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Rosario Ponce, a college student suspect of murdering her boyfriend Ciro Castillo, has become one of Peru's most hated persons. She hasn't been proved guilty. (Photos:Adrián Portugal)

By SANDRO MAIRATA  Channel: Latin American Affairs

It’s a common Peruvian custom to burn a New Year’s effigy – a doll made of old clothing that people sometimes dress up to resemble infamous local characters.

This year, the Peruvian effigies have two best sellers: one is of the fallen Second Vice President of Peru, Omar Chehade, suspended for 120 days under charges of corruption. The second is of a 28-year-old college student, Rosario Ponce, who is considered by almost everybody in the country to be guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Ciro Castillo, by throwing him off of a cliff, ultimately managing to fool justice and get away with it.

Next December 24th, Peruvian justice will reveal the results of the preliminary investigation. But public opinion has already a verdict of its own.

“She’s a liar,” said a woman interviewed on the street for national TV.

“Rosario has surpassed any sales expectations,” said a storeowner in the same interview, referring to the effigies portraying her. “I’ve sold 120 so far.”

Interestingly, it could be claimed that the Peruvian media convinced their audience of Ponce's guilt, even when local justice has proved unable to find any conclusive evidence of such claim.

I. The Girlfriend

Ponce lives in an upper-middle class neighborhood in La Molina, a district half an hour from downtown Lima. She is a short, somewhat chubby girl, who welcomed us into her home for an hour-long interview wearing a shiny fuchsia sports sweater, jeans, and grey sneakers with equally shiny yellow stripes, as if in a teenager's fashion. She even looks like one, bearing a pretty, childish face. 

After being referred to as a "murderer" and a "liar" for seven months for a crime that she claims she did not commit, Rosario Ponce took some time to sit down and speak with us at her house. (Photo: Adrián Portugal)

When Ponce speaks, however, she likes to throw in phrases with an underlying dark, airy resonance.

“This has been always like a movie to me, a lamely-written movie,” she said. “But we need to consider that many journalists in this country have a large imagination, thus they’re able to create a movie filled with crime, murder, passion.”

After an early April trekking adventure in the Peruvian highlands of Arequipa went wrong, both Ponce and Castillo were reported lost. They were passionate about nature, falling for each other at Peru’s National Agricultural University (Universidad Nacional Agraria), both taking care of Santiago, Rosario’s little baby from a previous relationship. A few weeks after their families pressed the authorities to strengthen their search efforts, Ponce was found, but Castillo was not.

Ponce was found April 13, severely dehydrated, cheeks and lips bruised by the highlands’ dryness. She said she had been eating insects and drinking her own urine to survive. 

Shortly after being rescued, Ponce gave a first glimpse of her unique psyche, failing to show any interest – from a Peruvian news media’s point of view, at least – in her boyfriend’s fate.

“Who won the (presidential) elections?” Ponce famously asked her rescuers. The odd, unexpected question was quoted over and over in the Peruvian press, becoming the kick-start of a country’s obsession with her and El Caso Ciro, The Ciro Affair.

Over the course of seven months, Rosario Ponce went from miracle survivor to murder suspect, locking herself at home, while Castillo’s father, Ciro Castillo Sr. or Dr. Ciro as journalists like to call him, rose as the leading voice in the case against his son’s girlfriend. 

“She wants to remain free of charges by saying that my son ran away,” he said in September.

“She shows an unbelievable cynicism,” claimed Dr. Ciro in October.

“Rosario lies in a calculated manner,” he insisted in November.

Ponce finally chose to fight back, engaging in a media war against his boyfriend's father. After nearly 200 days of intense search, Ciro’s body was found at the bottom of a cliff, 1400 m. below. 

II. The Media

Ojo (Spanish for “eye”) is one of the largest national newspapers, and a pioneer of the local tabloid press. It kept running front stories about the Ciro Affair even after the authorities found no conclusive evidence of Rosario Ponce's involvement in Ciro Castillo's death.

“It’s an impressing, emblematic story,” Víctor Ramírez, Ojo’s editor-in-chief, told Univision News. In Ramírez’s view, Dr. Ciro’s stubbornness and Ponce’s disregard for Ciro’s fate were the key elements to drive the media into a frenzy.

