Peru’s political landscape is once again under fire after President Dina Boluarte signed into law a controversial amnesty for soldiers, police, and civilian militias accused of atrocities during the country’s brutal armed conflict (1980–2000) against Maoist insurgents.

The law, passed by Congress in July, grants pardons to hundreds of individuals on trial for crimes including massacres, torture, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances. It also mandates the release of those over 70 already serving sentences. This comes despite an order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to halt the measure until its impact on victims could be reviewed.

Human rights groups have condemned the move as a major setback for justice. Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, Juanita Goebertus, called it “a betrayal of Peruvian victims”, while Amnesty International and UN experts warned that the law could derail more than 600 pending trials and undo 156 convictions. Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission previously found that state agents were responsible for the vast majority of sexual violence cases documented during the conflict.

Boluarte, who became Peru’s first female president in 2022, defended the law as a tribute to security forces who fought “in defense of democracy.” Critics, however, say it undermines decades of fragile progress in holding perpetrators accountable for crimes that left around 70,000 dead and more than 20,000 disappeared.

The controversy comes as Peru faces another political scandal: former president Martín Vizcarra has been ordered into preventative detention on corruption charges, joining a long list of ex-leaders entangled in graft cases.

With memory of the Shining Path insurgency still raw, Peru now finds itself caught between competing narratives of justice, security, and impunity—raising questions about whether its democracy can reconcile with the ghosts of its past.