International
The president of Peru asks to open the debate to apply the death penalty to child rapists
The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, asked on Tuesday to open the debate on the application of the death penalty for juvenile rapists, after the recent murder of a minor in Lima that has moved public opinion.
During an official event at the Lima Air Base of Las Palmas, Boluarte said that “it is time to open the debate on the death penalty for juvenile rapists,” considering that “types like these to walk free in the streets” cannot be allowed.
The head of state called for the actions of the National Police to be strengthened to protect children for being the most vulnerable to this type of attack.
The case that opens in Peru the debate on the death penalty for child rapists
The death penalty is not applicable in Peru since the 1979 Constitution came into force, which only allows it for treason, and after the country ratified in 1978 the American Convention on Human Rights that restricts that punishment.
The president also asked for a minute of silence for the murder of a teenager on Sunday in Lima, whose body was found by her family in the house of an alleged security guard of an informal settlement in the district of Pachacámac, in the south of the capital.
The minor had disappeared from her home on Sunday, but the parents received a call from a person who had supposedly found her and said he would take her to the police station in the district of Villa María del Triunfo, according to the report of the América Noticias channel.
However, with the passing of the hours, the teenager did not appear at the police headquarters and the family accelerated their search with the geolocation of their mobile phone.
In this way, the family and the National Police arrived at a clearing of the Lúcumo settlement of Pachacámac, where they located the remains of the minor, apparently strangled, in a house.
Lack of clarity about the crime
The suspect identified as Yerson Juárez Tapia, 26, said he was a security guard of the place and, after being interrogated, apparently confessed to having been the author of the murder of the minor.
However, a local neighbor told the police that she had recorded the arrival of a motorcycle taxi with two men at that house in the early hours of Sunday.
A mob of neighbors attacked Juárez, after allegedly admitting the crime, so they had to admit him to a hospital, according to the newspaper El Comercio.
The Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Violence against Women and Members of the Family Group of the district of Lurín has begun the preliminary investigation after finding the 12-year-old minor dead.
The Ombudsman’s Office reported that, from January to October 2024, 5,518 alert notes were recorded for missing women, most of them minors, and that in that same period 133 femicides were committed.
International
Colombian President Gustavo Petro announces talks with clan del Golfo outside country
Colombian President Gustavo Petro stated on Friday that his government has begun talks outside the country with the Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s main criminal group also known as the Gaitanist Army.
“We have started conversations outside Colombia with the self-called Gaitanist Army,” the president said during the handover of 6,500 hectares of land to farmers in the Caribbean department of Córdoba.
The president noted that his administration “has seized more cocaine than any other government” because it seeks to “cut off the finances (of criminal groups) that fuel violence in many regions of Colombia.”
“A bill has been introduced that I hope the Congress studies thoroughly, because it essentially elevates restorative justice even for serious crimes,” Petro said.
The initiative he referred to was presented by his Minister of Justice, Eduardo Montealegre, aimed at “the consolidation of total peace.”
According to the Ministry of Justice, the bill seeks to provide the government with clear regulations to achieve the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of illegal armed groups.
For groups such as the Clan del Golfo, a judicial submission process will be applied, which could bring possible legal benefits if they genuinely cooperate, surrender weapons, and dismantle their groups.
International
María Corina Machado thanks OAS allies for condemning Venezuela’s growing repression
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado expressed her gratitude on Thursday to the “allied” countries that spoke out at the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) regarding the increasing repression in Venezuela. Through her X account, she highlighted that “our regional allies took a firm stand in favor of democracy and the freedom of Venezuelans.”
The statement came a day after Gloria de Mees, rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for Venezuela, presented before the OAS the worsening situation in the country, just over a year after the elections in which President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner over opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia, who denounced electoral fraud.
Machado, who shared videos of speeches by representatives from Canada, the United States, Paraguay, Chile, and Panama, insisted that “Venezuela is the most urgent conflict in the Western Hemisphere and its definitive resolution is everyone’s responsibility.” She affirmed that “silence and inaction” are forms of “complicity” and urged international justice to act with “greater speed and firmness.”
Before her participation at the OAS, De Mees told EFE that the repression “is not new, but now it is systematic” and has intensified, affecting not only human rights defenders, journalists, and dissidents but “everyone, because there is fear of retaliation.”
International
Over 240 guatemalans detained at Florida’s Alligator Alcatraz await deportation
At least 249 Guatemalans are currently detained at the Alligator Alcatraz detention center in Florida, United States, awaiting deportation, the Guatemalan government reported this Friday.
The Guatemalan Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed that the figure was confirmed by U.S. authorities to Guatemalan diplomats in Miami, Florida, during a visit to the center where they had the opportunity to interview 37 of their compatriots.
“The Guatemalans we spoke with said they have been at the detention center for only a few days and have been able to communicate with family members and lawyers. Most of them were detained due to their irregular immigration status,” the Ministry stated.
According to the same source, another visit by Guatemalan diplomats has been authorized soon to meet with other nationals held at the detention center in Florida.
Alligator Alcatraz, opened just over a month ago, was built in only one week on an abandoned airport in the Everglades, a natural area west of Miami, surrounded by alligators and swamps. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sees it as a model for other centers, while activists consider it a symbol of human rights violations.
Democratic lawmakers reported the presence of 750 migrants “in cages” after entering the site on July 12. The facility currently has a capacity for 2,000 people, which could increase to 4,000, according to the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM), which manages the site.
Every year, thousands of Guatemalans leave the Central American country to migrate irregularly to the United States in search of better living conditions and to escape the poverty and violence that plague Guatemala.
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