The Peruvian prosecutor's office seeking over five years in prison for left-wing presidential candidate Roberto Sánchez right before a runoff election looks less like justice and more like a political hit job. Charging a candidate before voters even get a chance to weigh in is a brazen attempt to override democracy itself. Peru's institutions are being weaponized against the left, and this pattern of lawfare has been going on long enough to have a name.
Prosecuting Sánchez right now is almost certainly going to backfire — the conversation has already shifted from his alleged financial crimes to why the prosecutor's office waited until election season to act. When justice arrives late and in politically charged moments, the accused stops looking like a wrongdoer and starts looking like a martyr. Even Keiko Fujimori is raising alarms about the judiciary becoming a political actor, and that says everything.
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