![\"Supporters](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/000_32GU9T4-1.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513\" "\\"\\"")
Supporters of Humala and the ethnocacerista movement stand outside a prison in Lima, Peru [Ernesto Benavides\/AFP]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Antauro Humala’s release follows surprise reduction of 19-year sentence, and his lawyer hints at a political comeback.<\/p>\n
A former Peruvian soldier who led a failed 2005 uprising has been released from prison after a surprise announcement that his 19-year sentence had been reduced.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Antauro Humala, the leader of Peru’s nationalist ethnocacerista movement, which seeks to bring the country’s disenfranchised indigenous peoples to power, was quick to hint at a return to politics after the release on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Speaking to supporters who chanted “President Antauro”, he praised the 2005 uprising, in which he and his supporters attacked a police station in the Andean city of Andahuaylas in an attempt to force the resignation of then-President Alejandro Toledo. Six people, including four policemen, died in a days-long clash at the station.<\/p>\n
“Now we’re obviously out and I can tell you we’re all very proud of what we did there [our rebellion in] Andahuaylas,” said Humala.<\/p>\n
Supporters of Antauro Humala, brother of former Peruvian president Ollanta Humala, wait outside a prison in Peru for his release [Ernesto Benavides\/AFP]<\/p>\n
Antauro Humala and his brother, Ollanta Humala, also led a minor rebellion in 2000 against then-President Alberto Fujimori, who was later convicted of ordering massacres during Peru’s two-decade civil war.<\/p>\n
Ollanta Humala became Peru’s president from 2011 to 2016, but ruled as a centrist at odds with his brother’s ideology and repeatedly refused to pardon him.<\/p>\n
Humala’s ethnocacerista movement combines reverence for the ancient Inca empire with an anti-colonial movement, but has been accused of having xenophobic and totalitarian aims.<\/p>\n
As a candidate, the current leftist president, Pedro Castillo, had spoken positively of Humala and raised the possibility of pardoning him, but remained silent on the issue after taking office in 2021.<\/p>\n
Supporters of Humala and the ethnocacerista movement stand outside a prison in Lima, Peru [Ernesto Benavides\/AFP]<\/p>\n
Peru’s prison authority said Humala had been released a year and seven months earlier because of his time spent working and studying. He maintained that the decision was taken independently of the presidency.<\/p>\n
After his release, Humala’s lawyer, Carmen Huidobro, said that “it is possible that this [Antauro] will resume political life, it is likely that he will present himself for some position”.<\/p>\n
Speaking to supporters outside a prison in Lima, the capital of Peru, Humala asked his supporters for “time to think about everything again”. [that] has happened in these 18 years”.<\/p>\n