Special sexual harassment commission found allegations against Peruvian archaeologist and former culture minister Luis Jaime Castillo Butters to be highly credible. While the commission was unable to ask for disciplinary action for technical reasons, the survivors are fully vindicated. Nevertheless, Castillo is returning to teaching next month. [[UPDATED MARCH 2 WITH LINK TO PDF VERSION OF REPORT]]


Guilty as charged? Luis Jaime Castillo Butters


Last June, I was contacted by members of a women's collective based in Peru and the United States concerning allegations of sexual harassment and related abuses by archaeologist Luis Jaime Castillo Butters of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) in Lima. The allegations, which went back many years, concerned behavior that is typical of way too many men (and a few women) who reach positions of power in academia. Castillo, who had been vice-minister of culture for many years and was briefly the minister, is--or was--probably the most powerful archaeologist in Peru. The women's collective included colleagues who said they had been victims of his abuses.

Based on a number of interviews with survivors of Castillo's alleged abuses, I published a report on the matter last June 29, as part of a larger look at abuses in Andean archaeology. Even before the report was published, Castillo moved to attack both me and the survivors. He enlisted some of his allies in this intimidation campaign, while others, typical of sycophants everywhere, did not need to be prompted before they leapt to Castillo's defense. A major social media campaign erupted, which included mocking the survivors and accusing me, the reporter, of unethical conduct.

Castillo himself enlisted an attorney to threaten me and colleagues in Peru who had supported the survivors with legal action (his letter is included in the original report.) In addition, either Castillo himself, or a colleague, created a Twitter account in his name for the purpose of publicizing the legal threats against me:




In the face of the threats and the mocking, some of the survivors, in July 2020, bravely issued a detailed open letter to Castillo, countering his excuses and calling out his lies and those of his allies. I later had reason to call out the lies about me and my reporting, which were numerous.

(Castillo's reputation in Peru took another beating when I reported that he had allegedly tried to extort an honorary PhD from Yale University in connection with negotiations to return artifacts from Machu Picchu to Peru.)


As I continued my reporting and the survivors did their best to defend themselves from virulent attacks, PUCP began moving on a parallel, but confidential, track. Shortly after I published my first report last June, the university appointed a special commission on sexual harassment to look into the allegations. Over several months, the commissioners carried out a number of interviews (including with me), collected witness statements, interviewed Castillo, reviewed recordings of statements Castillo had made in his classes, and reviewed the relevant university regulations. On November 23 of last year, the commission issued its final report, which, in essence, found the allegations highly credible and noted contradictions in Castillo's versions of events; however, the commission also found that it did not have the power to recommend disciplinary action against Castillo, because the alleged abuses took place between 2007 and 2013, before the university adopted the appropriate anti-harassment guidelines in March 2016.

The report had remained confidential up until this month. Reportedly, the news that the university planned to return Castillo to teaching during the term beginning in March prompted some colleagues to begin circulating it, and it has now, inevitably, become public.

I am in possession of an authenticated pdf of the entire report, and I hope to be able to publish a version of it soon, once certain issues of protecting the survivors and other witnesses are resolved. In the meantime, however, a colleague has put screenshots of it on Twitter, and given that it is now public in that format, I would refer readers to that Twitter thread.

UPDATE MARCH 2, 2021: Here is a link to the original Spanish language version of the commission's report. This version strips out metadata that could identify vulnerable individuals, and is also redacted for that purpose. I hope to have an English translation of it available soon.

I should comment that the commission, which based much of its investigation on my original reporting, was able to confirm a great deal of what I published, despite legal and other threats from Castillo and his allies. This is obviously an ongoing story, one that many had hoped would be buried, along with the silencing of the survivors. Thanks to their bravery, and the determination of colleagues in Peru who want to study archaeology and other subjects free of harassment and abuse, Castillo and other abusers may still face their days of reckoning.


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51 Comments

Anonymous said…

“the commission also found that it did not have the power to recommend disciplinary action against Castillo, because the alleged abuses took place between 2007 and 2013, before the university adopted the appropriate anti-harassment guidelines in March 2016”.

