Retroactive Death Penalty in Peru 
Mumia Abu-Jamal 
November 1995  

Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, in his relentless campaign to reinstate the death penalty in the South American nation, is trying to re-make the most basic principles of law.  

The Fujimori regime isn't seeking merely to bring back the death penalty but to apply it retroactively, to cases that occurred before the law became the law.  

On Tuesday, August 3, 1993, Peru's constituent assembly approved the draft of a new constitution that included a clause legalizing the death penalty for "terrorist" offenses.  

The amendments, one long-sought by the U.S. backed Fujimori regime, is Phase One in the plan to eliminate Shining Path chief, Dr. Abimeal Guzmán, even if they have to apply it retroactively, to events that occurred before the constitutional amendment.  

Renowned former U.S. Attorney General, Ramsey Clark wrote, of the government's plans;  

"The American Convention on Human Rights, ratified by Peru and most Latin American countries, prohibits the extension of the death penalty in any country 'to crimes to which it does not presently apply' and prohibits all countries from inflicting capital punishment 'for political offenses or related common crimes.'  

"No idea is more basic to the rule of law than ex post facto punishments are prohibited. The American Convention provides: 'A heavier penalty shall not be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the criminal offense was committed.' Efforts to enact laws intended to punish an individual, or a class, for discriminatory purposes are equally condemned."  

The former Attorney General's concerns, made in a July 26, 1993 letter to the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Dr. Abimael Guzmán (BCM-IEC, 27 Old Gloucester St. London, WC1N, 3XX, England – tele/fax: 44-71-482-0853) was answered less than two weeks later by passage of the draft amendment bringing back the Peruvian death penalty, in essence damning the American Convention.  

The Rev. S. Michael Yasutake, Dir., the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project in Chicago, issued a similar letter, obviously to no avail.  

The U.S.-backed Fujimori regime, upon orders of the U.S. empire, has spit on International law, regional treaties and sworn conventions, to attempt to extinguish a man perceived as more threatening to U.S. interests than Peruvian ones.  

Why else would conservative columnist William Buckly Jr., write in the Washington Times, just days after Guzmán's capture, "It is anomalous…to suggest an international request for the execution of a prisoner, but…herewith a call for the execution of Abimael Guzmán."?(14 Oct. 1992).  

What they really fear is not Guzmán, but the growing power and reach of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) a largely indigenous, Indian, Maoist army that will not bow to the imperial masters in Washington.  

They fear its spread and emergence in other areas called the U.S. "sphere of influence" (empire).  

That is what they really want to kill.