- Peru's narcotrafficking industry moves billions of dollars of laundered slush money every year
- The Peruvian judicial system is notoriously corrupt
- The country rarely convicts major drug barons on any charges (only one big crime lord was put behind bars in the whole of the last decade).
In October 2008, IKN ran this post on a certain Luis Valdez, capo de tutti capi as regards cocaine trafficking in the northeastern drug producing region of Peru. Here's how the post started:
He goes by the name of Luis Valdez, he's 70 years old, he's (surprise surprise) mayor of a small town in the Amazon basin province of Ucuyali, close to the border with Brazil. And for some unknown reason, he's just been arrested on money laundering charges by the Peruvian authorities. It might be a sign of the times, or it might be the fact that Valdez has just been ordered to pay $1.5m in damages to the family of the investigative reporter he murdered in 2004, but I wrote "for some unknown reason" because the fact....plain fact....that Valdez has been a major Peru drugs baron (perhaps THE major drugs baron) for decades with a slick logistics operation that combines with the Colombian and Mexicans and finishes up the noses of people in New York City; this isn't some big surprise suddenly uncovered by some sleuth or other.
His trial for the murder of the journalist was recently up before the beak. To be honest, I've been following proceedings in the local news but haven't been posting here because I thought it wasn't much in the way of news...it was a clear open and shut case and was bound to be found guilty of the crime he clearly ordered. Yesterday came the verdict: Not guilty. I was amazed (as was the vast majority of Peru). Here's AP (via WaPo) on the story:
LIMA, Peru -- A Peruvian court on Monday absolved the former mayor of a jungle city in the 2004 killing of a reporter who accused him of cocaine trafficking.
The Lima court ruled there was contradictory testimony and insufficient evidence to convict Luis Valdez Villacorta, the former mayor of Coronel Portillo, the Amazon region containing the city of Pucallpa.
Valdez was accused of ordering the killing of Alberto Rivera, president of the local journalist federation and host of a radio program.
Rivera had accused Valdez of masterminding a 551-kilogram (1,215-pound) cocaine shipment hidden in a cargo of plywood that police seized in 2003 in Lima's port of Callao. The plywood was being shipped by Valdez's lumber company, but a criminal investigation against him was later dropped.
Less than 24 hours before his murder, Rivera repeated his allegations against Valdez and said if any harm should befall him, authorities should hold Valdez responsible. Rivera was killed by gunmen in his office.Rivera's daughter, Patricia Rivera, said she was outraged by the ruling.
"Journalism is at risk in this country," she told reporters. "This shows that impunity rules in this country, because money can buy consciences."
Valdez was absolved in an earlier trial in the jungle province of Ucayali, but that ruling was annulled because (continues here).
The judge yesterday dismissed the case and said that "mere speculation" wasn't enough to convict. Let's be crystalline: This is a heinous miscarriage of justice, speaks volumes about the level of institutional corruption in Peru and how much power the drug barons have in the country. On a scale of trial court stupidity we're in OJ Simpson territory here. Peru might put on the façade of a developing thrusting progressive nation, but scratch the surface and it's the same old banana republic that it's always been.