Jubilee Plus - Supporting Economic Justice Campaigns Worldwide

Image Map
About Us
Finance and Economics
Finanance / Economics
World News
Media Centre
International Campaigns
Data Bank
Analysis
People
Opinion

Citizens commence court case
Repayment of Corrupt Debt: Pachitea and Mantaro
Andean Tribunal on foreign debt

(TADE)

27th September, 2001.

Lima: The preparations for the Public Hearings of the Andean Tribunal on Foreign Debt in Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru commenced some time ago. The Peruvian case centres on the Bank Association (Sindicato de Bancos) forcing the corrupt debt of the Mantaro and Pachitea ships to be paid for in 1993. The Peruvian hearing will take place on 9-10 November at the Lima Bar Association. The Tribunal will be composed of 6 judges, a jury with a broad social base, prosecution and defence lawyers. This citizens’ initiative was born in January 2000 at the Quito Seminar on International Debt and Human Rights, where the Inter-American Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development and the Jubilee 2000 Network agreed to work together to uncover the cases of corruption surrounding acquisition of foreign debt by Latin American countries. After a year of work the public hearings will he installed and will judge the different cases presented on the various countries ethically and legally. The cases will then be presented to the Regional Hearing to be held in Quito on November 30.

In the Peruvian Hearing the case of the Mantaro and Pachitea ships will be examined. A judicial accusation for fraudulent transaction was served against Sandro Arbulú Doig, Oscar Cuadros Muñoz, Guido Erick Quispe Mayorga, and Ramón Robledo Chamochumbi, employees of the Compañía Peruana de Vapores, (Peruvian Steamship Company) and two constitutional acccusations served against the Ministers for Transport and Communications and the Trade and Finance Minister, of the period. However, in 1993, Carlos Boloña, then Finance Minister (1993-1994) backed by a majority ruling of the Peruvian Congress, ignored the accusations and absolved the accused from suspicion, accepting pressure by the main parties involved in the case of the American Express and Chemical Bank, to pay the fraudulent debt in return for reinsertion in the financial system.


The Andean Tribunal on Foreign Debt is set up in the following manner: 6 judges selected from civil society for their outstanding moral authority, presided over by Laura Vargas, Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Committee for Social Action (CEAS). The members chosen are Pilar Coll, former executive secretary of the National Human Rights Co-ordinating Committee; Susana Villarán, human rights campaigner and former Minister for Women; Luis Jaime Cisneros well-known university lecturer, campaigner for democracy and founder of Transparencia; Ismael Muñoz, an economist devoted to the study of international debt and Javier Mujica, a lawyer committed to the defence of economic, social, cultural and labour rights.


The jury will be composed of representatives of different social organisations and professional associations, and others, who will all be elected by their institutions. The composition of the jury will reflect the plural and democratic character of international tribunals and will allow citizen participation in the judgement. The presentation of the case, evidence and witnesses will be handled by the Prosecution on the one hand and the lawyer for the State defence on the other. The Arequipa Bar Association will make these designations.


This Citizens’ Tribunal will be held in the Main Chamber of the Lima Bar Association who have offered their premises for the purpose. The Hearing will be held on Friday November 9 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday November 10 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Civil society organisations representing women, youth, universities, trade unions, indigenous Amazon communities, peasants and urban organisations, NGOs and churches who have all been working on the issues of the foreign debt, invite the Peruvian people to participate in this event, to win back the right not only to free expression but also to lobby those authorities whose decisions involve everyone, as is the case of the foreign debt and its transparent administration.

Dr. Francisco Ercilio Moura, Co-ordinator of the Peruvian Platform for Human Rights, Democracy and Development