The double transition of transitional justice in Peru: confronting the appeal of iron-fist policies

Abstract

Peru is facing a crisis of citizen insecurity that stems in part from the rule of law deficits connected to judicial problems and corruption that transitional justice mechanisms sought to remedy but failed to accomplish. This insecurity has fuelled the appeal of Keiko Fujimori, daughter and political heir of the authoritarian regime that ruled Peru in the 1990s, who offers iron-fist policies to defeat crime. To understand how unresolved human security concerns – such as citizen security – are potentially threatening to the consolidation of transitional justice policies, transitional justice needs to be conceptualised as encompassing two related but distinct transitions. While the first phase addresses the injustices from the immediate aftermath of a conflict or fall of an authoritarian regime, the second transition must address the insecurities that can potentially threaten any progress the state and society have made towards establishing democracy and rule of law. It is argued here that the failure to address these insecurities risks the successful completion of the second transition in Peru, and can potentially cause authoritarian reversals by enhancing the appeal of politicians that peddle law-and-order policies to address them.

Keywords:

• Peru
• transitional justice
• human security
• rule of law
• citizen insecurity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Lauren Marie Balasco is an assistant professor of political science in the Department of History, Philosophy, and Social Sciences at Pittsburg State University. Her research focuses on human rights, transitional justice and international law. In 2014, her dissertation received the George Herbert Ryden Prize for best dissertation in the Social Sciences from the University of Delaware. Her most recent publications address the emerging issues related to transitional justice, human security and the International Criminal Court.

Notes

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14. David A. Crocker, ‘Reckoning with Past Wrongs: A Normative Framework’, Ethics and International Affairs 13 (1999): 43–61; David Gray, ‘An Excuse-Centered Approach to Transitional Justice’, Fordham Law Review 74 (2006): 2621–93.

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20. Guillermo O’Donnell, ‘Delegative Democracy’, Journal of Democracy 5, no. 1 (1994): 55–69.

21. Ibid., 56.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid.

24. Alexander Laban Hinton, ed., Transitional Justice: Global Mechanisms and Local Realities after Genocide and Mass Violence (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2010); Simon Robins, ‘Towards Victim-Centred Transitional Justice: Understanding the Needs of Families of the Disappeared in Postconflict Nepal’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 5, no. 1 (2011): 75–98.

25. Brian K. Grodsky, The Costs of Justice: How New Leaders Respond to Previous Rights Abuses (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010); Rama Mani, Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2002).

26. Mark Ungar, Elusive Reform: Democracy and the Rule of Law in Latin America (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 2002), 234.

27. Tricia D. Olsen, Leigh A. Payner, and Andrew G. Reiter, Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010); Kathryn Sikkink, The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions are Changing World Politics (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).

28. Carranza, ‘Plunder and Pain’, 310; Padraig McAuliffe, ‘Transitional Justice and Rule of Law: The Perfect Couple or Awkward Bedfellows?’ Hague Journal on the Rule of Law 2 (2010): 127–54; Lisa J. Laplante, ‘Outlawing Amnesty: The Return of Criminal Justice in Transitional Justice Schemes’, Virginia Journal of International Law 49, no. 4 (2009): 915–85.

29. McAuliffe, ‘The Perfect Couple or Awkward Befellows?’ 152.

30. Rosalind Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (2007): 183–207. Oskar N.T. Thoms, James Ron, and Roland Paris, ‘State-Level Effects of Transitional Justice: What Do We Know?’ International Journal of Transitional Justice 8 (2014): 339–61.

31. Rosalind Shaw, Lars Waldorf, and Pierre Hazan, eds, Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010).

32. Cath Collins, Post-Transitional Justice: Human Rights Trials in Chile and El Salvador (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010).

33. Erin Daly, ‘Transformative Justice: Charting a Path to Reconciliation’, International Legal Perspectives 12 (2002): 73–183; Paul Gready and Simon Robins, ‘From Transitional to Transformative Process: A New Agenda for Practice’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 8 (2014): 339–36; Lambourne, ‘Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding after Mass Violence’, 30.

34. Collins, Post-Transitional Justice, 21–2.

35. Ibid., 7.

36. Noa Vaisman, ‘Variations on Justice: Argentina’s Pre- and Post-Transitional Justice and the Justice to Come’, Ethnos (2015): 12.

37. Human Rights Watch, ‘World Report: Peru’, 2013, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/peru?page=3 (accessed 20 November 2013).

38. Rebecca K. Root, ‘Through the Window of Opportunity: The Transitional Justice Network in Peru’, Human Rights Quarterly 31, no. 2 (2009): 452–73.

39. Anastasia Moloney, ‘Peruvian Women Haunted by Forced Sterilization Seek State Apology’, Reuters, 3 June 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/03/us-peru-women-rights-idUSKBN0OJ2FN20150603 (accessed 8 October 2015).

