PERU:
No Peace for Living or
Dead 22 Years After
Massacre
By Ángel Páez
LIMA, (IPS) -
Cirila Pulido and
Teófila Ochoa were 12
and 13 years old when a
Peruvian army patrol
entered their village of
Accomarca in Peru’s
southern Andean region
of Ayacucho on Aug. 14,
1985 and murdered 69
villagers, including the
two girls’ mothers and
siblings.
Since those responsible
for the massacre have
not been held
accountable in Peru, the
two women have turned to
U.S. courts in search of
justice.
"It’s as if we were the
condemned: condemned to
suffer unbearable pain
because of the loss of
our families and the
lack of justice," Pulido
told IPS, in tears.
"This is worse than
hell."
"Every day that goes by
without a condemnation
of the killers is as if
they killed our family
members again," said
Ochoa. "Neither our dead
nor we ourselves have
peace."
That day 22 years ago,
the two girls, who
survived by running away
and hiding, watched as
the soldiers rounded up
the villagers, raped
many women and girls,
and killed 69 people,
mainly women and
children.
On behalf of all the
members of the
Association of the
Relatives of the Victims
of Violence in Accomarca
who lost loved ones in
the massacre, the two
women have brought legal
action in courts in
Miami, Florida and
Greenbelt, Maryland
against two former
officers who are living
in the United States:
retired majors Telmo
Hurtado and Juan Rivera.
Hurtado commanded the
patrol unit that
occupied Accomarca and
carried out the largest
mass killing of
civilians during the
1980-2000
counterinsurgency war
against the Maoist
Sendero Luminoso
(Shining Path)
guerrillas. Rivera
participated in the army
operation.
On Mar. 28 and 29, the
two men were arrested by
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) agents
in Florida and Maryland
for violating U.S.
immigration laws.
Hurtado had fled Lima on
Dec. 28, 2002, after the
case against him was
reopened. Rivera has
been residing in the
United States since
1998.
"The lawsuits against
Hurtado and Rivera have
already been accepted by
U.S. judges and the
former officers have
been notified in order
to answer to the
charges," Karim
Ninaquispe, a lawyer for
the relatives of the
Accomarca victims, told
IPS. "As soon as we
heard that they had been
arrested, we started
preparing the legal
action."
Ninaquispe works out of
a small six by four-metre
office in the
neighbourhood of Santa
Anita in southeastern
Lima, an area that few
lawyers would choose for
opening a private
practice.
Because her clients
cannot afford to pay the
legal costs of the case,
Ninaquispe turned to the
San Francisco,
California-based Centre
for Justice and
Accountability (CJA) for
assistance.
On Jul. 18, the CJA
brought the case in the
name of Pulido and
Ochoa. As the group
states on its web site,
"These cases mark the
first of their kind
filed in the United
States for atrocities
committed during Peru’s
twenty year civil war".
"The aim is to provide
the victims with a
forum, a place to tell
their stories and seek
justice," CJA lawyer
Almudena Bernabeu told
IPS. "If the case is
won, the victims would
receive reparations for
the damages suffered,"
added the lawyer, who is
from Spain.
But she is under no
illusions that it will
be an easy task.
Hurtado was accused of
lying on a visa
application on which he
indicated that he had
never been arrested or
convicted of a crime
even though he had been
found guilty in Peruvian
military courts of abuse
of authority. He has
pled guilty to those
charges and was
sentenced in June to six
months in prison.
Rivera is in immigration
detention and does not
face criminal charges,
but has been placed in
deportation proceedings
in connection to a
previous criminal case
in which he pled guilty
to a charge of
"contributing to a minor
child in need of
assistance."
Both men could
eventually be deported.
"The lawsuit has been
accepted and the accused
have been served with
the summons. Now we have
to wait and see if the
accused name lawyers to
represent them and
respond to the charges.
After that, the process
could take slightly over
a year until we are all
ready to go to trial,"
said Bernabeu.
But "if the deportation
orders arrive before the
trial comes to an end,
our lawsuit does not
have the power to freeze
or interrupt the
process; that would be
up to the federal
authorities.
"However, if they deport
them while our trial is
going on, that doesn't
at all mean the process
would end. It would go
ahead, and the rights of
our clients would be
perfectly guaranteed,"
she added.