This reminds me of the legal battle between the Peruvian government and Yale surrounding the repatriation of the Machu Picchu artifacts. There, the Peruvian fought extremely hard to prove that the later regulations were also applicable at the time of the alleged delinquency. I guess some Inca aryballos are more important to fight for than people.
Anonymous said…
Public rejection to LJCB, supiciously silent archaeology professors and authorities at PUCP
HT on Twitter
#PUCPEncubreACastillo #PUCPDeAgresores
Anonymous said…
2 de 5 profesores principales de arqueologia PUCP tienen acusaciones de acoso sexual, ambos dictan cursos este semestre. Aun asi, ningún profesor o profesora de arqueología PUCP ha levantado su voz en protesta, porque? El silencio es complice.
https://departamento.pucp.edu.pe/humanidades/arqueologia/profesores/principales/
Anonymous said…
“Finalmente, a la fecha fueron remitidos a la Comision Especial, siete testimonios que mostraban su respaldo a la posición del docente investigado en relación a las acusaciones de hostigamiento sexual”
Un testimonio a favor del acosador LJC es de una profesora de arqueología PUCP.
Porque no se pronuncian los profesxres de arqueología PUCP? – si se pronuncian, a favor de los acosadores.
Anonymous said…
Que se entere todo el mundo: las aulas de la PUCP estan plagadas de profesores que acosan y abusan de sus estudiantes. Sepan que las autoridades lo permiten y que al hacerlo se vuelven cómplices
J. De La Puente (decano de Humanidades), F. Fernández (jefe de departamento) y F. Fernandini (coordinadora de arqueologia) tienen en sus manos el PODER de proteger a las víctimas y que hacen? usan su poder para proteger a los acosadores sexuales.
Como asi? Ellos deciden que profesores dictan, y ponen a dictar a acosadores. Complicidad es violencia. Estamos hartxs del amiguismo y de la impunidad #PUCPdeAgresores #PucpEncubreACastillo
Jamás volverán a tener la comodidad de nuestro silencio
Anonymous said…
A quick translation of the last comment in Spanish

May everybody know: PUCP’s classes are plagued by professors who harass and abuse their students. Know that authorities allow it and by doing so they become complicit.
J. De La Puente (Humanities Dean), F. Fernandez (Department Chair) and F. Fernandini (Archaeology Coordinator) have the POWER in their hands to protect victims and what do they do? They use their power to protect sexual harassers.
How so? They decide which professors teach and assign harassers to teach. Complicity is violence.
We are tired of friendships and impunity #PUCPdeAgresores #PucpEncubreACastillo
They’ll never have the comfort of our silence
Anonymous said…
PUCP MI SILENCIO NO SERA TU COMPLICE
#PUCPdeAgresores
#PUCPEncubridores
#PUCPEncubreACastillo

https://es-la.facebook.com/fepuc/videos/264963778544229/
Anonymous said…
Noticia NUEVA: Ayer las Fiscal de la Nación denunció constitucionalmente al expresidente Martin Vizcarra, y los ex-ministros de Cultura, donde esta el depredador Sexual Luis Jaime Castillo. Los delitos son Trafico de Influencias y Peculado Doloso. Ver la Prensa de Perú para mayores detalles o la pagina webb del Ministerio de Justicia. Se acerca el final de este sujeto que no solamente es un depredador sexual, sino tambien un vulgar delincuente que se beneficio del estado en su epoca de ministro para cometer delitos!
Anonymous said…
https://gestion.pe/peru/politica/richard-cisneros-caso-richard-swing-cuatro-exministros-de-cultura-en-la-mira-de-la-fiscalia-anticorrupcion-noticia/
Anonymous said…
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/scott-rudin-abusive-behavior-1234972177/

Very similar culture of complicity to this Andean case.
Anonymous said…
Ayer en el diario El Pais de España, hay una noticia en la página 26 sobre la expulsion de un miembro de la Academia de Ciencias de Estados Unidos, el biólogo madrileño Francisco J. Ayala por acoso sexual. Se conoce que el depredador sexual Luis Jaime Castillo, también sería un miembro de esta Academia, lo cual logro en su época de viceministro para agrandar su poder en Perú, del cual se conoce que solo es un poder politico, pero a nivel academico esta muy deteriorado. Señor Balter, tiene la oportunidad para investigar si es cierto que es miembro de esta Academia y gestionar la expulsión inmediata, porque su nombramiento es una farsa y además ensucia a la Academia un individuos con tantas denuncias por acoso sexual!
Michael Balter said…
To the previous commenter:

