Cablegate: Peru: Interim Tip Assessment
VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB
DE RUEHPE #4554/01 3381433
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041433Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY LIMA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3167
INFO RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 4146
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 0861
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ DEC SANTIAGO 0983
UNCLAS LIMA 004554
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE, SIPDIS
STATE FOR G/TIP, WHA/PPC
STATE PASS TO USAID
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KCRM KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG PE
SUBJECT: Peru: Interim TIP Assessment
REF: STATE 182957
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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) Peru is making steady progress in establishing a legal
framework for prosecuting traffickers of persons and educating
police, prosecutors, and the general public about trafficking in
persons (TIP). The Garcia Administration, which took office on July
28, moved quickly to submit a comprehensive TIP law to Peru's
Congress; passage is expected before Congress adjourns in December.
The new Minister of Interior has given strong public support to
combating TIP by participating in events to publicize the TIP
problem and by recruiting other ministers to participate as well.
Anti-TIP NGOs are generally pleased with GOP progress in combating
TIP even though arrests have been few and no one has yet been
sentenced for TIP crimes. Once the TIP law has been passed, the
GOP's anti-TIP interagency group, which includes several NGOs as
observers, has plans to educate the public about the law and to
pressure the judicial system to act. The following paragraphs are
keyed to the questions asked of Post in Reftel.
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A. INCREASING INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS
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2. (SBU) The GOP has not yet increased its investigation and
prosecution of TIP crimes. Until a TIP law is enacted, GOP
officials, NGOs, and international organizations involved in TIP all
agree that prosecuting someone for a TIP crime cannot be done (see
para 7). Instead, TIP or TIP-related crimes such as the kidnapping
of a minor for sexual exploitation will be investigated by the GOP
under different statutes. The Peruvian National Police (PNP) unit
that investigates TIP-related crimes reported four cases through
July 2006 that were passed to prosecutors for further investigation
and trial. The seven cases from 2005 are still being processed by
prosecutors. No trials or convictions have been reported.
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B. PROVIDING ADEQUATE RESOURCES FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT
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3. (SBU) The permanent Multisectoral Committee (MSC) on TIP (an
interagency group chaired by the Ministry of Interior) and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) are jointly
developing a national law enforcement strategy. Implementation of
the strategy depends on the passage of the new TIP law now before
the Peruvian Congress (see para 7). Among other things, the draft
strategy calls for the PNP's TIP Investigation Unit to receive more
personnel and funding. On March 13, the Ministry of Interior
established a nationwide, toll-free TIP hotline and has been
receiving an average of one thousand calls per month, about 15
percent of which could be considered TIP-related. The hotline staff
is located in the Office of Human Rights in the Ministry of
Interior. Regarding the hotline, the Ministry has created a
ground-breaking protocol where the PNP and the Office of Human
Rights have agreed to truncate significantly the usual bureaucratic
procedures and allow hotline tips to be passed quickly to a police
station nearest the complainant. Whatever arrests were made as a
result of the hotline tips were not referred to the police TIP unit
for investigation. Nationwide, 30 people have been formally charged
with pimping so far this year.
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C. INCREASING PUBLIC PRESSURE ON THE JUDICIARY
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4. (SBU) Numerous anti-TIP NGOs and other civil society
organizations are running TIP-awareness campaigns, especially
regarding sexual exploitation of minors, in an effort to exert
pressure on the Peruvian judicial system to prosecute TIP offenders.
NGOs have partnered with the ministries to train several thousand
police, prosecutors, judges, health practitioners, teachers,
municipal officials, and child-protection workers nationwide (three
programs were funded by G/TIP). The main stumbling block to better
enforcement has been the lack of a law clearly defining TIP. The
MSC has been working closely with NGOs to draft the new TIP law.
GOP officials and NGOs both contend that once the new TIP law has
been implemented--the legal groundwork laid--the police,
prosecutors, and judges are prepared to enforce the law. The MSC
and IOM have jointly produced a play and a film documentary about
TIP that will be used to educate people about TIP and publicize the
new TIP law. Minister Mazzetti has been publicly supporting these
efforts. Also, a well-known Peruvian actress, Monica Sanchez, is
promoting the play and documentary.
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D. PROCESSING CASES AND ASSIGNING A LEAD AGENCY ON TIP
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5. (SBU) The Public Ministry (the ministry charged with
investigating and prosecuting crimes) is implementing a computerized
case-tracking system to allow prosecutors (not the police) to follow
a criminal case from the initial investigation to trial to
sentencing to prison and release. Until now, Peru has never had the
capability to track criminal cases as they progress through the
justice system. The new case-tracking system will include TIP
cases. In addition, the PNP now have a computer database in which
to record TIP arrests and forward them to the TIP Investigations
Unit. Police officers in Lima and 7 other PNP districts (out of a
total of 12 districts) will have been trained to use the system by
April 2007.
6. (SBU) A project due to be finished by May 2007 will link the PNP
and the Public Ministry case-tracking systems in order to share
crime data. No single GOP agency has been designated to track TIP
cases; rather the PNP's TIP database will pass information to the
Public Ministry's crime database, which will track TIP cases along
with all other crimes. Most likely, the MSC will continue to gather
statistics and monitor progress on combating TIP. The current
capacity of the Peruvian judicial system to track any type of crime
is very limited, so the possibility of singling out TIP crimes
consistently is remote in the short term.
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E. GOP WORKING WITH CONGRESS ON TIP LAWS
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7. (SBU) A law was sent to Peru's Congress in early 2004 that would
have defined TIP and brought the Peruvian penal code in line with
the Palermo Protocols on TIP and smuggling of migrants. The law
languished in Congress during the final months of the Toledo
Administration (through July 2006). The Garcia Administration took
office on July 28. On October 2, the new Minister of Interior Pilar
Mazzetti, who has been a strong advocate for combating TIP, invited
three other Ministers (Women's Issues, Labor, and Justice) to
participate in the MSC to support the new TIP legislation. The MSC
resubmitted the legislation to the new Congress on October 21 with,
importantly, the strong support of President Garcia who used a
special congressional procedure to declare the legislation "urgent"
in order to move it to the top of the legislative agenda. Minister
Mazzetti convincingly defended the bill before the Congress's
Justice Commission. Both the Justice and Women's Commissions have
approved the legislation and have passed it to the full Congress
where no opposition is expected. Embassy sources are predicting the
legislation will be signed into law before the Congress adjourns on
December 15.
Struble