What's more: invigorated by his newfound fame, in recent weeks Dr. Ciro has announced his launching of a political career. "Man is political animal," he said, using the famous Aristotle quote. "Whoever disagrees (with that) should be sent down in the zoological scale." 

“It has all the elements for a perfect story," Ramírez added. "The father running up and down the highlands, yelling at everybody. The firefighters, the police speaking about it ... then along came the Mexican Moles.”

Ramírez refers to a special Mexican rescue unit called the Tlaltelolco Moles Rescue Unit, (Brigada de Rescate Topos Tlaltelolco A.C.), which tracked Ponce and Castillo's trail, accessing difficult zones and providing leads to Castillo’s body's location. They also had enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame by showing up to receive a donation from the Peruvian version of Dancing with the Stars.

But Ojo, along with many others, kept printing eye-catching headlines, giving voice to anyone who had something to say, even if irrelevant to the case.

“Ciro had another girlfriend,” printed Ojo on Nov. 16. In another occasion, one morning show presented a physic who claimed there was “a third person involved” in supposedly murdering Castillo. Many headlines followed around the claim. Headlines and cover stories bear titles as “Ciro had been drugged,” and “Rosario never loved Ciro,” feeding up a country's morbid hunger while providing a diversion from everyday politic news.

Patricia Wiesse, director of Institute for Legal Defense's Revista Ideele, told us that if there's one to blame for the whole media circus, certainly Rosario Ponce "is the one who contributed to all of this.” 

Wiesse wrote an extensive analysis of the Ciro Affair, pouring over three months-worth of national newspaper covers (Perú21, Trome – both owned by Grupo El Comercio – La República, and El Popular), and following national TV network Panamericana’s news shows 24 Horas and Noticiero Panamericana TV. 

She found that with some 32 covers and 181 stories on the case, Trome – at one point in 2009, the world’s most read newspaper – had turned its readers against Ponce, shifting its tone from early romantic support for her (“I’ll be back for you, my love,” read a Trome cover story), to straight forward accusations: “Rosario, where’s Ciro?,” “Rosario on the run,” and “Tell me if you killed my son,” to name a few.

Many have ridiculed and denounced Ponce's decision to participate in a fashion show, donning a black and white striped dress that reminded many of traditional prison grab. (Photo: PeruFail.com)

“(Ponce) exhibited erratic behavior,” Wiesse said. “And the media has created a new urban myth. (...) She now wants people to end the focus on her, and she wants to fight back against the media that declared her guilty, but its her who always stays on the spotlight. Then, she announces she’s writing a book about her experience - and then she goes modeling for a fashion show.”

Wiesse refers to the Nov. 24 fashion night that became a bizarre summary of Ponce’s worst decisions. She wore a white dress with black horizontal stripes, resembling the classic penitentiary outfit. The fashion designer’s name was also at odds with any PR strategy: Ciro Taipe.

“I haven’t seen it but I think it’s a mockery and it shows a lack of respect,” said Tilsa Lozano, a popular model.

For all the criticism surrounding her, Rosario stands by her innocence, and speaks of suing all the media that damaged her honor. Local lawyers have publicly agreed she might have a defamation case, but individuals such as Ricardo Trotti, Director for Press Freedom at the Inter American Press Association, don’t see support from institutions such as his as a viable option.

“The IAPA cannot be involved in matters of ethics inside each newspaper,” he told Univision News. “(Rosario Ponce) needs to address Peruvian institutions.”

                                                        *  *  *

Rosario Ponce said she now wants to go back to college, get her book published, and move on with her life. Still, she says her actions were mostly based on her strong temper, something that, in her view, alienated Peru’s macho culture.

“Why can’t a woman be stronger than a man?,” she asked herself.

“There are many papers which printed headlines with my name and photo on them, calling me ‘murderer’ and ‘liar,’ and after a whole seven moths the press realizes, 'Oh, this girl never lied, this girl never killed anyone.' What have we done for the past seven months?

“And now they want to clean themselves, so to speak, now the newspapers want to clean themselves by saying: ‘It’s just that she didn’t want to speak to us.’ But is that an excuse to call someone a murderer? I don’t think so.”

Ponce spent some time showing us her file of news articles, posing for some portraits, and then led us to the door.

Before we left, Ponce had a question for us.