Castillo is indeed an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and some colleagues have been looking into the possibility of making a complaint against him. Anyone can do that, you don’t have to be a member of the Academy; and I think the fact that the sexual harassment commission found evidence for sexual harassment is official enough to have a case against him.
Anonymous said…
Now that Castillo has been kicked out of the NAS, I hope Science and other news organizations will cover him as they did the other (white) harassers who were kicked out (though Castillo himself is white). I hope that all 7 people who wrote letters in support of him to the PUCP investigative commission hang their heads in shame and reconsider their support of him. Two of the people are Jeffrey Quilter of Harvard and Francesca Fernandini of PUCP, both in senior positions at their respective institutions.
Anonymous said…
To anonymous October 13, 2021, Fernandini was not one of the letter writers but was/is one of LJC’s chief allies. The dean, de la Puente, wrote to Fernandini to misleadingly say that the complaints were denied and therefore Castillo was free to resume teaching without any impediments. Fernandini forwarded this email to students without comment and created the false impression that LJC was exonerated. Other faculty in the PUCP department did write letters, though. At least a third of the faculty of the department is in Castillo’s clique.

Just another example of the vindictive and petty nature of Castillo is this “praise” and feigned outrage he wrote for La Republica over Walter Alva’s unceremonious forced retirement due to age: https://larepublica.pe/cultural/2021/07/05/walter-alva-deja-de-ser-director-del-museo-del-senor-de-sipan/ Castillo’s letter starts with “ Feliz Cumpleaños, Walter Alva.” Many in Peruvian archaeology know about the tense relationship Alva and Castillo have, so this letter was a way of “twisting the knife” into Alva. Note the unnecessary level of detail Castillo goes into about the humiliating circumstances. Castillo had removed Alva’s son from his directorship of an important archaeological site with the false charges of nepotism. Alva and his son had codirected and when senior Alva moved on, the junior Alva stayed on, which is hardly a case of nepotism. I just hope that the world wakes up to Castillo and his tactics, and will be more savvy concerning his flying monkeys.
Anonymous said…
His supporters, or maybe Castillo himself, have been sitting on his wikipedia page reversing any edits about the commission’s findings and his recent expulsion from the NAS. Flying moneys indeed.
Anonymous said…
Congratulations to the victims and to Michael Blater. Flushed another one down the toilet.
Anonymous said…
It seems Castillo is following the comments on here because the english language wikipedia entry for him has now been deleted. Quite pathetic. The Spanish version is still up and no mention of any of his denuncias and misdeeds. It still lists him as a member of the NAS.
Michael Balter said…
If Castillo is trying to suppress the news that he has been kicked out of the NAS, I’m not sure what makes him think he will succeed. It’s big news in the U.S. and Peru among those who care and are affected by it, which amounts to thousands of people.
Anonymous said…
Chip Stanish was the one who nominated Castillo to the NAS in the first place. I find that highly irregular, an advisor nominating his former PhD student. Chip Stanish also promoted and enabled other harassers like Ran Boytner, even testifying as a character witness for him in Boytner’s harassed student in court! This is how the architecture of impunity works; promote those who are as unethical as you because you know they will have your back when you need backup if you get in trouble.
Anonymous said…
Anonymous raises an excellent point and a real concern. Abusers can harm multiple students, but enablers can empower multiple abusers. The damage they cause is multitudinous and exponential.
Stanish himself is a NAS member and has a lot of influence in the field.
http://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/20022355.html
To really get at the root of the problem, perhaps it’s time professional organizations focus their attention on the enablers instead of just the abusers?
Anonymous said…
https://www.science.org/content/article/leading-peruvian-archaeologist-ousted-u-s-national-academy-sciences

“In May and June, NAS ousted astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, formerly of the University of California (UC), Berkeley, and evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala, formerly of UC Irvine.”

