The president of Peru, José María Balcázar, has advanced that at the beginning of next week a resolution will be adopted regarding the pardon for former president Pedro Castillo, who is serving an eleven-year prison sentence for rebellion-related crimes linked to his failed attempt at a self-coup in December 2022.
Balcázar has specified that there is still no final determination and that "everything has been interrupted by the situation in Junín," referring to what happened in this region of the center of the country, where a 5.1 earthquake was recorded a few days ago, causing at least six fatalities and more than 300 affected.
"We are exclusively dedicated to addressing this emergency and, believe me, there are priorities that we must face. All the ministers are working there," the head of the Peruvian state indicated in an interview granted to the Exitosa radio station.
During that conversation, broadcast on Monday night, he detailed that "The Ministry of Justice is preparing the corresponding opinion regarding the request made by the relatives of Mr. Pedro Castillo. I believe that between tomorrow or the day after they will issue the respective opinion and, from there, we can discuss this issue."
With less than a week left to transfer power to the elected president, Keiko Fujimori, Balcázar has not ruled out that it may be under the next government when this matter is definitively closed.
"It is not a closed issue," Balcázar emphasized, who aspires to complete in these days an institutional transition based on "democratic tradition" which, in his view, has been eroded in recent years, marked by "transitory governments."
At the end of 2025, a court imposed on Castillo a sentence of more than eleven years in prison for the crime of conspiracy to commit rebellion, following the failed self-coup of December 2022, when he announced the dissolution of Congress, the establishment of an emergency government, and the call for a new constituent assembly.
Castillo was arrested and immediately removed from office after communicating to the nation via message the dissolution of Parliament. His defense has filed requests for pardon on several occasions, although so far all have been rejected by the Justice.
The fall of Castillo provoked widespread protests in different areas of the country, which were repressed with a strong police action, leaving around fifty dead and giving way to an unstable mandate of Dina Boluarte, characterized by continuous cabinet crises and very low approval levels.