Yehude Simon

Early life and family

Born in Lima to a family of Arab and Italian descent, Simon's family moved to the city of Chiclayo to establish a shoe retail business. After completing his early education at the Colegio Manuel Pardo, he joined the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the Universidad Nacional Pedro Ruiz Gallo, in the city of Lambayeque, where he later was a lecturer. He married Nancy Valcárcel, a Chiclayo painter with whom he had four children: Jessica, Yehuda, and Yusef Yail and four grandchildren: David, Micaela, Joaquín and Isabella.

Beginning in politics: 1980s

Yehuda Simon began his political activity in 1983, when he applied for the post of Mayor of prosperous Chiclayo by the party United Left, and was placed second. In 1985 he applied to the Chamber of Deputies by United Left, was elected MP for Lambayeque (1985-1990), integrating the Committees on Justice and Human Rights Congress.

In 1991, he founded the Free Patriotic Movement, who was accused of being the legal wing of the MRTA (Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement) rebel movement, famous for the 1996 Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Lima. On 5 April 1992, Simon was in Europe, participating in conferences. Upon learning of the breakdown of the constitutional President Alberto Fujimori he returned to Peru and decided to participate in the protest against the closure of the Congress of Peru.

Imprisonment

On 11 June 1992 he was arrested along with other leaders of Patria Libre, and accused of being a subversive. Later that year he was sentenced by the judiciary to 20 years of imprisonment for the crime of "glorification of terrorism." During his eight and a half years in prison, human rights organizations, Amnesty International, some media and some opposition Peruvian politicians demanded that the Fujimori regime pardon him.

Post-imprisonment: governor and Prime Minister

After being cleared of all charges, Simon served as governor of the prosperous Lambayeque Region.

Since July 2008 he has been the president of the moderate center-left Peruvian Humanist Party.

On 14 October 2008, Simon was sworn in as President of the Peruvian Minister Cabinet, a position akin to that of a Prime Minister. President Alan García had appointed Simon, who is politically to the left of García, in an effort to mollify the country's poor and nationalists who are considered "hard-line leftists" by the right-wing Peruvian parties.

Resignation

In June 2009, Simon announced that he would resign as prime minister "in the coming weeks", following violence over the land rights of Amazon Indians. He resigned on 10 July 2009 and was replaced on 12 July 2009 by Ángel Javier Velásquez Quesquén.

Simon went on to apologize to the indigenous people, acknowledging the government had not properly consulted with the Amazon Indians prior to passing ten controversial laws, designed to ease foreign companies in the exploration of the Amazon for oil, gas and lumber. Simon pledged to work to persuade the Peruvian congress to repeal these controversial laws. Peru's indigenous leaders had launched protest strikes and blockades in April 2009; resulting in 34 persons killed, including 23 policemen; in bloody clashes between the Amazon Indians and the Peruvian police.

Congressman

In the general election, 2011 Simon was elected Congressman for Lambayeque on the list of the Alliance for the Great Change to which Simon's Humanist Party has integrated.