Peru leader seeks referendum on death penalty
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with referendum proposal, new quotes) By Andrei Khalip LIMA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Peru's President Alan Garcia on Thursday proposed the country hold a referendum on introducing the death penalty for terrorists after Congress rejected his plan, although analysts said Congress was likely to block a referendum as well. In the first defeat for his 5-month-old government, legislators voted late on Wednesday against Garcia's proposal to implement capital punishment for terrorists by 49 votes to 26. The result surprised many Peruvians, who broadly support the idea, and it prompted speculation about potential damage to Garcia's popularity. Painful memories of deadly bombings and raids by Maoist rebels during an insurgence between 1980 and 1998 are still fresh in Peru. Garcia's popular death penalty proposal was part of a platform that helped him win last year's election. After the setback in Congress, Garcia was unwilling to admit defeat and on Thursday launched the referendum idea. "I propose a referendum that will allow the people to decide ... because I think the political system is completely separate from the Peruvian people," he told reporters. "I believe that it is my duty to fulfill what I have promised and mentioned in the campaign." A Datum poll in November showed his popularity diving to 53 percent from 64 percent in August with respondents citing "not fulfilling what he promised" as Garcia's main weakness. Congress still has to approve a referendum, and political analysts said the legislature was unlikely to back it. "It's more of a war of image; Garcia is defending himself," said Manuel Torrado of the Datum International consultancy and polling firm. "I see it as very difficult for Congress to give green light to the referendum. This kind of thing cannot rely solely on popular opinion...." EMOTIONAL ISSUE He said more than 70 percent of Peruvians favor capital punishment for terrorists. Several thousand leftist rebels have been sentenced to long jail terms for terrorism. Ernesto Velit, a political scientist at the Ricardo Palma university, said the capital punishment idea was "a populist gesture, which ultimately debilitates the government and the state" by hurting Peru's international image. He said popular support for the death penalty is guided by emotion, while the issue is too serious to rely on emotions. "To have a referendum to get the people's opinion on the issue means embarking on a very dangerous project because we won't be able to discern the real vote of conscience," he said. Capital punishment for terrorism is permitted under Peru's 1993 constitution, but it is not in the penal code. The proposal would have added the death penalty for terrorists to the code, which does not now allow it under any circumstance. Congress deputies said doing so would have breached the American Convention on Human Rights, which Peru has signed and which says the signatories cannot restore the death penalty or apply it more widely. Separately in another terrorism-related case, Prime Minister Jorge Del Castillo said Peru would not withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights which has ordered Peru's government to honor 41 leftist rebels killed in a 1992 prison raid and pay compensation to their families. Some officials had suggested Peru would withdraw from the court after a wave of indignation in the country, but Del Castillo said it would seek to overturn the court's decision in the Organization of American States.
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