US embassy cable - 05LIMA4788

UNCLAS LIMA 004788 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, KJUS, PE 
SUBJECT: SUPREME COURT DECIDES THAT ANTAURO HUMALA WILL BE 
TRIED IN LIMA 
 
REF: A. LIMA 4130 
     B. LIMA 12 
 
1.  Peru's Supreme Court, on 11/7, decided that 
Ethno-Cacerist leader Antauro Humala and 159 of his followers 
will stand trial in Lima for their participation in the 
January 2005 armed rebellion in Andahuaylas that resulted in 
the death of four policemen (Ref B).  The Court reversed its 
original ruling that the trial should take place in 
Andahuaylas, a city of 30,000 inhabitants located in the high 
Andes about 500 kilometers south-east of Lima, as that was 
where the alleged criminal acts took place (Ref A).  The 
Court reconsidered its ruling after the Interior Ministry 
requested a change of venue, asserting that the penal and 
court facilities in Andahuaylas had neither the 
infrastructure nor sufficient personnel to cope with an 
undertaking of this size. 
 
2.  The Supreme Court found that security conditions in 
Andahuaylas were limited, due to the sparse local security 
force (8 police officers and 15 prison guards), and to the 
presumed presence of "political sympathizers" of the accused, 
who could "possibly overcome the control capabilities of the 
authorities."  Consequently, the Court concluded, the 
Interior Ministry's petition for a change of venue met the 
Criminal Procedure Code's criteria of the existence of 
circumstances that would threaten "the normal development and 
security of the trial."  The Court's decision to switch the 
venue to Lima was widely hailed as having averted the 
potentially dangerous and volatile situation that a trial in 
Andahuaylas would have presented. 
STRUBLE