Marianella Leonor Ledesma Narváez (born 5 May 1963) is a

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

vian jurist who served as the President of the

Constitutional Court of Peru The Peruvian Constitutional Court or Constitutional Tribunal is an independent constitutional agency of Peru that was established in the 1993 Constitution of Peru that was created during the government of Alberto Fujimori. The court's members ar ...

from 2020 to 2022.

Early life and early career

Ledesma was born in Trujillo in 1963. She is the daughter of , a senator who founded the

Worker Peasant Student and Popular Front The Worker Peasant Student and Popular Front () or FOCEP is a political party in Peru. It was founded as a broad front in 1977 by a group around Genaro Ledesma Izquieta, Socialist Workers Party, Peruvian Communist Party (Red Flag) and Revolutio ...

party in 1977. She earned her master's degree in 1996 from the

University of San Martín de Porres The University of San Martin de Porres (USMP) is a private nonprofit university located in the city of Lima, Peru. It was founded by the Dominican Order of the Catholic Church in 1962. History The Dominican foundation: Pro Deo T ...

, and her doctorate in 1999 from the

National University of San Marcos The National University of San Marcos (, UNMSM) is a public university, public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. In the Americas, it is the first officially established (Privilege (legal ethics), privilege by Charles V, ...

. Ledesma has also studied in Spain, undertaking postgraduate study at the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca () is a public university, public research university in Salamanca, Spain. Founded in 1218 by Alfonso IX of León, King Alfonso IX, it is the oldest university in the Hispanic world and the fourth oldest in the ...

in 2001. Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, Ledesma held a succession of positions in the legal field; after completing her law degree, she served as a judge at the Superior Court of Justice of Lima, a position she held until her appointment to the Constitutional Court.

Magistracy

In 2014, Ledesma was nominated to the Constitutional Court by the

Peru Wins Peru Wins (, GP) was a leftist electoral alliance in Peru formed for the 2011 general election. It was dominated by the Peruvian Nationalist Party and led by successful presidential candidate Ollanta Humala Tasso. Constituent parties *Peruvia ...

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

; she was subsequently elected by a 99–1 vote, with 19 abstentions. She was the second woman to be appointed to the Constitutional Court of Peru, after . As a magistrate of the Constitutional Court, Ledesma has voted against granting ''habeas corpus'' in high-profile cases of preventative detention, including in the cases of

Ollanta Humala Ollanta Moisés Humala Tasso (; born 27 June 1962) is a Peruvian politician and former military officer who served as president of Peru from 2011 to 2016. Originally a socialist and left-wing nationalist, he is considered to have shifted towar ...

in 2018 and

Keiko Fujimori Keiko Sofía Fujimori Higuchi (, , Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: , ; born 25 May 1975) is a Peruvian politician and business administrator. Fujimori is the eldest daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori and Susana Higuchi. From ...

in 2020. She was also the only member of the Court to vote against finding the Mulder Act, which regulates the government's advertising spending, to be unconstitutional. In December 2019, Ledesma was elected President of the Constitutional Court. She took office in January 2020, succeeding in this position. She was the first woman to be elected to this position. At her inaugural speech, Ledesma stated that her goal as President of the court was to protect the rights of the people, giving particular emphasis to women and the poor. In 2021, the Constitutional Court of Peru was divided into First and Second Chambers; however, as the president of the court, Ledesma was not placed into either chamber initially. The death of

Carlos Ramos Núñez Carlos Ramos Núñez (15 September 1960 – 21 September 2021) was a Peruvian jurist and academic. He was a justice of the Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main au ...

in September 2021 created a vacancy in the First Chamber, though, and Ledesma was then appointed to the First Chamber to fill that vacancy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledesma, Marianella 1963 births Peruvian jurists People from Trujillo, Peru Living people