40. Collins, Post-Transitional Justice, 209.

41. Lambourne, ‘Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding after Mass Violence’, 30.

42. Gready and Robins, ‘From Transitional to Transformative Process’, 340.

43. Ibid., 340

44. Ibid., 74.

45. Lambourne, ‘Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding after Mass Violence’, 45.

46. José M. Cruz, ‘Criminal Violence and Democratization in Central America: The Survival of the Violent State’, Latin American Politics and Society 53, no. 4 (2011): 25.

47. Carrión and Zárate, Cultura Política de la Democracia en Perú y las Américas, 2014.

48. Ibid.

49. Julio F. Carrión and Patricia Zárate, Cultura Política de la Democracia en el Perú: Consolidación democrática en las Américas en tiempos difíciles (Lima: Vanderbilt University-Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2010), 135.

50. ‘Keiko Fujimori promete “mano dura contra la delincuencia”’, El Comercio, 13 March 2011, http://elcomercio.pe/politica/727141/noticia-keiko-fujimori-aseguro-imponerorden-seguridad-mas-oportunidades (accessed 25 July 2015).

51. ‘Keiko toma la mano dura de Giuliani’, Página12, 17 May 2011, http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elmundo/4-168288-2011-05-17.html (accessed 26 July 2015).

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53. Jo-Marie Burt, ‘Guilty as Charged: The Trial of Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori for Human Rights Violations’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 3 (2009): 394.

54. Lisa J. Laplante, ‘The Rule of Law in Transitional Justice: The Fujimori Trial in Peru’, in Rule of Law in Comparative Perspective, ed. Mortimer Sellers and Tadeusz Tomaszewski (New York: Springer, 2010), 194–5.

55. Ibid., 193.

56. Rebecca K. Root, Transitional Justice in Peru (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 62.

57. Ibid., 62.

58. Root, ‘Through the Window of Opportunity’, 467.

59. Burt, ‘Guilty as Charged’, 389.

60. Ibid., 389.

61. Laplante and Theidon, ‘Truth with Consequences’, 250.

62. Coletta A. Youngers, ‘La promoción de los derechos humanos: las ONG y el Estado en el Perú’, in Construir instituciones: democracia, desarrollo y desigualdad en el Perú desde 1980, ed. John Crabtree (Lima: PUCP-Fondo Editorial, UP-Centro de Investigación, IEP, 2006), 185.

63. Ibid., 186.

64. Burt, ‘Guilty as Charged’.

65. Human Rights Watch, ‘World Report: Peru’, 2013, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/peru?page=3 (accessed 20 November 2013).

66. Root, ‘Through the Window of Opportunity’, 3.

67. Human Rights Watch, World Report 2011: Events of 2010 (New York: Human Rights Watch), 264.

68. Freedom House, ‘Peru (2013)’, http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2013/peru (accessed 24 July 2015).

69. Ibid.

70. Julio F. Carrión and David Scott Palmer, ‘Peru in the Twenty-First Century: Confronting the Past, Charting the Future,’ in Latin American Politics and Development, eds. Howard J. Wiarda and Harvey F. Kline (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2014), 181–206.

71. Ronald Bruce St John, Todelo’s Peru: Vision and Reality (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2010), 82.

72. Ibid., 82.

73. Eduardo Dargent, ‘Reforma judicial en el Perú (1990–2005)’, in Construir instituciones: democracia, desarrollo y desigualdad en el Perú desde 1980, ed. John Crabtree (Lima: PUCP-Fondo Editorial, UP-Centro de Investigación, IEP, 2006), 158.

74. Javier de Belaunde, ‘La justicia: ¿Hay esperanza?’, in Perú ante los desafíos del siglo XXI, ed. Luis Pásara (Lima, Peru: PUCP-Fondo Editorial, 2011), 435.

75. de Belaunde, ‘La justicia’, 436–9.

76. Carrión and Zárate, Cultura Política de la Democracia en Perú y las Américas, 2014.

77. Ibid.

78. Hans-Jürgen Brandt, ‘The Justice of the Peace as an Alternative: Experiences with Conciliation in Peru’, in Judicial Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean: Proceedings from a World Bank Conference, ed. Malcolm Rowat, Waleed E. Malik, and Maria Dakolis (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1995), 92–9.

79. Lisa J. Laplante and Kimberly Theidon, ‘Truth with Consequences: Justice and Reparations in Post-Commission Peru’, Human Rights Quarterly 29 (2007): 233.

80. Comisión especial para la reforma integral de la administración de justicia ceriajus, ‘Plan Nacional de Reforma Integral de la Administración de justicia ceriajus’ (Lima, Peru: April 23, 2004), http://www.congreso.gob.pe/comisiones/2004/ceriajus/Plan_Nacional_ceriajus.pdf (accessed 25 July 2015).