“Castillo Butters, an expert on the Moche culture who holds a doctorate from UC Los Angeles”

Now, dear students, who can tell us what is the common denominator in all these cases?
(Hint: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/93p8x1wh)
Anonymous said…
Reading Wadman’s coverage in Nature, I have to wonder what goes on in the minds of Castillo’s zealous supporters and all those others who jumped on the wagon for personal reasons. Do they go “Oh shit, I now finally realize I bet on the wrong horse and Balter was right all along”. Or do they think “Fuck that amateur magazine Nature and those incompetent scientists at the National Academy of Sciences”. I know some of them still follow this blog, so feel free to chime in and enlighten us.
Anonymous said…
Well this is probably the shortest NAS membership on record.
The Cotsen Institute needs to update this 2019 news brief
https://ioa.ucla.edu/content/luis-jaime-castillo-butters-phd-2012-elected-national-academy-sciences
On top of all that other shady stuff we were informed about in the last year…
Poor Lloyd must be spinning and vomiting in his grave.
Anonymous said…
Does anyone know what is the NAS process for rescinding membership? Do they conduct hearings? Talk to witnesses? Do they issue findings? Do we know what specifically they found Castillo did? Where I work specific processes and findings are required to take any action, and Mr. Balter's articles do not unfortunately meet the criteria. Thank you
Anonymous said…
To Anonymous October 19, 2021 at 1:13 PM . NAS describes their process; all you have to do is search for it. Your questions are pretty disingenuous. The commission also clearly stated they found evidence of sexual harassment and that Castillo lied to them on two occasions and was interfering w due process by defending himself in class and describing what he will do to the complainants, ensuring that no student dared to submit their own complaint. You are either Castillo or one of his sycophants. I know that he also violated the due process of the NAS investigation and broke their bylaws by sending a notarized threat letter to one of the complainants that was full of verifiable defamation, demanding that she retract the complaint or else. How’s that?
Anonymous said…
to the prior commentator at 335PM-your anger is not an answer to the prior post. The process is not fully described...it says nothing about witnesses, the investigative process etc. Nor is it unreasonable to ask the basis of the sexual harassment conclusion...clearly you have lots of information that the rest of us are not privy to, as I have not seen/found much of what you refer to. The result is the result, but process matters if we are to truly change what is happening in archaeology
Anonymous said…
Above is the perfect example of the kind of people who support Castillo. This is what we are dealing with. No matter how many institutions find Castillo culpable and in violation of due process (read the PUCP report for example), his sycophants will always say due process was not respected for the simple fact that they did not exonerate him. Abusers and their network’s playbook. NAS does not investigate themselves but rely on institutional investigations. In this case, they had both the PUCP findings AND proof of bullying and intimidation during their disciplinary process. Cannot get clearer than that. These people think that repeating a lie a million times makes it the truth. This sycophant has clearly not even read the PUCP report.
Anonymous said…
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/nas-considers-expulsion-of-two-scientists-for-sexual-harassment-68668

A description of NAS process, with a timely update for the chupamedias.
Anonymous said…
to the prior poster: If you dont. know the process just say so or stop throwing insults. The article you posted does not address the questions posed. I will know be looking elsewhere for my answers rather than have a reasonable question repeatedly insulted by someone who clearly does not understand it and has way too much time on their hands
Anonymous said…
To the person playing the willful ignorance game about the NAS processes (and anyone else who wants to know), there has been plenty of public reporting about the process that was adopted in 2019, such as here: https://www.science.org/content/article/national-academy-sciences-will-vote-ejecting-sexual-harassers

It's a safe bet that most people commenting here have professions as researchers: try doing some research.

And no, I'm not the person you were exchanging with above. Just an onlooker who is disgusted by the disingenuous and performative way Castillo's enablers and allies are behaving.
Michael Balter said…
Just a comment from me here. Castillo has now been found both by his own university and by the NAS to have committed sexual harassment. That puts his enablers and sycophants in an awkward position, for obvious reasons. So now they have to try to gaslight everyone because they don’t have the courage nor the integrity to do what the situation calls for. I’m glad to see that many people following this realize that. Also, the continued threats by Castillo against colleagues in Peru is obviously unacceptable and should be condemned by everyone with any ethical sense, and should be grounds for dismissal from PUCP.
Anonymous said…
"En concordancia con las denuncias de abuso sexual realizadas sobre arqueólogo peruano Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, Arquetipa manifiesta su apoyo a las victimas. Castillo, quien es investigado por la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú y revocado su membresía en la Academia Nacional de Ciencias (U.S.A), continúa negando las alegaciones (Science, 15 de Octubre de 2021). A través de nuestro pronunciamiento, exhortamos a la comunidad arqueológica que trabaja en el área Andina se solidarice con las víctimas desde sus diferentes espacios y colectivos. Nuestra postura se basa en el principio y espíritu de solidaridad que nos convoca a formar una red de apoyo a las víctimas y sobrevivientes de todo tipo de abuso."
https://arquetipa.com/?page_id=1274

