Peruvian Minister Apologizes for Downplaying Sexual Violence Against Indigenous Minors
A school in an Awajun community in Peru. Photo: X/ @larepublica_pe
June 20, 2024 Hour: 12:48 pm
Over 500 teachers sexually abused Amazonian Indigenous girls and boys, many of whom were infected with HIV.
On Thursday, Peruvian Education Minister Morgan Quero apologized for statements in which he described child rape cases in Indigenous communities in the Amazon as “cultural practices.”
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Last week, the newspaper La Republica reported on over 500 complaints of sexual harassment and abuse by teachers against elementary and high school students between 2010 and 2024.
These incidents took place in Condorcanqui, a province in the Amazon region, where some minors from the Awajun indigenous community had even been infected with HIV.
When journalists asked Quero about the Awajun cases, he stated that his ministry would work on “some kind of solution,” implying that what happened could be considered “a cultural practice.”
Following public outrage over these statements, the Education Minister later issued a statement saying his words had been misinterpreted and that “there is no justification whatsoever for such atrocious acts” as those that occurred in Awajun schools and residences.
“These apologies involve acknowledging my mistake in expressing myself inappropriately and inaccurately last week in those unacceptable statements,” Quero reaffirmed today, asking for forgiveness from the Awajun Amazonian community through Raquel Caicat, the vice president of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples.
“We have already dismissed six teachers who had been accused of sexual harassment and had been dismissed at the time but were now being rehired by other educational centers,” he added.
Quero requested that the Prosecutor’s Office reopen investigations into cases that had been closed and indicated that his institution is “working to improve” regulations in the education sector.
Source: EFE
teleSUR/ JF
