Eliane Karp

Eliane Chantal Karp Fernenbug (Paris, September 24, 1953) is a Belgian scientist and anthropologist of Jewish descent, wife of the former president of Peru, Alejandro Toledo. She served as First Lady from July 2001 to July 2006.

In the academic field, she has been a professor at the Center for Advanced Studies for Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, at the Institute of Ibero-America at the University of Salamanca and at George Washington University. She currently works as a professor in the Department of Anthropological Sciences at Stanford University.

Biography

His father, Charles Karp, was born in Poland and his mother, Eva Fernenbug, in Belgium. Her father, a Jew, escaped from the Gestapo and was a member of the French Resistance during World War II.

Karp finished his secondary education at the Lycée Français de Bruxelles (1971) and obtained a bachelor's degree in Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he specialized in Latin American Studies. He then traveled to the United States where he obtained a master's degree in Anthropology and also completed doctoral studies in Anthropology at Stanford University.

Karp has followed studies on indigenous communities at the National Autonomous University of Mexico; Just as he has also studied anthropology and economic development at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

In 1980, he began working for organizations such as OAS, UNICEF and UNDP where he carried out studies measuring the impact of development projects on indigenous populations. Two years later, she began her work at the Lima-based Agency for International Development USAID, where she was a consultant until 1987.

From November 1987, she worked at the World Bank in Washington headquarters as Project Officer for the Latin American and African regions until 1992, when she moved to Luxembourg to work at the European Investment Bank as Officer in Charge from the Middle East.

He lived in Cajamarca, from September 1995 to March 1997, where he was Manager of the International Division of Banco Leumi.

He returned to Lima in 1997 to work at Banco Sudameris as Manager of Agroindustrial Businesses.

He has taught at different houses of study, such as Stanford University, University of Salamanca and George Washington University.

Karp speaks more than nine languages, including French, English, Hebrew, Spanish, Flemish, Quechua, Portuguese.

Marriage to Alejandro Toledo

At Stanford University, she met and married Alejandro Toledo on January 20, 1979, in Sunnyvale, California, USA. The couple separated in 1988 and divorced in 1992; years later they remarried. They have a daughter named Chantal between them.

Political activity

In the 2000 and 2001 election campaigns, Karp campaigned intensely for Toledo, including in Quechua, which analysts say helped Toledo's electoral campaign.

At a rally in the city of Huaraz, Karp said that the apus (mountains worshiped by the Incas) had spoken and that the election of Toledo as president would break a five-hundred-year curse. His opponents and analysts considered this action an abuse of indigenous traditions.

In the 2011 elections, where Toledo ran as a candidate for the presidency, Karp's participation was minimal, among other reasons, due to the recommendation of Toledo's advisers and the opinion of several members of Perú Posible such as Carlos Bruce.

First Lady

When she became the First Lady of Peru, she promised to reorganize Lima's elite. She was characterized by constant clashes with the press, and by strong statements against the press, political parties and other sectors of society.

In 2002, she was criticized because she had a consulting position at Banco Wiese Sudameris, which was considered incompatible with her performance as First Lady of the Nation, for which she was forced to resign from said consulting position on August 15, 2002.

In May 2002, Karp completed the procedures to acquire Peruvian nationality and in September of the same year a symbolic ceremony was held in Chinchero, Cuzco in which Karp received the naturalization documents.

In October 2002, Karp received the Bartolomé de las Casas Award from the Secretary of State for International Cooperation of Spain, the jury awarded the prize to the first lady for her determined career in the defense and recognition of the rights of the indigenous peoples of Peru. Karp traveled to Madrid in April 2003 to receive the award from the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbón.

On February 21, 2005, she gave a speech at George Washington University, defending the coca leaf policy of her husband's administration. She pointed out its long traditional use in indigenous culture, and that the coca leaf could never be completely eradicated because, in recent years, drug traffickers pay a high price for it to be cultivated.

During his tenure, he promoted and led exhibitions of Peruvian Inca pieces in different museums around the world such as the Petit Palais in Paris, the National Museum of China in Beijing, the MARQ in Alicante, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Washington D.C. headquarters of National Geographic.

Together with the First Lady of Mexico, Martha Sahagún, and the First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush, she promoted the exhibition Divine and Human, which sought to highlight the role of women in the social, political and religious of the pre-Hispanic civilizations. The exhibition was held at the Desamparados Cultural Station in downtown Lima, at the National Museum of Anthropology of Mexico, and at the National Museum of Women Artists in Washington D.C.

Lava Jato and Capture Order

The coordinator of the Lava Jato Special Team, Rafael Vela, reported that the extradition request of the former first lady, Eliane Karp, was approved in the first instance in the criminal proceeding for the ecoveda case. Vela Barba maintained that the Lava Jato Special Team Jato is trying to make as much progress as possible in the investigations under his charge, but he warned that many times the legal defenses of the accused behave "bordering on malicious procedural conduct." Finally, he indicated that this situation is plausible in the investigation of former President Ollanta Humala, in which, he affirmed, the Prosecutor's Office had the opportunity to accuse him since last year, but that the challenges and other procedural mechanisms presented by his legal defense prevented.