Alo Peru? PUCP? Red-Mujeres en Arqueologia Peruana?
Solo silencio?
Anonymous said…
What’s up with Archaeology at PUCP?
After the NAS rescinded Castillo’s membership due to sexual harassment, PUCP-Archaeology not only allows him to teach 2 courses like nothing happened, but now bows to his allies, the only 2 academics who officially signed letters of support for Castillo:
Close friend and supporter, Harvard’s archaeologist J. Quilter.
https://es-la.facebook.com/eventosarqueologicos.pucp/photos/a.1396091200720404/2956659974663511/?type=3&theater
Long-term friend and fierce defender, PUCP’s bioarchaeologist E. Tomasto.
https://es-la.facebook.com/coloquiodearqueologia/photos/pb.1082557321760072.-2207520000../5040222979326800/?type=3&theater
PUCP-Archaeology faculty not only has kept convenient silence about Castillo during all this time, but openly and publicly supports Castillo’s return to the classroom, and even invites and pay tribute to his allies. Will they keep saying they have no idea? Will they keep playing the victim’s facade (while mocking the real victims’ pain?)?
Anonymous said…
A great post on enablers: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/are-you-toxic-enabler

Castillo’s enablers fall under every one of these categories; some fall under more than one. The malicious ones have been especially harmful, spreading lies about the survivors and casting themselves as the “real” victims. They gaslit several Latin American feminist organizations against the survivors. Unfortunately, despite LJC getting kicked out of the NAS, almost no Andeanist archaeologist, either North American or South American, have voiced any support. The bamboozled feminist organizations in Latin America, some of whom even withdrew their letters of support for the survivors in June and July 2020 have not made amends for picking the wrong side, the side of the “feminist” enablers of Castillo, who continue to do harm.
Anonymous said…
https://twitter.com/AlexWhitfield99/status/1496527618698588169
Siguen las represalias por la conducta delictiva de LJC. Para mas impunidad la Universidad de Harvard, invita a este delincuente y su amante a sus seminarios, ver facebook de PUCP. Es cierto que Jefrey Quilter de Harvard, es un complice de este sujeto al invitarle a la honorable Universidad de Harvard, que debe pronunciarse urgentemente, o llevara encima la injusta medida contra los estudiantes de PUCP que estan en peligro de ser desaforados!!
Anonymous said…
Tiene vinculo donde podriamos ver esta invitacion de Harvard a Castillo?
Anonymous said…
https://larepublica.pe/sociedad/2022/02/24/pucp-estudiantes-podrian-ser-suspendidas-tras-visibilizar-a-docentes-denunciados-por-acoso-sexual-atmp/

PUCP should be ashamed of themselves. From the beginning they had been trying to misrepresent the commission’s report by using wording that makes it sound like Castillo was exonerated. In this article, Ana Neyra says that they couldn’t sanction Castillo because there was no proof, only Balter’s reporting and anonymous testimonies associated with his reporting. The actual report said that the commission had indeed found evidence of sexual harassment in their independent investigations, beyond what Balter had reported, but could not open any disciplinary proceedings because they had happened outside the statute of limitations. Very different than what has been presented by PUCP administration. Castillo, on the other hand, initiated a complaint against student leaders for defamation and without any investigation and in contradiction with their own report, just rolls over and agrees with him. PUCP also calls the police to beat up student protesters. https://mobile.twitter.com/aea_pucp/status/1497001731573620739

Shame on PUCP.



