Martha Chávez

Martha Gladys Chávez Cossío de Ocampo (born 12 January 1953) is a Peruvian politician and lawyer. A prominent figure of Fujimorism, she has served in Congress from 1995 to 2006, 2011 to 2016, and 2020 to 2021. In the 2006 elections, she was the presidential candidate for the Fujimorist Alliance for the Future ticket, placing fourth in the election. She is currently a senatorial candidate in the 2026 elections.

Education and professional career From 1970 to 1976, Martha Chávez studied law at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. From 1986 to 1988 she studied additionally for a master's degree in international economic law. From 1984 to 1992, she worked as an associate lawyer for a Limean law firm. From 2006 to 2010 she lectured on a part-time base at the private University San Juan Bautista.

Political career

Writing the Peruvian Constitution After Alberto Fujimori's self-coup on April 5, 1992, Martha Chávez was elected as a member of the Democratic Constitutional Congress in 1992, which wrote a new constitution in aftermath of the 1992 Peruvian Constitutional Crisis. Chávez personally introduced the clauses of the Peruvian Constitution that allowed Fujimori to run for a second term and suggested that she might attempt to abolish all term limits on the presidency. Chávez was the first woman to be elected President of the Congress of Peru in 1995.

Congresswoman and party politics Chávez was first elected to Congress in 1995. She was the first woman to be elected President of the Congress in 1995 for the 1995–1996 term. She was suspended from active duty as a congresswoman in June 2001 due to charges of corruption. From 1998 to 2004, she was secretary-general of the Fujimorist New Majority, and from 2004 to 2011 chairwoman of the Fujimorist New Majority party.

2000 Presidential elections

During the 2000 elections in Peru, Chávez suggested that Fujimori would dissolve Congress if Peru 2000 did not win a majority of seats. On December 1, 2011, she rejoined the Congress of the Republic after 120 days of suspension.

During this congressional period, Chávez chaired the Labor and Social Security Commission (2014-2015) and was secretary of the Justice Commission (2013-2014). In addition, he was a member of the National Defense and Internal Order, Constitution and Regulation, Justice and Human Rights commissions, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations.

In this management, he is part of the Constitution and Regulation, Justice and Human Rights and Intelligence commissions. In the same way, it belongs to the Permanent Commission and to the Subcommittee of Constitutional Accusations; as well as the parliamentary leagues between Italy, Indonesia, Russia, China and Morocco.

In the 2020 snap parliamentary election, she returned to Congress after a brief 4-year absence on the Fuerza Popular list, representing Lima to complete the 2016–2021 term. She took office on 16 March 2020.

In September 2020, Chávez voted to declare the vacancy due to moral incapacity of former president Martín Vizcarra in the first unsuccessful vacancy process.

In November 2020, Chávez again voted in favor of the vacancy for moral incapacity of Martín Vizcarra in the second presidential vacancy process. The vacancy was approved by 105 parliamentarians on November 9, 2020.

In the vote on the resignation of Manuel Merino, Chávez was the only one who voted against since he considered that Merino should continue to be President.

Controversies

"La Cantuta" Investigation One of her most controversial actions as congresswoman happened while the La Cantuta massacre case was making headlines in Peru. During the investigations and legal procedures, it was revealed that at least 10 people were kidnapped and killed by the Peruvian military. Chávez responded by introducing a law that prohibited the judicial powers from calling low-level military officials to testify in court cases. The resolution passed after opposition lawmakers walked out of Congress in protest.

The case was dismissed on the pretext that because the location of the bodies of the murdered students and professors was unknown, the courts had no way of knowing if they ever actually existed. Chávez stated that the students must have staged their own kidnapping.

"Ley Colán" Chávez introduced the controversial "Ley Colán" (Colán's Law) which mandates that in the event of a tie in the Democratic Constitutional Congress, seniority would be used to determine the winner. The Constitutional Democratic Congress had recently come to a tie as to whether or not the Attorney General, Blanca Nelida Colán, could serve a second term despite a constitutional provision that explicitly mandated that the position be filled by the Prosecutor's Board. Because those who voted for Colán to fill the position had the most seniority, Chávez's bill effectively handed Colán the position. (The Democratic Constitutional Congress was working on a new Constitution at that time, and the Constitution of 1979 had been suspended by Fujimori). Colán was later imprisoned for corruption.

Comments on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights Chávez controversially characterized the judges on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as leftist terrorist-sympathizers.