US embassy cable - 05LIMA4265

UNCLAS LIMA 004265 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PE 
SUBJECT: FINALLY, AN OMBUDSMAN 
 
REF: A. 03 LIMA 6075 
 
     B. 03 LIMA 5912 
 
1.  After almost five years of frustrated attempts to reach a 
consensus on a candidate, the Peruvian Congress selected 
former Prime Minister Beatriz Merino on 9/29 to be the 
country's next Public Ombudsman (Defensora del Pueblo). 
Merino replaces the "interim" incumbent Walter Alban, who had 
been the Acting Ombudsman ever since the original occupant of 
the position, Jorge Santistevan, resigned to run for 
President in November of 2000.  The Congress had taken 
repeated votes since in an effort to choose a successor, but 
no candidate had been able to garner the 80 votes (two-thirds 
of the Congress) necessary to be elected.  Merino received 92 
votes in favor, two against, and one abstention. 
 
2.  The reaction to Merino's selection was overwhelmingly 
positive.  She received unequivocal endorsements from both 
Alban and Santistevan, and from Lourdes Flores, leader of the 
Unidad Nacional Alliance, who is currently front-runner in 
the polls for next April's presidential election.  The only 
negative note sounded in media analysis was that Merino's 
selection was a convenient way for the major political 
parties to eliminate her as a potential presidential rival -- 
polling by the University of Lima indicated she had strong 
potential as an alternative to the perceived candidates of 
the major parties.  In a 9/29 interview with leading daily 
"El Comercio," Merino firmly discounted the idea that there 
were any political calculations in her selection, noting that 
a visit to Sweden several years ago had piqued her interest 
in the ombudsman's function, which to her represented the 
"defense of the most vulnerable." 
 
3.  Biographic Note:  Since serving as President of the 
Council of Ministers for the Toledo Government from July to 
December of 2003 (Ref A), Merino has worked as a consultant 
at the World Bank.  Merino was born November 15, 1947 and is 
unmarried.  She studied Law and Public Policy at Harvard as a 
Fulbright Scholar.  She also studied at the London School of 
Economics.  Elected to the Peruvian Senate in 1990, she lost 
her seat in the 1992 Fujimori auto-coup.  Merino became a 
Member of Congress for the FIM Party in 1995, but switched to 
the Somos Peru Party in 1999, and ran as its 
vice-presidential candidate in 2000.  As a lawyer, she has 
worked in the areas of commercial law, contracts, taxation, 
labor law, environmental legislation, acquisitions, mergers, 
international trade, foreign investment and corporate law. 
 
4.  COMMENT:  Merino is an honest, committed individual who 
looks to be an excellent choice for this position.  Some of 
her support in the Congress undoubtedly stemmed from a desire 
to remove her as a potential candidate in 2006; however, 
after the personal attacks Merino received at the end of her 
tenure as Prime Minister (Ref B), it is likely she had no 
intention of returning to electoral politics at this time. 
END COMMENT. 
STRUBLE