Michael Balter said…
Thanks to the last commenter for this update and the links. I have been Tweeting about this (@mbalter) and plan a new blog post about it soon. The findings of the sexual harassment commission were good enough for the US National Academy of Sciences, which kicked Castillo out—the first time a foreign member has ever been ejected from NAS—and also took into account Castillo’s continual threats, legal and otherwise, against his victims for reporting him. His attorney put me on notice two years ago that I would be sued too, but they have not had the courage to go after a white American reporter—only vulnerable students who have clearly shown their courage.
Anonymous said…
You can add something new to your upcoming Castillo blog. He has been in the Zoom audience for two Andean talks in a row now at Harvard, under his real name and making people feel extremely uncomfortable by his presence. Why the hell did Harvard approve his pre-registration both times?!?! Harvard Anthropology has a lot to answer for. At this point it may be better to just dismantle and start over. Too many bullies and enablers still there, like Jeffrey Quilter.
Anonymous said…
To the previous commenter, by any chance did Castillo attended the talk of one of his closest associates who is now fully tenured at PUCP (under an almost secret call for the position)? She seems to conveniently hide all those years as part of the SJM project in her bio.
https://anthropology.fas.harvard.edu/event/early-monumentality-and-climate-change-developing-social-complexity-preceramic?delta=0
Also, is Student L still in charge of organizing those talks? That might answer the question of why Castillo was allowed to register and attend.
Anonymous said…
BTW, Castillo is still attending PUCP’s Eventos Arqueologicos online conferences at zoom with his name. Why does PUCP approves his participation in these events?? Ohhhh right! For the same reason the has been given 3 courses to teach this term! What a joy those faculty meetings must be, but then again, all PUCP faculty is and continues to be on his side. Not a surprise there.
Anonymous said…
Anonymous March 7, 2022 at 6:36 PM, please focus on Castillo here. Don’t make him more sympathetic by going after people associated with him who may or may not have been victims themselves.
Michael Balter said…
Sometimes people can be victims and enablers at the same time. That’s one of the ambiguities and conflicts in the situation that we must face up to. I have seen many examples of it in the past years.
Anonymous said…
Anonymous March 8, 2022 at 12:29 PM
Female students and faculty CAN be enablers too, and so many times they are. Women are NOT just helpless victims, they have agency and they use it to their convenience. To think ALL WOMEN ARE VICTIMS is just a flawless argument, similar as to think that all women are feminists just because they are women. I’ve seen first-hand women putting down other women and mistreating them just because it is convenient for them. So please educate yourself and do not come here with your essentialist, paternalistic, outdated arguments.
Btw, those associated with Castillo are now in their 40s, so no innocent children here.
Anonymous said…
To Anonymous March 8, 2022 at 9:09 PM , I agree that women can be enablers, and it’s imperative to hold adult women responsible for their actions even if they have been victims . The problem in this case is that the comment is all innuendo at this point and takes away attention from castillo and onto these women, one of whom (student L) had basically outed herself back in 2020 with her denials and spreading the lie that Balter had harassed her and extorted her. By focusing on these women proxies of LJC, people who don’t have all the facts simply see unfair and untrue pettiness. We do not know, for example, if any of them accused by a previous commenter had anything to do with Castillo being in the Zoom audience. By throwing out innuendos that can easily be debunked, people think that the accusations against Castillo may also be bunk.
Anonymous said…
Castillo is suing one of his Peruvian victims. She helped spread already public information. He is suing her for “defamation” and asking for 30 months of jail time and almost US$80 000 in reparations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUwOkDiLgOA
min 9’40
#8M
Michael Balter said…
A couple of comments from me.

First and most importantly, as the last commenter pointed out, Castillo is suing Marcela Poirier, who was involved in his ejection from the National Academy of Sciences. I will be blogging later today about that and related efforts by Castillo and PUCP to threaten students who tell the truth about his abuses. When I do that, will members of the archaeology and anthropology communities come to Marcela’s aid, publicly, rather than just post anonymously on this blog? I don’t mean to be harsh but unless they do, Marcela and perhaps others could end up in a Peruvian jail for simply telling the truth.