81. Fernando Rospigliosi, ‘La frustación de la reforma de las fuerzas de seguridad’, in Construir instituciones: democracia, desarrollo y desigualdad en el Perú desde 1980, ed. John Crabtree (Lima: PUCP-Fondo Editorial, UPCentro de Investigación, IEP, 2006), 84.

82. Ibid., 85.

83. Ibid., 87. Fernando Rospigliosi was Minister of the Interior during the first part of the Toledo administration, and thus in charge of the national police. He also headed the CER-PNP and oversaw its work.

84. Anna Eriksson, Justice in Transition: Community Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland (Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2009), 22.

85. Human Rights Watch, ‘World Report: Peru’, 2013, http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/peru?page=3 (accessed 20 November 2013).

86. Human Rights Watch, World Report 2013: Events of 2012 (New York: Human Rights Watch), 256.

87. Human Rights Watch, ‘Country Summary: Peru’, January 2012 (New York: Human Rights Watch), 2, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/peru_2012.pdf (accessed 24 July 2015).

88. Stephen Johnson, Johanna Mendelson Forman, and Katherine Bliss, Police Reform in Latin America: Implications for U.S. Policy (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2012), 49, http://csis.org/files/publication/120228_Johnson_PoliceReform_web.pdf (accessed 25 July 2015).

89. Guillermo Bonilla Arévalo. La seguridad ciudadana, desafío actual: Una experiencia, un nuevo enfoque (Lima, Peru: Instituto de Defensa Legal, 2008), 114.

90. Ibid., 113.

91. Gino Costa and Carlos Romero, Inseguridad en el Perú: ¿Qué hacer? (Miraflores, Peru: Ciudad Nuestra, 2011), 346.

92. Freedom House, ‘Peru’, http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2013/peru (accessed 5 January 2014).

93. Ibid.

94. Rospigliosi, ‘La frustración de la reforma’, 78–9.

95. Carlos Meléndez, ‘Is There a Right Track in Post-Party System Collapse Scenarios? Comparing the Andean Countries,’ in The Resilience of the Latin American Right, ed. by Juan Pablo Luna and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), 175.

96. Jo-Marie Burt, ‘The Paradoxes of Accountability: Transitional Justice in Peru’, in The Human Rights Paradox: Universality and Its Discontents, ed. by Steve J. Stern and Scott Straus (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2014), 167.

97. Ibid., 168.

98. Lauren Marie Balasco, ‘International Tribunals and Transitional Justice: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights and its Role in Reparative Development’ (presented at the International Studies Association Annual Conference, 5 April 2013).

99. Laplante and Theidon, ‘Truth with Consequences’, 230.

100. Rafael Romo, ‘Peruvian Authorities Reopen Investigation into Forced Sterilizations’, CNN.com, http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-17/americas/world_americas_peru-sterilizations_1_human-rights-peruvian-authorities-peruvian-officials?_s=PM:AMERICAS (accessed 19 March 2012).

101. Laplante and Theidon, ‘Truth with Consequences’, 234; For a critique of the inclusion of women and the PIR, see Julie Guillerot, ‘Linking Gender and Reparations in Peru: A Failed Opportunity’, in What Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations, ed. Ruth Rubio-Marín (New York: Social Science Council, 2006), 134–75.

102. Burt, ‘Guilty as Charged’; Laplante and Theidon, ‘Truth with Consequences’; Guillerot, ‘Linking Gender and Reparations in Peru’.

103. Jelke Boesten and Melissa Fisher, Sexual Violence and Justice in Postconflict Peru (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace 2012), 5, http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/SR310.pdf (accessed 23 July 2015).

104. Laplante and Theidon, ‘Truth with Consequences’, 246.

105. Ibid., 248.

106. Andrea Zarate and Nicholas Casey, ‘Keiko Fujimori, Ex-President’s Daughter, Heads to Runoff in Peru’, New York Times, 10 April 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/11/world/americas/fujimori-peru-presidential-election-headed-to-a-runoff.html (accessed 13 April 2016).

107. ‘Who Will Peruvians Choose to Be Their Next President?’, Latin America Advisor, 12 April 2016, http://www.thedialogue.org/resources/who-will-peruvians-choose-to-be-their-next-president/ (accessed 14 April 2016).

108. Christine Bell, Colm Campbell, and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, ‘Justice Discourses in Transition’, Social and Legal Studies 13 (2004): 314.

109. Ibid., 314.

110. A recent study shows that fear of crime significantly decreases support for democracy as a political regime. See Julio F. Carrión and Lauren Marie Balasco, ‘The Fearful Citizen; Citizen Insecurity and Support for Democracy in Latin America’, Revista Latinoamericana de Opinión Pública (Forthcoming).