Afro-Peruvian - Government Apology

Government Apology

In November 2009, the Peruvian government issued an official apology to Peru's Afro-Peruvian people for centuries of racial injustice; it was the first such apology ever made by the government. The apology, announced by Women's and Social Development Minister Nidia Vilchez, was initially published in the official newspaper El Peruano. The apology said:

We extend a historical apology to Afro-Peruvian people for the abuse, exclusion and discrimination perpetrated against them since the colonial era until the present.

Vilchez says the government hopes its apology will help promote the "true integration of all Peru's multicultural population."

The government acknowledged that some discrimination persists against Afro-Peruvians, who make up 5-10% of the population of the country. The government's initial statement said, "The government recognizes and regrets that vestiges of racially-motivated harassment are still present, which represent a hindrance to social, economic, labor and educational development of the population at large." Monica Carrillo of the Center for Afro-Peruvian Studies and Promotion indicates that 27 percent of Afro-Peruvians finish high school and just 2 percent get higher or technical education. Although Peru is not the first Latin American government to apologize to its population, it is the first to acknowledge present-day discrimination. Although some human rights groups lauded the government's acknowledgement, other experts criticized the apology overall for failing to reference slavery or promise a change in the status quo.

The public ceremony for the apology held on 7 December 2009 in the Great Dining Room of the Government Palace, with the presence of President Garcia, Minister of Women and Social Development, Nidia Vilchez, the only Afro Peruvian Congress member Martha Moyano, along with the former mayor of El Carmen, Hermes Palma-Quiroz, and the founder of the Black Movement Francisco Congo, Paul Colino-Monroy.

In the ceremony, President Garcia said:

We are here together for an unusual act without precedent, to apologize to the Afro Peruvian people but most deeply pardon to the Black race, that our voice can be heard in the countries inflicted with the slavery commerce, which tore so many men and women, millions of them, and took them away to the ends of the planet to work in plantations.