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Peru’s cabinet reshuffle

Today’s the day Twobreakfasts reshuffles his cabinet, with many ministers about the get resigned going  happily because they want to run for this-or-that job in next year’s election round (e.g. the current PM). But one name, Defence Minister Rafael Rey, is going because of this story nicely encapsulated by Reuters last night

LIMA (Reuters)Peru’s embattled President Alan Garcia asked Congress on Monday to repeal a decree he issued two weeks ago that gave virtual amnesty to hundreds of people accused of atrocities during a civil war that killed 69,000.
Garcia backtracked only hours after acclaimed Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa harshly criticized him in a letter in which he resigned as head of a commission appointed to build a museum to honor victims of the 1980-2000 conflict, which was one of the bloodiest ever in Latin America.
Garcia’s decree said that defendants in trials for human rights crimes committed before 2003 must be sentenced within 36 months of the start of their trial.
As most of the hundreds of pending cases have been bogged down for years, Vargas Llosa called the measure an “amnesty in disguise.” Other critics have said the measure could violate the U.N. agreements on human rights signed by Peru.
Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that widespread rights abuses occurred during the 1990-2000 presidency of Alberto Fujimori and, to a lesser extent, during Garcia’s first term in the 1980s.
Fujimori has been convicted for rights crimes, and activists say they want to put Garcia on trial, too.
“This is truly a disgrace that will revive political divisions in the country, precisely at a time of exceptional (economic) progress and during an election that should be used to reinforce our legal institutions and democracy,” Vargas Llosa wrote in his letter CONTINUES HERE

As pointed out in the piece it was Twobreakfasts himself who signed off on the decree, but the real brains behind this disgusting piece of legislation is Rafael Rey, nasty shit, two faced rat, Opus Dei stalwart, Fujimori defender and general nasty piece of work in the oldschool LatAm political style. After receiving Vargas Llosa’s resignation letter, Twobreakfasts apparently rang Mario, told him that Rey was toast and immediately sent to overturning proposal to Congress (where it’ll get approved today).
So another chapter in PeruPolitik written. By this time tomorrow another set of stuffed suits will run the country on autopilot, the ones that are looking to parlay their power next year get free rein and one of the badduns will, hopefully at least, drop out the scene forever. Have a nice Tuesday.

UPDATE: JFS at Hemispheric Brief does a better job than IKN of recapsulating the anmesty decree issue right here. Good digest as always.

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