Weekly Report - 14 November 2013 (WR-13-45)

Congress approved a seminal piece of legislation on 7 November aimed at cracking down on official corruption and stamping out impunity. While the bill was hailed by the new prime minister, César Villanueva, as advancing the government’s zero-tolerance policy toward corruption, it was overshadowed by the fallout over another vote in congress a week earlier to appoint deputy Martha Chávez as coordinator of the congressional justice commission’s human rights subgroup. The incongruous appointment of Chávez, who has defended some of the most egregious human rights violations of the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), confirmed just how out of touch congress is, although the commission eventually acted to remove her from the position.