In a historic decision aimed at defending the country’s democratic system, the Peruvian justice system decided in the first instance to declare illegal the political party National Alliance of Students, Farmers, Reservists and Workers, whose initials in Spanish are A.N.T.A.U.R.O. (Alianza Nacional de Trabajadores Agricultores Universitarios Reservistas y Obreros). A.N.T.A.U.R.O. is the acronym of the ex-military Antauro Humala Tasso, who at the beginning of 2005 murdered four police during an uprising in the Andean city of Andahuaylas, more than 750 km from Lima. For this case, known as Andahuaylazo, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the crimes of homicide, kidnapping, aggravated damages, snatching of a firearm, and rebellion.
Humala, who was the leader of the group, although he did not figure nominally in the chain of command, intended to use this political platform to run for the April 2026 presidential elections and firebomb the state from within. On more than one occasion he had proposed to shoot his political rivals, including his brother, former President Ollanta Humala, under investigation for acts of corruption. “Fuck! My mother gave birth to him, we came out of the same womb, but he betrayed us. Am I my brother? He betrayed, and he has to be shot anyway,” he is heard saying in a video broadcast by TikTok in 2022, during a canvassing event.
In February of this year, during a radio interview, he said that to “moralize the Armed Forces” there are two methods: one that “costs US$ 8 billion dollars” and another that “costs you two magazines because by shooting two generals and three colonels the Army becomes operative in three days”. Then, referring to the possibility of dissolving the Congress of the Republic, he said that “a general commander should carry out a coup d’état, not an anodyne one”.
Because of this and other issues, the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office presented before the Supreme Court the request to declare A.N.T.A.U.R.O. illegal, accepting, in turn, a request from representative Alejandro Muñante, who first filed the complaint before the National Jury of Elections (JNE), the highest electoral body in the country, which, unfortunately, exempted itself from responsibility and decided to refer the case to the judicial terrain.
The Prosecutor’s Office argued that Humala’s group promotes “anti-democratic activities” that “systematically violate freedoms and fundamental rights”, and warned that it encourages a “violent, hateful and discriminatory discourse”. They added that the political grouping establishes principles of nationalism based on “lineage”, in which nationality is defined only by blood, excluding those who are not related to “the autochthonous”. In 2022, in an interview with El País, Antauro stated that “power should be exercised by those with copper-colored skin”.
The Permanent Constitutional and Social Law Chamber of the Peruvian Supreme Court, which issued the verdict in majority, also decided to decree the dissolution of the political party and its cancellation in the official registry of the JNE, which also ordered the closure of its bases at the national level and prohibited its re-registration. However, it did not decide to disqualify its leaders. The ruling was based on jurisprudence adopted as a result of the figures of the widely known genocides Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
The judicial decisions will become effective once they become final, in the last instance. Representative Alex Flores, a member of A.N.T.A.U.R.O., announced that he would appeal the veto, which he considered “undemocratic, unconstitutional, and arbitrary”. The case could reach the Peruvian Constitutional Court, whose president, Judge Luz Pacheco, held a meeting on October 21 with Antauro and his partner and lawyer, Carmen Huidobro, who was also convicted for the Andahuaylazo, which the public has questioned.
Despite his tremendous public statements, on October 27, a few days before the judicial decision was issued with the veto of his political party, the pollster Ipsos Peru reported that in the projections of presidential vote intention, Antauro Humala was in second place, only behind Keiko Fujimori.
The electoral process will only be called in five months, on April 2025, but Antauro will not be able to run at least for the presidency of Peru because the legal term to do so for another grouping has already expired. He could try to do it as a guest to integrate the Parliament, which will be bicameral for the next five years.
In any case, the time will come when the citizens will ratify the firmness of the justice system and retire Antauro Humala and his practices with their vote, or give him the power to destroy the country. All bets are off.
Autor
Periodista peruano especialista en Política. Máster en Comunicación Corporativa por la Universitat de Barcelona. Licenciado en Periodismo y Audiovisuales con experiencia en conducción de TV, comunicación social y corporativa.
