Public Performance Las Justicias de Luto

Lucila Rozas Urrunaga^[1]

doi: https://doi.org/10.58117/7pbf-6824

On March 5th, 2026, days before International Women’s Day, the feminist collective Collera Red and the Contra Archivx Project (led by Lucila Rozas Urrunaga) staged “Las Justicias de Luto” in front of Lima's Supreme Court of Justice^[2]. Born from a transnational collaboration begun in 2024 (focused on how feminist knowledge and memory can be preserved, circulated, and activated through public performance), the action emerged from a series of collaborative laboratories held between January 24th and February 28th, 2026. These in-person gatherings brought together artists, activists, and researchers from across Lima to develop a critical, embodied intervention that would transform public space into a territory of memory and resistance: a collective act of mourning and denunciation in defense of the right to justice.

At the center of their demands stood the annulment of Law No. 32419, known as the "Amnesty Law," signed by former President Dina Boluarte and passed by Congress in 2025with the backing of Fuerza Popular, Alianza para el Progreso, Renovación Popular, and several other parties. The law grants amnesty to members of the Armed Forces, the National Police, and self-defense committees for crimes against humanity committed during Peru's internal armed conflict (1980–2000). National and international bodies, including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International, have condemned it as a direct violation of Peru's international obligations, warning that it blocks the investigation and prosecution of forced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture, and sexual violence. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), the conflict left approximately 70,000 people dead, the majority from Quechua-speaking indigenous and peasant communities. More than two decades later, hundreds of cases remain in judicial proceedings — avenues this law now threatens to permanently close.

Though the law does not formally cover the fatal state repression of the 2022–2023 social protests in southern Peru (during which more than 50 people were killed and hundreds were injured following the removal of President Pedro Castillo), it sets a grave precedent for impunity. Over 50 prosecutorial investigations into state agents, including former President Boluarte herself, remain ongoing, and this amnesty casts a long shadowover their future.

The gender dimension of this violence cannot be overlooked. The CVR documented the systematic use of sexual violence during the conflict, primarily targeting indigenous and peasant women. Forced sterilizations carried out during the 1990s remain largely unresolved in the courts. Only very few cases, such as that of Celia Ramos (one of their fatal victims), have reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, with the reading of the ruling scheduled for that same March 5th. This historical impunity reveals a continuum of structural violence against women's bodies that persists today through femicide, trafficking, and sexual violence, with the state acting as both enabler and perpetrator.

Notes

1. i University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for Communication. Author email: [email protected]

   ↑

2. More information about ContraArchivx and the performance Las Justicias de Luto can be found in the Instagram pages @contra.archivx, @collerared and @lasjusticias.peru

   ↑