A prominent member of the Peruvian Aprista Party, she served as Minister of Education in the first presidency of Alan García, making her the first woman to assume a cabinet position in the history of Peru.

[1] Most recently, she briefly served as Minister of Interior in Alan García's second presidency, a position subject to scrutiny as she was signaled as responsible of the repression of natives in the 2009 Amazon crisis, in Bagua, which forced her to resign, and effectively ended her political career.

She majored in Education and Human Science at the Federico Villarreal National University, earning a Bachelor's degree.

As such she was in charge of the Police forces that were sent to the amazon region of Bagua to repress Natives who were protesting against the government that was giving away their ancestral lands to foreign corporations for oil drilling, mining and logging.

As a result of the violent intervention of the heavily armed police and military forces over 50 Natives were killed and nearly 200 wounded.

She served in Congress until her term expired in 2011, as she failed to win a fourth consecutive election, receiving a minority of votes, prompting her to retire from politics.