A top contender in April's presidential race, retired Lieutenant Colonel Ollanta Humala, has been formally accused of human-rights abuses during his 1992 command of a jungle counterinsurgency base, human-rights advocates said.
Three criminal complaints accusing Humala of forced disappearance, torture and attempted murder were filed on Tuesday with a prosecutor in the northern jungle town of Tocache, Alejandro Silva, of the National Coordinator for Human Rights in Peru, told reporters.
A secretary for Tocache's prosecutor Arturo Artemio Campos confirmed on Thursday that the complaints had been received from the group -- which represents 63 human-rights organizations -- but declined to provide any further information.
For the last month, local media has aired testimonies from jungle residents identifying Humala under the nom de guerre of ``Captain Carlos'' and accusing him of overseeing systematic abuses in the zone, a former hotspot of drug trafficking and guerrilla activity.
Humala has acknowledged that he commanded the base as ``Captain Carlos,'' using a pseudonym to avoid reprisals by rebels, which he said was common practice. But he denied any wrongdoing and attributed the allegations to a smear campaign to derail his presidential bid.
Daniel Abugattas, a spokesman for Humala's nationalist party, said on Thursday that the candidate would not answer any questions about the accusations for the rest of the campaign.
A recent national poll showed Humala trailing former congresswoman Lourdes Flores 35 to 25 percent in a field of 21 candidates. The poll also showed that 41 percent of respondents believed Humala was guilty of the accusations against him. A separate poll released on Thursday showed a sharp drop in the number of people who thought he would win the April 9 election.
RSS