Javier Diez Canseco Cisneros (24 March 1948 – 4 May 2013) was a Peruvian politician and member of the Peruvian Congress representing the Socialist Party of Peru (PS), of which he was a founding member and also served as its Party President.

Early life

Javier Diez Canseco was born to a well-to-do Lima family. His parents were Santiago Luis Diez Canseco Magill and Maria del Carmen Cisneros Sanchez. He is a descendant of 19th Century military hero, General Manuel Diez Canseco y Corbacho, and is related to President Fernando Belaúnde Terry. His father, a banker, was general manager of the Banco Popular del Perú, which afforded the family a high level of material comfort.

During his first year of life, Diez Canseco contracted poliomyelitis, resulting in a permanent limp in his left leg. He credits these experiences with his disability as instrumental in helping him comprehend inequality and injustice.

He received his schooling in Lima's Colegio Inmaculado Corazón de Jesús and did his secondary schooling at the Colegio Santa María Marianistas, both religious schools. He studied law at the National University of San Marcos from 1967 to 1968, and sociology at the Catholic University (PUCP) in Lima from 1965 to 1971. Although raised a Catholic, Diez Canseco abandoned the religion while at university.

Diez Canseco was elected chairman of the PUCP's Social Science Student Federation in 1970, and as head of the university's Student Federation the following year.

In 1990 Diez Canseco participated in an inquiry into a government campaign of illegal wiretapping and interception of cellphone communications. In 2002, he led a congressional inquiry into the privatization program undertaken in the 1990s by Fujimori. The committee calculated that of the USD9 billion raised during the privatization process, only a small fraction ended up benefiting the state.

During the government of Alejandro Toledo, between 2003 and 2006, he was president of the Special Study Commission on Disability of the Congress of the Republic, where he promoted the Law on Persons with Disabilities and its subsequent enactment.

He was also involved in investigations of human rights violations committed by both the Shining Path and the Peruvian Armed Forces during Peru's 1980-1992 internal armed conflict -including the 1985 Accomarca massacre-, and was repeatedly subjected to death threats by both sides involved in the violence.

In the 2011 general elections, Diez Canseco supported Ollanta Humala's presidential candidacy and based on a political agreement between the Socialist Party, the Nationalist Party and other left-wing political organizations. He ran as a guest candidate on his Peru Wins parliamentary list. Peru with the number 12 for Metropolitan Lima and Peruvians residing abroad.

After the elections, he managed to be the third candidate for Congress with the highest vote of his party, and one of the most voted in the country. In that sense, he returned to Congress for the period 2011–2016. Javier Diez Canseco was elected with 94,703 votes in Lima, ranking 7th on the national scale of votes for congressmen.

Suspension from Congress

On 16 November 2012, Diez Canseco was suspended from Congress without pay for 90 days by a vote of a full session of the Congress after the Congressional Ethics Commission found that he had violated the Parliamentary Code of Ethics in presenting bill nº054/2011, which would have, according to the charges, financially benefited his daughter and ex-wife. The motion for suspension was presented although the Ethics Commission's own Technical Board had found that no ethics violation had taken place. The result of the vote was 130 congressmen: 55 voted in favor, 31 against, 4 abstentions and 40 did not vote because they were suspended (4) and absent (36). For his part, Diez Canseco denied any wrongdoing and accused political opponents, including First Lady Nadine Heredia, of colluding against him. However, said measure was annulled on 4 April by the Fifth Constitutional Court of Lima, in response to an amparo action filed by the legislator, since the sanction affected due process, the right to defense and honor of the congressman. The president of the Parliamentary Ethics Commission, Congressman Humberto Lay Sun, announced that they would appeal the ruling.

On 8 April 2013, following an appeal by Diez Canseco the Peruvian judiciary annulled the suspension as having violated Congressional due process. The court also left the possibility open for its reinstatement pending a new, more specific, report from the Congressional Ethics Committee. In early May 2013 a higher court rejected Congress' appeal and ratified the annulment of the suspension.

This was not the first time Diez Canseco was suspended from his Congressional and Senatorial duties. On 13 December 1983, he was suspended for 120 days for having snatched a document out of the official lector's hands during a heated debate on the floor. In 1988, he was again suspended on 3 September for having punched a fellow congressman in the mouth, and for having violated congressional norms by speaking by telephone with a television news program during a closed session of the legislature.

Death threats and attempts on his life

In the predawn hours of 14 November 1990, twenty-four hours before the findings of the wiretapping inquiry were to be handed in, a dynamite attack was carried out at the Diez Canseco home. An explosive was detonated moments before at a neighboring house, presumably in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Diez Canseco to the front door of his home, where a second charge was detonated. The police initially suggested it had been an attack by the Shining Path, but later evidence indicated that it had been the work of the government's Grupo Colina death squad.

In 1995 his name was included at the top of a list of names accompanying a funeral floral arrangement left at the entrance of the headquarters of the Association for Human Rights. The note was signed "Comunidad Colina".

In 1999, on Diez Canseco's birthday, two human skulls were left across the street from his home. He died on 4 May 2013. In a posthumous statement on the following day, the congressman's family asked that those congressmen who voted in favor of the 90-day sanction against him not attend the wake, tribute and burial of the renowned politician. On 7 May after a tribute by various popular organizations and sectors of the citizenry. His remains were cremated in the Huachipa Cemetery and his ashes were deposited in the family mausoleum in the Presbítero Maestro Cemetery in Lima.

References

  • Javier Diez Canseco´s Website
  • Javier Diez Canseco on Twitter
  • "A contracorriente" Javier Diez Canseco column in "La Republica" (in Spanish)
  • Javier Diez Canseco radio comments (in Spanish)
  • Socialist Party (Perú) (in Spanish)
  • Interview - Radio France International: "Javier Diez Canseco, la pasión política" (9 February 2009) (in Spanish)
  • Interview with Javier Diez Canseco (Agenciaperu.com, 7 April 2002) (in Spanish)
  • "Avances y contusiones políticas tras el paro" (La República, 18 July 2004)