human rights condemned the police brutality that took place during these manifestations but it was not until two civilians passed away from their injuries on the 14th of November that the members of Merino’s presidential cabinet resigned.

The following day Manuel Merino resigned. He was succeeded by Francisco Sagasti and was investigated for possible human rights violations and homicide, the Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Republic voted to shield Merino from investigations. Manuel Merino is now nicknamed ‘Merino El Breve’ (Merino The Brief).

Hi! In this blog post, we’ll continue with the list of presidents Peru has had in the last five years. Today’s president is PPK’s successor, Martín Vizcarra.

Martín Vizcarra was born in the city of Moquegua, Perú the 22nd of March 1963. His father was the mayor of Moquegua and his mother was a primary education teacher. Vizcarra finished his secondary education in his home city but relocated to the capital for university; he earned a degree from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería (National University of Engineering) in Civil Engineering in 1984 and another one in Administration from ESAN (School of Business Administration) in 2009.

After completing his education, Martín moved back to Moquegua and began his political career; he was Executive Director of the Pasto Grande Regional Special Project, a member of the Advisory Commission of the National Council of Science, Technology and Technological Innovation, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Pasto Grande Regional Special Project. During this time, he also founded two private companies; C&M Vizcarra S.A.C and Agrotécnica Estuquiña S.A.C.

He attempted to run for President of the Regional Government of Moquegua in 2006 but ended up in second place.

In 2008, Martín Vizcarra led a political protest colloquially known as the ‘moqueguazo’. This aimed to challenge the government’s agreement with the Southern Perú mining company as the canon paid to Moquegua was significantly lower than the one paid to the region of Tacna. Thousand of citizens of Moquegua took the capital’s main road (Panamericana Sur) and Vizcarra stated their claims to the Council of Ministers as well as to the Economy Commission of Congress. The protest was successful and Martín Vizcarra was widely awarded popular recognition for this.

Two years later he run for President of the Regional Government of Moquegua once again but won the elections. Vizcarra served in this position until 2014 and is credited with improving both the region’s economy and public education system.

In 2016 he joined the political party of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, ‘Peruanos por el Kambio’ (Peruvians for a change) as a candidate for the Vice Presidency during the presidential elections. During the campaign, he was accused of having corruption complaints back in Moquegua. Moquegua Attorney’s Office confirmed the complaints existed but stated only one of them was being taken to court (This should’ve been the first red flag). PPK won the election and Vizcarra was appointed both Vice-president and Minister of Transport and Communications.

His vicepresidency was rocky to say the least; he was blamed for mismanagemnts during the 2017 floodings known as ‘El niño’ and during the building of the International Airport of Chinchero, the political opposition presented corruption charges against him but the Public Minsitry decided not to continue with and investigation. Shortly after this scandals, PPK appointed him as the embassador to Canada. It was during Martín’s stay in Canada that Kuczynski resigned.

The day after PPK’s resgination, Martín Vizcarra was sworn in as President and announced a complete renovation of the Council of Ministers (He is actually currently beign accused by PPK of consipiring with the opposition to vacate his and become president). The members of his fist cabinet all resigned after less than a year but refused to make any comments as to why. Vizcarra’s second cabinet suffered the same fate and his third one did too, and the fourth one did not achieve Congress’ confidence vote.

During his presidency the matter of rushing the next presidential elections was heavily impulsed by the opposition. The opposition party also refused to give him the confidence vote several times and during their last debate on the subject, Vizcarra presented a message to the nation where he announced he was dissolving congress; that same day, congress met once more and awarded him the confidence vote.

The rest of his government was relatively peaceful and even succesful; Martín led several political and judicial reforms to fight corruption and multiple political figures were arrested (Some even fled and have capture orders to this day). Thas was until 2017 when a scandal known as the ‘Club de la construcción’ (The Construction Club) came to light; it was revealed that when Vizcarra served as Minister of Transport and Communication he accepted several bribes from both national and international companies in exchange for construction contracts in Perú. Multiple other corruption claims came to light.

The 9th of november of 2020, Congress presented a vacancy motion in the grounds of moral incapacity (This was actually the second one they filed during this government) and succeded. The President of Minister at the time, Manuel Merino, was sworn in as President.

Currently, he’s had further scandals including vacunagate (Accused of getting his inner circle vaccinated before the Covid vaccine was even available to the public) and a very public cheating scandal that reached international media.

Hello again! As I mentioned in my last post, today we’ll go more in-depth on the presidents Peru has had in the last five years. The first president on the list is Pedro Pablo Kuczynski Godard, or as Peruvians know him, PPK.

PPK is the son of Maxime Kuczynski, a german doctor who immigrated to Peru and served as Head of Public Health at the Ministry of Health, and Madeleine Godard. After Kuczynski finished secondary education in Lima, he studied composition, flute, and piano at the Royal College of Music in London. He also graduated with a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford University.

