'Narco pardons' burden Garcia as he seeks Peru presidency
'Narco pardons' burden Garcia as he seeks Peru presidency
Associated Press
By FRANKLIN BRICENO
November 5, 2015 11:40 AM
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Alan Garcia granted hundreds of convicted drug traffickers early release the last time he was Peru's president, pursuing a clemency campaign believed unparalleled in the world that he said was giving the deserving a second chance while easing prison overcrowding.
Now the "narco pardons" are haunting Garcia as he seeks to return to the presidency for a third term, with the officials who arranged the releases on trial for allegedly running a get-out-of-jail-for-pay scheme.
Questioned about the commutations two years ago by a special congressional committee, Garcia insisted he carefully weighed each case, often staying up well past midnight to pore over thick files.
"I sought God's counsel in making each and every one of these concessions," he told the committee.
But witnesses testifying before a court at a maximum-security prison in Lima's dusty northern hills tell a different story, one of quick-turnaround commutations for convicts who paid thousands of dollars, dozens of releases sometimes arranged in a single day and a streamlined process that squeezed complicated cases into an eight-line questionnaire.
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