The Murder of Alicia Delgado

The Princess of Folklore

Alicia Delgado Hilario was one of the best-known voices in Peruvian Andean music, billed by fans and the press as "La Princesa del Folklore." Born in Cabana, in the Áncash region, she had built a long and well-established career in Andean music. Her life ended in June 2009, in a case that gripped Peru for years and that still reaches the country's highest courts.

At the centre of the case was her relationship with Abencia Meza Luna, another popular folk singer known as "La Reina de las Parranditas." The two had been romantic partners, and by the time of Delgado's death the relationship had broken down. Peruvian reporting has consistently described a background of jealousy and personal conflict between them.

A Warning Before Her Death

In the weeks before she died, Delgado sought personal guarantees from the authorities, saying she had suffered threats and aggression. On 22 June 2009 she recorded a video statement in which she said she feared for her life and named Meza as the person to hold responsible if anything happened to her. That recording, together with messages and audio in which she voiced the same fears, would later become a key part of the prosecution's case.

According to police, Delgado was killed in her apartment in the Santiago de Surco district of Lima on 23 June 2009, after an argument; later court summaries date the killing to 24 June. Her body was found two days later, on 25 June. One 2020 report placed the apartment in La Molina, but most accounts refer to Surco.

The Investigation

Detectives quickly focused on Pedro César Mamanchura Antúnez, who had worked as a driver and bodyguard. Peruvian outlets have described him both as Delgado's driver and as a former employee of Meza. He had left Lima, and police arrested him in Tumbes, near the Ecuadorian border, on 29 June 2009. Delgado's vehicle had been found near a property linked to Meza.

After his arrest Mamanchura confessed to being the person who carried out the killing. In that early confession he said Meza had pushed him to do it and had paid him 3,000 soles. His story did not stay fixed: he later retracted the accusation against Meza, and in a more recent interview he said he had acted on his own rather than on her orders. Meza has denied any involvement from the start.

Trial and Convictions

Despite Mamanchura's shifting accounts, the courts did not treat his retractions as clearing anyone. On 7 February 2012 a criminal chamber of the Lima Superior Court convicted both defendants of aggravated homicide. Meza was found guilty as the instigator of the killing and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Mamanchura was convicted as the direct perpetrator; Infobae reports that he received the same 30-year term, while La República has put his sentence at 25 years.

The case against Meza rested on witness testimony, forensic evidence and the audio, video and messages in which Delgado voiced her fears. Some criminologists and legal specialists have questioned the strength of this indirect evidence. Meza has always maintained her innocence, and in a letter from prison she claimed she had been condemned out of discrimination over her sexual orientation.

Appeals and the Constitutional Tribunal

The case has moved back and forth between Peru's courts. The Supreme Court's transitional criminal chamber first upheld the sentence in December 2012, but the Constitutional Tribunal (TC) later partly granted a habeas corpus petition and annulled that ruling, sending the case back to the Supreme Court. After a new hearing in December 2019, five Supreme Court justices unanimously confirmed the conviction and the 30-year sentence in January 2020, making it final.

Meza has since sought semi-liberty, a form of early release. Prison authorities and lower courts turned her down, and her son filed a new habeas corpus. In a ruling reported on 31 July 2026, the TC found part of the petition valid because an appeal chamber's September 2024 decision had not been adequately reasoned, and ordered the judiciary to rule again. It rejected the rest of her challenges and did not grant release. Peruvian outlets reported that under the rules in force when her sentence became final, she cannot obtain semi-liberty, and that her full term would end around 2041.

Why the Case Matters

The killing of Alicia Delgado remains one of Peru's most widely followed crimes involving public figures, and it played out in unusually public fashion: the victim had asked the authorities for protection and recorded a warning naming the person she feared, material that later carried weight in court.

Legally, the case has become a reference point for how Peru applies limits on prison benefits. Ley 30963, in force when Meza's conviction became final in 2020, barred semi-liberty and parole for serious crimes such as aggravated homicide. The TC's 2026 ruling relied on its binding rule that the law in force when a sentence becomes final governs such benefits, a general principle that reaches well beyond this one case.