Former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo begins hunger strike from prison

The president denounces that he is being subjected to an unfair trial. Peruvian prison authorities initiated proceedings for "serious disciplinary offenses" and he has been placed in solitary confinement and without visits.

Pedro Castillo, during the trial against him that began on March 4.AFP

Published by

Israel Duro

March 11, 2025

1 minute read

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Former Peruvian president Pedro Castillo, imprisoned since his failed self-coup, began a hunger strike from Barbadillo prison. In a handwritten letter shared on his X account, Castillo assures that he took this decision to denunciate "the injustices" being committed against him.

In the text of the publication, Castillo, who signed his missive as "president in captivity" insisted on his motives: "Against the politicized oral trial and its announced conviction against me for crimes of rebellion and others that I have not committed, I declare myself on HUNGER STRIKE."

Castillo asks for a change in the members of the court presiding over his trial

His lawyer, Walter Ayala, ratified his client's arguments in an interview granted to RPP radio, echoed by AFP, insisting that the members of the court that initiated the trial against him last March 4 are not impartial.

"The decision to go on hunger strike is because he is making a peaceful protest so that the world is aware that he is imprisoned in an unjust, arbitrary manner. He does not agree with his detention and asks for an impartial court."

Prison authorities initiate measures against Castillo for his strike

The authorities of the National Penitentiary Institute (INPE) issued a statement in which they pointed out that "the refusal to eat food as an act of protest or rebellion, constitutes a serious disciplinary offense with the administrative and disciplinary consequences that it entails," according to the Penal Execution Code.

The same communiqué notes that, after having submitted the former president to a health check to ensure that he was in good health, "an administrative disciplinary process was initiated against the inmate, the result of which will be communicated to the public in due course." This step "implies the isolation of the inmate and the suspension of his visits."

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