On 5 November, both the New York Times and the Washington Post published articles on the more than 1,167 pardons former president Alan García issued between 2006 and 2011 to people accused of trafficking narcotics during his second tenure as president. This scheme, which was described by the Times as an alleged ‘get-out-of-jail-for-pay scheme,’ has brought international attention to an issue that seems likely to affect García’s chances in the coming April 2016 election in Peru. Currently polling at less than 10%, Garcia does not seem to be close to reaching the second round as his campaign begins in earnest.
Journalist Rosa María Palacios has coined the moniker for García as ‘the candidate of the narcos’, an allusion to the way in which García called Lourdes Flores, his opponent in the 2006 presidential race, ‘the candidate of the rich’.
García has been accused of corruption before. In 1990, after his first term ended, Flores was part of team of congressional investigators that found Garcia guilty of embezzlement and accepting bribes during his first term (1985-90). The charges, however, did not stick.
García fled the country in 1992 following the palace coup by Alberto Fujimori. He lived in relative affluence in Bogotá and Paris until his return to Peru, following the fall of Fujimori, in 2001. By this point the cases against him could no longer be pursued as too much time had elapsed since the crimes were allegedly committed.
In spite of the enduring public doubts as to his probity, he was reelected president in 2006.
For many Peruvians, corruption in public life has become the accepted norm. Politics are seen more as the route to personal enrichment than any quest for public service. The Fujimori regime gave way to corruption on an industrial scale. And corruption has become routine in subnational government. Despite allegations of corruption in his first two terms as mayor of Lima, Luis Castañeda Lossio was elected for a third term at the end of 2014.
So the question arises as to why García is finding it so difficult to shrug off the ‘narco-pardons’ affair. Part of the answer is that ordinary Peruvians feel that violence and insecurity have increased sharply since the second García administration. Many believe that by allowing so many criminals back on to the streets, García has made Peru a much more dangerous place. It is therefore hard for him to stand convincingly on a ‘law and order’ ticket.
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