Martha Chávez
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| Martha Gladys Chávez Cossío de Ocampo | |
 Martha Chávez in the Congress |
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| Born | January 12, 1953 Callao |
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| Political party | Cambio 90-Nueva Mayoría |
| Children | One daughter |
| Residence | Peru |
| Website | Official Site |
Martha Gladys Chávez Cossío de Ocampo (b. January 12, 1953) is a Peruvian politician and lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for president in the 2006 presidential elections on the Alliance for the Future ticket.
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[edit] Writing the Peruvian Constitution
After Alberto Fujimori's self-coup on April 5, 1992, she was made a member of the Democratic Constitutional Congress, which wrote a new constitution during the Peruvian Constitutional Crisis of 1992. Chávez personally introduced the clauses of the Peruvian Constitution that allowed Fujimori to run for a second term and suggested that she might attempt to abolish all term limits on the presidency.[1]. Chávez was the first woman to be elected President of the Congress of Peru in 1995.
[edit] Congresswoman
Chávez was first elected to Congress in 1992. She was suspended from active duty as a congresswoman in June 2001 due to charges of corruption.[2]
[edit] "La Cantuta" Investigation
One of her most controversial actions as congresswoman happened while the La Cantuta massacre case was making headlines in Peru. During the investigations and legal procedures, it was revealed that at least 10 people were kidnapped and killed by the Peruvian military. Chávez responded by introducing a law that prohibited the judicial powers from calling low-level military officials to testify in court cases. The resolution passed after opposition lawmakers walked out of Congress in protest.[3]
The case was dismissed on the pretext that because the location of the bodies of the murdered students and professors was unknown, the courts had no way of knowing if they ever actually existed. Chávez stated that the students must have staged their own kidnapping.[2] Soon afterwords, a journalist was anonymously sent a map of the locations of the bodies. After the unmarked graves were uncovered in the site provided on the map, Chávez responded by suggesting that the journalist be jailed because, by uncovering the graves, he had tampered with a crime scene.[4]
[edit] "Ley Colán"
Chávez introduced the controversial "Ley Colán" (Colán's Law) which mandates that in the event of a tie in the Democratic Constitutional Congress, senority would be used to determine the winner. The Constitutional Democratic Congress had recently come to a tie as to whether or not the Attorney General, Blanca Nelida Colán, could serve a second term despite a constitutional provision that explicitly mandated that the position be filled by the Prosecutor's Board. Because those who voted for Colán to fill the position had the most senority, Chávez's bill effectively handed Colán the position. (The Democratic Constitutional Congress was working on a new Constitution at that time, and the Constitution of 1979 had been suspended by Fujimori).[5] Colán was later imprisoned for corruption.
[edit] Comments on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Chávez controversially characterized the judges on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as leftist terrorist-sympathizers.[2]
[edit] 2000 Presidential elections
During the 2000 elections in Peru, Chávez suggested that Fujimori would dissolve congress if Peru 2000 did not win a majority of seats.[2] She also said that she could not rule out a fourth election of Fujimori, despite the fact that the Constitution of Peru which was written in part by Chávez herself allows presidents to be elected no more than twice in a row.[2] Indeed, Chávez had ealier promised that Fujimori would not run in the 2000 elections.
[edit] Presidential Candidate
In addition to Alliance for the Future, Chávez is also affiliated with Alberto Fujimori's Sí Cumple party.
While Chávez backed Fujimori's own bid for the presidency, she decided to run a separate campaign after the National Jury of Elections banned Fujimori's name from the ballot, citing a political and congressional ban on his participation in Peruvian politics until 2011. Her running-mate in the election was Santiago Fujimori, Alberto Fujimori's brother.
She was never expected to win in the election, and came in fourth place after receiving 7.4% of the vote.
[edit] Post 2006 political career
Chávez remains a visible spokeswoman for the Alliance for the Future ticket and for Fujimorismo in general. After a band of Fujimori sympathizers held a policeman at gunpoint and heavily damaged a memorial to the victims of Peru's Internal War that included the names of victims of government death squads that operated under Fujimori such as Grupo Colina, Chávez said that she applauded the attack, and called the memorial "a garbage monument."
[edit] Notes
- ^ Conaghan, Catherine M. (2005). Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 57
- ^ a b c d e Schmidt, Gregory D. "All the President's Women" in The Fujimori Legacy: The Rise of Authoritarian Democracy in Peru (2006). University Park, PA: Penn State Press.
- ^ Conaghan, Catherine M. (2005). Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 69
- ^ Conaghan, Catherine M. (2005). Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 72
- ^ Conaghan, Catherine M. (2005). Fujimori's Peru: Deception in the Public Sphere. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 80
