Media outlets headlines March-April 2014

This review is a summary of recurrent topics that appeared in the electronic version of La República, one of the biggest Peruvian newspapers. I reviewed the section of political news (http://www.larepublica.pe/politica) which has on the order of 20 entries per day. It is easy to identify the recurring themes of the last month and find connections between them. A few of the themes are big scandals or court cases which were given personal names, e.g. “Caso La Centralita”. I’ve identified the following themes, with no particular order:

· Peru is preparing for the local-level elections in October 2014. They are not as important for the global political course as the presidential and congressional elections, but utilize the same mechanics and technologies, as well as have the same set of parties competing. The actions of ONPE (Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales) get into the news headlines. For example, it requested the running parties to provide detailed reports on their sources of funding. There are proposals to update Ley de Partidos Públicos of 2004 to require even stricter reports on funding reporting. ONPE warns that narcotraffic money can be used in political campaigns and wants to control that. ONPE is also reporting on the progress in installing hardware for electronic voting to prevent voting fraud and allow faster counting. In October 2014 elections electronic voting would only be available in a few districts, but the intention is to switch the whole country to that technology.

· Another big debate rose around the proposed project of Ley Servir (http://www.servir.gob.pe/leyserviciocivil/) which is intended to regulate government employees. The biggest controversy arises from the fact that it also applies to the employees of the judicial branch of power. The justices of the Tribunal Constitucional (TC) argue that this law would violate the independence of the branches of government. A number of justices went on strike to protest the law, slowing down several big court processes. TC hasn’t had a full session since December 2013. Some of the affected big court cases are listed below.

· Caso Áncash – there is an ongoing crisis of organized crime and corruption in Áncash, one of Peru’s provinces. There are accusations that crime is being covered by the local government in place, and a few candidates planning to run in October are getting threats. It’s been reported that some of the materials of investigation were burned during the judges’ strike.

· Caso La Centralita – part of evidence for investigation of Áncash was obtained through interception of phone calls. Discovery of the hub of surveillance in a house in Áncash that came to be known under the name La Centralita produced a scandal of its own. There were further news about possible other hubs for surveillance of the local government.

· There is talk about revising the transit laws, as apparently there is a significant disorganization of transportation laws and law enforcement in different regions of the country.

· There is a number of cases of illegal mining of gold and other resources on Peruvian territory. Part of mining is even conducted by amateurs rather than big corporations, some other part conducted with violations of the regulations. A number of cases of usage of illicit chemicals were discovered. Executive and legislative branches of power are discussing the new legal measures to regulate mining industry.

· Caso Movadef (Movimiento por Amnistia y Derechos Fundamentales) – this movement has gathered sufficient amount of signatures to be registered as a political party, but it’s registration was not approved by JNE repeatedly. Allegedly, Movadef consists of members of Shining Path – a terrorist communist organization active since 1980s. Within last few months, a number of leaders of Movadef were arrested by the government, including a nephew of the President Ollanta Humala. The organization is accused in promotion of the same ideas as Shining Path. At the same time, Movadef accuses the government in creating censorship and restricting their democratic right to run in elections.

· The maritime dispute between Peru and Chile is currently investigated by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Peruvian media widely publicize all new facts of the case, but the decisions have not yet been made.

· There is a corruption scandal associated with La Universidad Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, where a big part of university funds was used for private purchases by university high officials. Associated with the case are proposals to review Ley Universitaria.

· The second presidential term of Alan García Pérez (2006-2011) is investigated for a number of corruption cases. One of the cases is Caso Petroaudios, on the illegal petrol deals with Norway. Another is an investigation of premature pardoning of a number of criminals committed for narcobusiness. At some point the Congress formed a commission that came to be known as Megacomision to investigate in detail the chronicles of the second term of García. The news pages show a lot of mutual accusations between Alan García and his party Apra and the current government of Ollanta Humala and Gana Perú.

· Caso Diarios Chicha – the investigation and trial of the former president Alberto Fujimori on a number of human rights abuse, power abuse, embezzlement and corruption charges is still ongoing. Fujimori in his public speeches attempts to justify his auto-coup of 1992. The situation in Áncash are quoted to be similar to Fujimori times.

As it is visible from this review, the problem publicly perceived as the biggest is corruption on a variety of levels. The promise to clean out corruption, revise the institutional laws and finish trials and if possible conduct restitutions of crimes of former high officials is relevant to the public opinion. At the same time, such promise is not too hard to be crafted into a simpler message.