Peruvian Judge victim of siege was corruption fighter

Peruvian Supreme Court Justice, Carlos Guisti Acuña, who died in the aftermath of the ending of the siege in the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, on Tuesday (22 April) had been chosen a month earlier by leading citizens to head the Peruvian chapter of Transparency International (TI). Another Peruvian member, retired Colonel Marco Antonio Miyashiro, was among the hostages liberated by the operation.

TI is an international non-governmental organisation with headquarters in Berlin which campaigns against corruption world-wide.

Judge Guisti was scheduled to be a major speaker at the 8th International Anti-Corruption Conference, to be held in Lima on 7 - 11 September.

The president of TI-Peru, Rafael Villegas, said in Lima that Carlos Guisti was one of the driving forces in the creation of the Peruvian TI Chapter, together with Adrian Revilla Vergara, the former head of SUNAT (the Peruvian tax authority) and Colonel Marco Antonio Miyashiro. The new chapter had been inaugurated just a month ago. Other chapters of TI in Latin America include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The businessman and former president of CONFIEP (one of the leading Peruvian business associations) underscored the outstanding personality of the judge, whom he described as "an honest and integrity character with untouchable moral qualities."

Among others involved in TI Peru are the Ombudsman, Jorge Santistevan, Jacobo Rey, Mario Suito, Juan Antonio Aguirre Roca, María Reynafarje, Julio Revilla, José Escaffi, Eduardo Arens and Carlos Guillermo Elías.

At TI headquarters in Berlin, its Chairman, Peter Eigen, said that the movement had lost a deeply respected friend, and that his spirit and strength would live on in the movement which he had launched with such enthusiasm.

"I feel, too, that I have lost a personal friend," he concluded. "He will be sadly missed."