Pedro Pablo worked in the World Bank as a regional economist for Central America but returned to Peru in 1966 to serve as an economic advisor to Fernando Belaúnde Terry (The president at the time). After Belaúnde was deposed in a coup d’etat PPK was accused by the new government of unethical contracts with a petroleum company and corruption, he was ‘exiled’ to the United States but absolved of the charges eight years later.

Kuczynski was first appointed as Minister of Energy and Mines in 1980, then served as Minister of Economy in 2001, and lastly, he was the President of the Council of Ministers until 2006. In 2011 Pedro Pablo ran in the presidential election but lost.

His presidency began in 2016 when he won the general elections with a narrow majority (50.1%) against the far-left candidate, Verónika Mendoza. As president, PPK had the approval of the elite class of the capital, but the majority of provinces greatly opposed him due to xenophobic comments he made (PPK stated in 2006 that indigenous populations ‘did not have enough oxygen in their brains’).

His cabinet of ministers was initially nicknamed the ‘golden government’ due to their academic and political trajectories. This cabinet did not achieve the vote of confidence so multiple ministers were replaced. (Fun ‘not so fun’ fact; One of those ministers was Martín Vizcarra, who would later become his vice-president and subsequently president in 2018.)

Furthermore, the cabinet did not have the organization to go against the congressional opposition; no new policies were implemented. Besides this massive failure, his term was plagued with political misconduct; his presidency only survived five scandals.

First, the construction company Odebrecht revealed that it had paid two advisory firms controlled by PPK 4.8 million dollars for contracts in Peru. Secondly, he granted a pardon to Alberto Fujimori, a past president serving time in prison for corruption and violations of human rights. Following this, it was discovered Kuczynski received payments of 3 million dollars during his presidency from Westfield Capital and First Capital. In fourth place, it was exposed that he would claim to pay his domestic employees exorbitant amounts (With money from the government) to later transfer to personal accounts. Finally, when PPK’s vacancy was being debated by congress, multiple videos came to light of his supporters attempting to bribe other ministers to buy votes against the vacancy.

The very next day, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered his resignation letter; his vice-president, Martín Vizcarra, assumed the presidency. In 2019, after investigations and a trial, he was condemned to three years in prison but after some medical emergencies, he only served 36 months of house arrest and is currently on provisional release awaiting trial for new corruption claims.

I think my biggest culture shock when moving to the US was just how little scandal and chaos surrounds political culture. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand just how complex American politics can get and I know there have been plenty of scandals surrounding presidents but I don’t think any government in the world has the same proclivity for havoc as my country’s. That’s why I have decided to dedicate this blog to Peru, more specifically, to Peruvian politics. 

Now, if I wanted to do a truly deep dive into our governmental history this blog would quite literally never end which is why I thought it best, to begin with, a brief review of the major question of this presidential term; how did Peru get its first-ever female president?

To answer this we’ll go back to the year 2021. Elections are held in July and Pedro Castillo becomes a runner-up out of nowhere. The majority of the Peruvian public in the capital was not aware of who he even was but because he had the majority of support in provinces he won the election.

This is where everything begins. Peru is a very black-or-white country; our government is either extremely right or extremely left; so Castillo was quickly viewed as a very left-wing politician (This could be said in a positive or negative way, depending on whom is asked). His term was filled with multiple promises of ‘giving power back to the people’ and countless replacements of his cabinet ministers after accusations of corruption and other mismanagements.

Nevertheless, the real trouble began on the 7th of December. President Castillo attempted a ‘self-coup d’etat’ to dissolve the Peruvian congress and place himself as the sole power in the government. A couple of hours after this announcement congress vacated him on ‘moral incapacity’ and placed an order for his arrest for treason. He failed to escape and was arrested that same day.

As proper procedure dictates, the vice president assumes power in circumstances such as this (This is not the first time this happens here). Castillo’s vice-president happened to be a woman named Dina Boluarte, she was sworn into the presidency the same day of his attempted coup.

This appointment was received with immense hostility from the general public. Massive protests started all across the country; Businesses were being sacked and airports were taken hostage. Armed forces intervened, which led to multiple displays of violence; Up to date, there have been over fifty-three recorded deaths. 

In all honesty, I cannot say I’m surprised by these events; believe it or not, this is not that uncommon for us. Anti-government sentiments grow rampant in times of uncertainty like abrupt presidential appointments and coups. In the last five years, we’ve had just as many presidents; Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Martín Vizcarra, Manuel Merino, Francisco Sagasti, Pedro Castillo, and Dina Boluarte.

In my next post, I’ll explore more on each of the presidents we’ve had since 2018 and how each of their mandates contributed to the current protests.