Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05LIMA4265
2005-09-30 16:06:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Lima
Cable title:  

FINALLY, AN OMBUDSMAN

Tags:  PGOV PE 
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UNCLAS LIMA 004265 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PE
SUBJECT: FINALLY, AN OMBUDSMAN

REF: A. 03 LIMA 6075


B. 03 LIMA 5912

UNCLAS LIMA 004265

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PE
SUBJECT: FINALLY, AN OMBUDSMAN

REF: A. 03 LIMA 6075


B. 03 LIMA 5912


1. After almost five years of frustrated attempts to reach a
consensus on a candidate, the Peruvian Congress selected
former Prime Minister Beatriz Merino on 9/29 to be the
country's next Public Ombudsman (Defensora del Pueblo).
Merino replaces the "interim" incumbent Walter Alban, who had
been the Acting Ombudsman ever since the original occupant of
the position, Jorge Santistevan, resigned to run for
President in November of 2000. The Congress had taken
repeated votes since in an effort to choose a successor, but
no candidate had been able to garner the 80 votes (two-thirds
of the Congress) necessary to be elected. Merino received 92
votes in favor, two against, and one abstention.


2. The reaction to Merino's selection was overwhelmingly
positive. She received unequivocal endorsements from both
Alban and Santistevan, and from Lourdes Flores, leader of the
Unidad Nacional Alliance, who is currently front-runner in
the polls for next April's presidential election. The only
negative note sounded in media analysis was that Merino's
selection was a convenient way for the major political
parties to eliminate her as a potential presidential rival --
polling by the University of Lima indicated she had strong
potential as an alternative to the perceived candidates of
the major parties. In a 9/29 interview with leading daily
"El Comercio," Merino firmly discounted the idea that there
were any political calculations in her selection, noting that
a visit to Sweden several years ago had piqued her interest
in the ombudsman's function, which to her represented the
"defense of the most vulnerable."


3. Biographic Note: Since serving as President of the
Council of Ministers for the Toledo Government from July to
December of 2003 (Ref A),Merino has worked as a consultant
at the World Bank. Merino was born November 15, 1947 and is
unmarried. She studied Law and Public Policy at Harvard as a
Fulbright Scholar. She also studied at the London School of
Economics. Elected to the Peruvian Senate in 1990, she lost
her seat in the 1992 Fujimori auto-coup. Merino became a
Member of Congress for the FIM Party in 1995, but switched to
the Somos Peru Party in 1999, and ran as its
vice-presidential candidate in 2000. As a lawyer, she has
worked in the areas of commercial law, contracts, taxation,
labor law, environmental legislation, acquisitions, mergers,
international trade, foreign investment and corporate law.


4. COMMENT: Merino is an honest, committed individual who
looks to be an excellent choice for this position. Some of
her support in the Congress undoubtedly stemmed from a desire
to remove her as a potential candidate in 2006; however,
after the personal attacks Merino received at the end of her
tenure as Prime Minister (Ref B),it is likely she had no
intention of returning to electoral politics at this time.
END COMMENT.
STRUBLE