Who is José Williams Zapata, the ex-military elected president of the Peruvian Congress?

The congressman of Avanza País (right), José Williams Zapata, was elected as president of the Peruvian Congress for the period 2022-2023.

He is remembered as the head of the military operation that freed 72 hostages held captive at the Japanese Embassy in Lima in 1997.

“Today, I was elected president of the Congress of Peru for the period 2022-2023; my commitment is with the entire Peruvian population; I will work to achieve the welfare and satisfaction of the most urgent needs of the Peruvian people,” Williams Zapata communicated on his Twitter account.

Williams Zapata was elected to preside over the Board of Directors with 67 votes in favor. The other candidate, Congressman Luis Aragón of Acción Popular, obtained 41 votes. There were also three blank votes and 13 null votes.

Both candidates, Aragón and Williams Zapata, were the most voted in the first round, with 52 and 21 votes respectively, ahead of Congressmen Carlos Zeballos (Integridad y Desarrollo), José Balcázar (Perú Bicentenario), José Elías (Podemos), and Guido Bellido (Perú Libre).

As none of them obtained a simple majority, the presidency was defined in the second round of voting, with the known results.

The Peruvian president, Pedro Castillo, greeted the new head of Congress via Twitter, wishing him success in his administration and extending an invitation “to dialogue and work on the issues that need to be resolved in favor of Peruvians”.

“I invite him to meet with me so that together, both the Executive and the Legislative, we can give concrete answers to the needs of the people and, if possible, travel around the country,” Castillo added.

WILLIAM ZAPATA’S MILITARY BACKGROUND

José Daniel Williams Zapata was born in Lima on November 9, 1951, and is 70 years old.

He is a retired military officer with the rank of Major General. He studied at the Military School of Chorrillos Coronel Francisco Bolognesi, from where he graduated with a degree in Military Sciences.

He also holds a master’s degree in Development and National Defense from the Centro de Altos Estudios Nacionales (CAEN). Between 2009 and 2012, he served as academic director of CAEN.

He served in the Peruvian Army during the Internal Armed Conflict (1980-2000), a period during which the State forces confronted the terrorist organization Sendero Luminoso and the guerrilla organization Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, both extreme leftists.

Although he was acquitted, Williams Zapata has been implicated in the Accomarca massacre of August 14, 1985, in which Peruvian soldiers killed 69 peasants in operation against an alleged Shining Path base.

In 1997 Williams was head of the military operation Chavín de Huántar, which freed 72 hostages held captive by the MRTA in the Japanese embassy in Lima after 126 days of captivity.

AGAINST CORRUPTION

In his speech after taking office, Williams Zapata assured: “We must watch over the needs, aspirations, challenges, and concerns of all Peruvians, which requires us to be in tune with their problems and provide them with solutions within the scope of our competence.”

Williams Zapata was elected to preside over the Congress following the dismissal of his predecessor, Lady Camones, after the Plenary of the Congress voted to censure the parliamentarian on September 5.

Camones’ dismissal occurred after local media published audios of conversations between the former president of Congress and businessman César Acuña.

In the audios, Camones commits to accelerating the creation of a district in the Department of La Libertad at the request of Acuña, whom the congresswoman’s management favored electorally in the regional elections of next October, where he is running for governor.

“The fight against corruption, wherever it comes from, is our commitment. In that sense, from the Presidency of the Congress, as it corresponds, we are diligent in collaborating in everything that the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Judiciary require for the fulfillment of their functions so that from the Parliament, justice and the fight against impunity are guaranteed,” assured the parliamentarian in his speech.

With information from Sputnik