Peru: Dina Boluarte proposes death penalty for child rapists

On Tuesday, Peru's president, Dina Boluarte, proposed the application of the death penalty for child rapists following the murder of a 12-year-old girl who was allegedly sexually assaulted earlier in the weekend in a Lima slum.

A supporter of the hard hand against crime, the conservative leader said that "the time has come" to discuss the reinstatement of capital punishment, which was abolished in 1979 and for decades was reserved for crimes such as treason and aggravated homicide.

"It is time for us to raise drastic measures"

"It is time that before facts of this magnitude, which should be inconceivable within a society, we raise drastic measures; it is time to open the debate on the death penalty for child rapists," Boluarte said.

During a public ceremony before the Peruvian Air Force, the president expressed her indignation over the murder of a girl whose body was found Sunday in the Villa Maria del Triunfo district, in the south of the Peruvian capital.

The minor had been reported missing on Saturday, AFP reports. Her body was wrapped in blankets and rugs under the bed of the alleged 26-year-old assailant, identified as Gerson Juarez and who was detained by police, according to authorities.

"We cannot allow guys like this to walk free in the streets"

This Tuesday, a Lima judge ordered preventive detention for seven days against the suspect, the judiciary reported on its social networks.

"We cannot allow guys like this to walk free in the streets. We must not have any kind of contemplation with those who dare to touch our children, who are the most sacred and untouchable for our Peruvian families," Boluarte emphasized.

Restoring the death penalty requires a constitutional reform

The death penalty could only be restored through a constitutional reform approved by Congress. The initiative, however, would clash with international commitments assumed by Peru in defense of human rights and against this type of punishment.

Since 1995, the legislature has defeated at least eight bills seeking to restore the death penalty. The current legislation provides for life imprisonment for rapists under the age of 14. According to the National Penitentiary Institute, 8,491 people are currently serving sentences for this crime.