Profiles of Public Officials Involved in Reparations and the Search for the Disappeared from Peru's Internal Armed Conflict (2016-2024)

Two decades after Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2001-2003) concluded its work and the High-Level Multisectoral Commission was established in 2004 to oversee reparations for victims of the internal armed conflict (1980-2000), the country finds itself under the rule of an authoritarian coalition hostile to human rights. Yet, within certain state institutions, a group of public officials continues to uphold these policies. We conceptualize these agencies as part of a subsystem dedicated to reparations and the search for the disappeared. This article examines the profiles of officials working within Peru's Vice Ministry of Human Rights and Access to Justice, both in Lima and Ayacucho—the region that endured the highest concentration of human rights violations during the conflict. Although these actors have received little attention in the Peruvian literature, which has largely focused on the economic sector, their significance emerged clearly in our previous research through the testimonies of victims themselves. Drawing on a qualitative methodology, the study analyzes interviews conducted with public officials based in Lima and Ayacucho, leaders of victims' organizations in Ayacucho, and subject-matter experts. The findings reveal three distinct profiles of public officials—institutional-humanitarian, victim, and technical. While these groups share, to varying degrees, a commitment to human rights values, they differ in both their professional trajectories and life experiences. Some have stronger connections to Lima-based NGOs, whereas others are more closely linked to victims' organizations or technical and forensic institutions. Through their interactions in shared professional spaces, they have developed a collaborative thematic network whose members circulate among the different agencies within the subsystem on the basis of their professional credentials. By focusing on these actors, this article contributes to the Peruvian literature on bureaucracies, a field that has paid scant attention to the characteristics and career trajectories of mid-level bureaucrats, particularly those working in the justice sector. Empirically, the study highlights the diversity that exists within this segment of the state apparatus.