Re the aptly named “Student L” — I don’t know whether or not she should be considered a “victim” of Castillo or not, but what I do know is that she is a liar, among other liars. By lying about a reporter who has tried to report the truth about Castillo, she is enabling him to stay in power and even to attack truth-tellers like Marcela. That is the damage that is being done here.

Here is the earlier blog post where I discussed the lies of Student L and others:

https://michael-balter.blogspot.com/2020/09/there-are-also-three-direct-allegations.html

The one thing I can promise is that as long as Castillo is at PUCP, I will be reporting on him. He threatened to sue me too, as some may recall, but never did it. If he would drop the lawsuit against Marcela, I would be happy to accept the jurisdiction of the Peruvian courts and let him do it. But perhaps Castillo is too much of a coward to go up against a journalist who beat an $18 million defamation suit from another Andean archaeologist just last year.

If I sound angry, six years of reporting on these abuses and absurdities, and the lies and cowardice of some “colleagues” in archaeology, has made me that way, and a lot of others too.

Anonymous said…
Speaking of enablers, do not forget Akshay Sarathi, who liked this tweet by Luis Jaime Castillo nearly two years ago: https://twitter.com/LuisJaimeCast/status/1268875536799072262/likes Furthermore, Akshay also wrote a lie-filled declaration in support of Danielle Kurin, wishing her tenure (still available online with a quick google search), AND expressed open sympathy to Michael Westaway's facebook group claim (in Archaeologists for a Just Future) that Balter had defamed him. This is what happens when someone wants to cover for their own misdeeds (trying to get Balter to write up dishonest lies about fellow departmental colleagues). They try to discredit the reporter by throwing their lot with the other abusers. Shameful.
Michael Balter said…
Yes, this is all true about Akshay. In addition to the declaration he prepared for Kurin, he also gave her and her legal team the so-called NASW Ethics Complaint against me which Kurin’s attorney used to try to bias the judge against me. Kurin also put the complaint online where it can still be found, despite all the falsehoods in it.

The NASW complaint was orchestrated by Kate Clancy, who was in discussions for several months with Kurin’s team about testifying against me. Among the “witnesses” were Holly Dunsworth, Hilary Leathem, and Akshay; all of their claims are demonstrably false based on documents I possess. I have already published about Kate Clancy; I have a long planned post in preparation concerning the claims of Dunsworth, Leathem, and Sarathi. When I do that, I will put online the Facebook messenger correspondence between me and Akshay, which went on for more than a year and shows exactly what Akshay was trying to do.

The NASW should have realized that when the complaint came from a small group of anthropologists, it was likely to be the work of colleagues who opposed my outing of abusers in that field (although their rationalizations were couched differently, of course.)

Watch for Part III of “The (Mis)Adventures of a #MeToo Reporter” for all the details. Hope to get to it soon, but have been too busy with actual investigations and lawsuits.

MB
Anonymous said…
I don’t get it. The PUCP commission says it cannot start any disciplinary proceedings because the events happened before the policies were put in place. Yet, Castillo had lied to them two times during the investigation, including over whether he had described the victims in detail and what he would do to them in his recorded classes in June of 2020. Isn’t that a violation of policy and due process? Isn’t that witness tampering and intimidation? Why don’t they sanction him over that? Furthermore, the commission report says that they received evidence of Castillo’s corrupt dealings but because they only investigate sexual harassment matters, they forwarded this onward to the dean or something to investigate. Clearly, they just circled the wagons and protected him.
Anonymous said…
https://larepublica.pe/sociedad/2022/02/24/pucp-estudiantes-podrian-ser-suspendidas-tras-visibilizar-a-docentes-denunciados-por-acoso-sexual-atmp/
Esto es lo último sobre el estado del caso del Depredador Sexual Luis Jaime Castillo. Lamentablemente y como indica Balter, es posible que Poirier sea condenada, porque hay mucho temor de los estudiantes y victimas de este sujeto, que para colmo tiene poder en la PUCP, donde es respaldado por sus "colegas", el directorio y alumnos serviles. Es clave, que la amante que tiene ahora de profesora, demuestre su valentia, termine su "relación" y los denuncie por el bien de las otras victimas, porque ella es una "victima silenciosa" o una "victima por interes". Esta mujer es la clave para traer abajo a LJC, o posiblemente su esposa si la enteran bien y con pruebas.