In Peru, Hurtado was
tried by a military
court which sentenced
him to six years in
prison for abuse of
authority. During the
trial, he described the
massacre in detail.
But in June 1995 he
benefited from an
amnesty issued by the
government of Alberto
Fujimori (1990-2000) for
members of the military
who had been sentenced,
or were facing
investigation or
prosecution, for human
rights violations.
After he was released,
Hurtado returned to
active service, was
promoted, and was later
decorated as a hero by
army chief Nicolás
Hermoza.
Rivera was never tried.
"The soldiers arrived
early, at 7:00 in the
morning. They went from
house to house and after
rounding up everyone
they found, they put
them all in two houses.
I was able to escape and
I climbed a hill, and
saw everything from up
there. Some of the
soldiers opened fire on
the people in the
houses. I heard screams,
pleading, groans. The
children were shrieking
and crying," said Pulido.
"I was desperate because
my mother, Fortunata
Baldeón, and my little
nine-month-old brother,
Edgar Pulido, were in
there. After the
shooting, the soldiers
tossed grenades and
everything blew up and
caught on fire. It was a
huge fire. Nobody
survived," she added.
"Then they dug around
for food in the houses
of the people they had
killed. They ate and
drank, celebrating what
they had done," she
said.
Ninaquispe said the
victims were 16 men, 30
women and 23 children.
"During a recent
exhumation of the burnt
remains, fetuses were
found. That means that
some of the women were
pregnant," she said.
Ochoa, through her
tears, said "They killed
my mother, Silvestra
Lizarbe Solís, and my
little brothers and
sisters: Gerardo, Víctor,
Ernestina, Celestina and
Edwin, ages nine, eight,
six, three and one. I
was 13."
"When the soldiers came
I wasn’t in the house
because my mother had
asked me to go and get
the donkey. When I heard
the racket I got scared
and returned home
quickly. I saw my mother
with the soldiers. She
was offering them food.
Some of them started to
eat until an officer
showed up and shouted at
them to continue on with
their mission.
"I left the house fast
without them noticing,
pulling my brother
Gerardo, who I was able
to grab by the hand. My
mother was shouting,
begging them not to do
anything to my little
brothers and sisters.
Frightened, I ran and
ran with Gerardo. The
soldiers shoved the
people they had grabbed
into two houses and then
shot them. After they
burnt everything down,
using grenades, they
went out to look for
more people.
"They spotted me and
started to shoot.
Gerardo and I ran, but
they caught him. The
bullets were whistling
around me. I hid and I
didn't see my little
brother again. They
caught him and killed
him. I couldn't sleep
out in the cold. The
dogs were howling with
sadness. The village
seemed like a cemetery,"
she continued.
"At dawn, the adults who
returned to the village
found me. Then my
grandpa came and he and
I went to the place
where the people had
been burnt. There were
just burnt skulls and
pieces of arms and legs.
My mom and my little
brothers and sisters
were there."
The atrocity occurred
just a few weeks after
Alan García -- who is
now president again --
was sworn in for his
first term, on Jul. 28,
1985. But it did not
lead him to modify the
"anti-subversive" policy
followed by his
predecessor, Fernando
Belaúnde.
A total of 69,280 people
died in the 20-year war,
according to the
independent Truth and
Reconciliation
Commission.
Six months ago, the
relatives of the victims
of Accomarca asked
García to meet with
them, to help speed up
the judicial process in
Peru. But he has not
done so.
In December, he rewarded
retired General José
Williams, the direct
superior of Hurtado and
Rivera at the time of
the Accomarca killings,
with a diplomatic post
in Washington.
The legal action against
Hurtado and Rivera was
filed by the CJA under
the 1789 Alien Tort
Statute that gives non-U.S.
citizens who are
survivors of serious
abuses committed
anywhere in the world
the right to bring suit
in U.S. federal courts
against perpetrators who
are in the United
States.
The lawsuit is also
based on the 1992
Torture Victim
Protection Act, which
gives similar rights to
both U.S. citizens and
non-citizens to bring
claims for torture and
extrajudicial killings
committed in foreign
countries against
suspects who are in the
United States. |
