Peru - April 2025

Former President Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) was convicted by a three-judge body of the National Superior Court (Tercer Juzgado Colegiado de la Corte Superior Nacional) to 15 years imprisonment for asset laundering. After a trial of over three years, the judges concluded that Humala’s presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2011 received illegal financing from Venezuela’s government under Hugo Chavez and from Brazilian engineering company, Odebrecht, which has been implicated in other bribery cases. Humala’s wife and co-founder of the Nationalist Party, Nadine Heredia, was also convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for her role in the illicit financing of Humala’s campaigns; she sought and was granted political asylum from Brazil upon her conviction. The judges determined that in 2011 alone, Humala’s Nationalist Party received around USD 3 million in illegal contributions through means such as cash payments and false contracts. Humala has stated he will appeal.

 Sources: La Republica, France 24, BBC, El Pais 

On 15 April, President Dina Boluarte promulgated amendments to the bill that established the Peruvian International Cooperation Agency (APCI), passed by Congress the previous month. The amendments provide that civil society organizations (CSOs) must register and receive approval from the APCI to engage in international cooperation. Other provisions include sanctions for activities that are detrimental to public order or national security in the form of admonition, fines, suspension or cancellation of registry. They further classify financing of lawsuits against the government as an aggravating circumstance (meaning that CSOs could be sanctioned for legally challenging policies with which they disagree). The amendments, which proponents of the bill and the President characterized as vital to ensuring accountability in how CSOs use funds received from international cooperation, will tighten government scrutiny over CSOs. Rights organizations have denounced the bill as an attempt to stifle criticism of the government or legal action against the state, including judicial complaints over human rights abuses. 

Sources: Diario El Peruano, TV Peru, OHCHR, Amnesty International, International IDEA