CONAPA

Shortly after the start of the government, Toledo created the National Commission of Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian Peoples (Conapa), on October 5, 2001, as a government body that, according to its own statutes, should promote the development and integration of peoples in extreme poverty, in this commission, Karp served as honorary president. The agency was intended to establish a development agenda for indigenous communities, provide representation of indigenous interests in government, and lead the way to rescue multiculturalism and make constitutional reforms. According to Karp, CONAPA was created with the objective of being a "dialogue and conflict prevention table with equal representation of indigenous representatives and delegates from all ministries."

Some critics saw the very creation of the Commission as a step backwards for indigenous Peruvians, considering its leadership by a person without an official place in government rather than a head of Ministry. The commission also absorbed the former SETAI (Office of Indian Affairs). Karp resigned from CONAPA, which was later restructured as INDEPA, a national institute rather than a commission.

Pieces of Machu Picchu

During the Toledo presidency, Karp participated in negotiations with Yale University for the return of more than 350 indigenous artifacts. The museum pieces were excavated at Machu Picchu around 1915 and sent to Yale on a twelve-month loan. On this matter, Peru had the support of the National Geographic Society and United States Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut; Despite this, the negotiations stalled when the university refused to recognize Peru as the sole owners of the artifacts, but they resumed under the presidency of Alan García.

In an article published in The New York Times, Karp criticized Yale University's delay in handing over the pieces of Machu Picchu.

Social and indigenous agenda

Karp has maintained a position for years regarding the promotion of social inclusion and equality with indigenous peoples. In the same way, he has denounced what he calls a "problem of racism and sectarianism" that continues to exist among the wealthy classes of Peru, demanding the creation of a state entity to combat social discrimination.

Recently, in the framework of the conference "Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples", organized by Stanford University, Karp called for a debate on the situation of indigenous communities in Peru, criticizing the lack of of official consideration towards them, in what he has called the "failure of the regulation of the Prior Consultation Law and the obvious manipulation of an institution (Indepa) that should serve to articulate our points of view and ways of conceive development". In this regard, Karp questioned the attitude of the administration of President Ollanta Humala.

Acknowledgments

• 2011: Honorary Professor at San Antonio de Cuzco University, Peru.
• 2011: Merito a la Labor Award “D. Emilio Castelar 2011”
• 2003: Order of the Fifth Sun (Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y del Caribe).
• 2002: Bartolomé de las Casas España Award.
• 2001: Lady of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Spain.

Honoris Causa Doctorates

• 2011: Doctorate Honoris Causa of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos: “In merit to its scientific and academic qualities, as well as its valuable contribution in the promotion and preservation of the cultural heritage of the peoples of Peru. ”
• 2011: Doctorate Honoris Causa of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega University: “for his excellent work and personal, professional and academic career. ”

Posts

Books

• Karp de Toledo, Eliane: “Invisible Peru”. 2015.

• Karp de Toledo, Eliane: “Indigenous peoples on the democratic agenda”. Case studies of Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru - Book published by the Andean Development Corporation, 2006. (See more)

• Karp de Toledo, Eliane: “Allin Kausaynapaq, Interculturality and Participation: To Live Better With Us”. Office of the First Lady of the Nation. Lima, 22 May 2006. (See more)

• Karp de Toledo, Eliane: “The Cultural Diversity and Citizens of the Sun and the Moon – Proposals for social inclusion and development with identity of the indigenous peoples of Peru”. Office of the First Lady of the Nation. Lima, 30 November 2004.

• Karp de Toledo, Eliane and Lema Tucker, Linda (editoras): "The Indigenous Debate. Contributions for Constitutional Reform", presented at the Congress of the Republic of Peru. Office of the First Lady of the Nation. Lima, April 2003.

• Karp de Toledo, Eliane: “Towards a New Nation, Kay Pachamanta”. Office of the First Lady of the Nation. Lima, July 2002. Second edition, October 2002. Third Edition, June 2003. (See more)

Magazines and catalogues

• 9 magazines “Concerting for change”, edited and prepared by the Office of the First Lady since 2001, under the direction of Eliane Karp de Toledo.

• 3 catalogues published by the Ministry of Education (2001-2006), alluding to the 3 samples presented at the Displaced Cultural Station.

• 2 catalogues published by Fundación Telefónica del Perú (2001-2006), alluding to the revaluation of archaeological sites and to a sample at the Estación Cultural Desamparados.

• 1 catalogue published by the Fund Contravalor Peru – France, in the book “Choquequirao: The Mystery of the Flames of the Sun and the Worship of the Apus”.

• Catalogues published by the Office of the First Lady, alluding to the ethnic and cultural diversity of Peru.

• Prologue of the catalogue published by AFP Integra, as a posthumous tribute to photographer Renzo Ucelli.