The freedom of Antauro Humala alters the unstable Peruvian political board

Antauro Humala brother of the former president of Peru Ollanta Humala, in a photograph of September 18, 2012. EFE

The ultra-nationalist politician Antauro Humala, brother of former president Ollanta Humala, left the Ancón II prison in North Lima this Saturday, one year and seven months before serving his 19-year prison sentence for rebellion and the murder of four police officers in January 2005. , when he tried to force the resignation of the then president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo.

Humala, a retired Army major, heads an ethnocacerist movement that groups mainly military veterans, rejects the white elite and promotes that descendants of indigenous people come to power.

His followers were part of the security in the second round electoral campaign of Pedro Castillo, who today faces six tax investigations for corruption in less than a year of management.

On Friday night, the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) reported in a statement that the technical council of the prison where Humala was serving a sentence decided to release him "for serving a sentence for redemption" with seven days of work and education for one of sentence.

The prison authority added that the prisoner's lawyer, Carmen Huidobro, had requested three times the freedom for redemption of the sentence, but before it was not granted because she had not served the necessary number of days according to the norm.

According to INPE, Humala worked and studied 3,667 days while in prison.

In August of last year, a judicial journalist from the newspaper La República calculated how much time was left for redemption of sentence according to what the prison authority had already recorded and projected on Twitter that the prisoner should be released around the 13th of this month.

In 2009, Justice sentenced Humala to 25 years in prison for qualified homicide, rebellion, kidnapping and theft of weapons —among other crimes— in the Andahuaylazo, as the violent takeover of a police station in the capital of the Abancay region was called. with the aim of forcing Toledo to leave the presidency.

In 2011, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence to 19 years for simple murder.

As soon as the prison authority announced the release of the extremist politician, the opposition questioned his release, blaming President Castillo for having unduly benefited him.

The opponents believe that Humala could help Castillo in mobilizations in his favor in the face of the serious governability crisis that he has been facing since last year.

After two congressional motions to dismiss him that did not reach enough votes, a sector of Parliament maintains the intention to remove Castillo from office due to the tax investigations that have put the president, the first lady and three brothers-in-law of the president on the ropes , in addition to other people close to him and former officials.

Castillo came to power with promises to guarantee rights for the most disadvantaged and the project of a constituent assembly, but he soon abandoned that agenda.

Vivian Olivos, a congressman from the Popular Force Fujimori party, requested that the Legislative Oversight Commission urgently summon the Minister of Justice to explain Antauro Humala's redemption of sentence.

Another opposition parliamentarian, Carlos Anderson, said on his networks that "the government has no problem setting the country on fire in order to 'save the president,'" referring to Humala's release.

The former Minister of Justice and opposition spokeswoman Marisol Pérez Tello, however, commented on a television program that the decision to redeem the ethnocacerist leader's sentence "is not happy, but it is legal."

Asked by the press this Saturday about the possible return to politics of her representative, lawyer Huidobro indicated that Humala has paid 130 thousand soles in civil damages —"unlike Fujimori"— and has no restrictions or rules of conduct to comply with. .

”He has not told me, but it is likely (that he will return to political activity) because he is a well-known leader.

The ethnocaceristas, antauristas and people who follow the elder are coming to Lima to accompany him when he leaves, "added the lawyer outside the Ancón II prison, in North Lima.

Vladimir Cerrón, founder of the orthodox leftist party that promoted Castillo as a presidential candidate in 2021, commented favorably on Humala's release.

"We salute the release of Antauro Humala after a prolonged prison sentence, an unjust sentence that should never have been of that nature," tweeted the leader of Peru Libre.

Peru is experiencing a prolonged political crisis of governance that has led to it having five presidents since 2018. According to the most recent survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies, 85% of the population rejects the performance of Congress, 71% disapproves of the president and a 65% agree with advancing the general elections.

More than 190 organizations, civil associations and churches promote a political dialogue for the advancement of elections and electoral reforms, but the Executive and the Legislative remain in their thirteen.

In this scenario of exhaustion of the political system, the anthropologist Ramón Pajuelo considers that "there is always a margin for someone who confronts the government and the political class proposing profound changes, and part of the current support for Castillo could be attracted by an Antauro with a confrontational discourse and structural change”.

"Free Antauro may be the perfect justification for those who seek to maintain the current mess: both for Congress and for the government," adds Pajuelo, senior researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies.

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