A License to Kill?

Almost as if anticipating an adverse judgment from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Chavin de Huantar case (Eduardo Nicolas Cruz Sanchez and others v. Peru), the Peruvian Government, on January 13, 2014, amended paragraph 11 of Article 20 of the Penal Code, referring to the use of arms and other means of defense by members of the Peruvian Armed Forces and Police. Article 20 (11) stated that “The members of the Armed Forces and National Police, who in the course of carrying out their duties and in the use of their arms pursuant to regulations, cause injuries or death, are exempt from criminal responsibility.”  Law No. 30151, approved on January 12, 2014, changed the text as follows: “The members of the Armed Forces and National Police of Peru, who in the course of carrying out their duties and in the use of their arms or other means of defense, cause injuries or death, are exempt from criminal responsibility.” An earlier attempt, in 2011, to amend this provision was designed “to protect the armed forces and national police so that they are not afraid to carry out the constitutional mandate of maintaining internal order.” (Source, IDL)

Walter Alban, the Minister of Interior, which in Latin America generally means the government official in charge of internal security, not parks, as in the US, termed the recent amendment to the Penal Code “unnecessary and inconvenient.”  The human rights movement knows Minister Alban because he used to be in charge of the Peruvian Ombudsman’s office (Defensoría del Pueblo) from 2000-2005.  Others have been less moderate in their characterization of the amendment and have termed it “a license to kill.”