Peru's ex-army chief says Fujimori knew about massacres

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Xinhua

UPDATED: 11:33, April 10, 2007
Peru's ex-army chief says Fujimori knew about massacres

The former chief of Peru's Armed Forces, Nicolas Hermoza Rios, testified that Peru's ex-president Alberto Fujimori knew all about the 1992 La Cantuta massacre and the Colina paramilitaries, La Republica newspaper said Monday.

Peru is trying to extradite Fujimori, Peru's president from 1990 to 2000, on charges linked to the murder of nine students and a university professor at La Cantuta University, a separate 1991 massacre of 15 people in Barrios Altos and paramilitary operations.

The newspaper quoted Hermoza's statement on Sept. 19, 2001, which is an important part of the dossier presented to the extradition tribunal in Chile, where Fujimori is currently on trial.

Hermoza, who led Peru's armed forces from 1991 to 1998, spoke to Fujimori's main advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos, and Julio Salazar Monroe, head of the National Intelligence Service, at the time of the massacres, but did not speak directly with the president.




Read more: http://english.people.com.cn/200704/10/eng20070410_365149.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Peru Afraid Fujimori Could Flee Chile

PERU AFRAID FUJIMORI COULD FLEE CHILE

(April 10, 2007) Peruvian authorities continue to worry that former President Alberto Fujimori, who has been in Chile since November 2005, may flee the country in order to avoid possible extradition to Peru.
(snip)

According to Briceño, Peruvian officials traveled to Santiago last week to prepare for just that possibility: coordinating with Carabineros police to prevent Fujimori’s possible flight.

The former head-of-state is currently living in a Las Condes apartment and – despite the pending case against him – is free to come and go as he pleases. His apartment happens to be just a few blocks from the Japanese Embassy where, theoretically, he could seek refuge.

Fujimori governed Peru from 1990 to 2000 before internal pressures forced his flight to Japan, where he famously tendered his resignation via fax. He remained there for five years, taking advantage of his Japanese citizenship – something he inherited from his parents, both Japanese immigrants to Peru – to protect himself not only from requests that he be extradited to Peru, but also from two international arrest warrants.
(snip/...)

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=13454&topic_id=15

[Judi Lynn]

2. Peru's Prime Minister in hot water over appointment of ex-Fujimori minister

| 9 April, 2007 < 10:00 >

Peru's Prime Minister in hot water over appointment of ex-Fujimori minister

© Peru 21
(LIP-jl) -- Peru's Prime Minister Jorge Del Castillo is in the eye of a political storm for naming a former Fujimori regime strongman as the head of Peru's National El Niño Prevention Program. Peru's opposition party has decided to constitutionally denounce Del Castillo.

The appointment of Alberto Pandolfi, who twice served as Peru's Prime Minister under former President Alberto Fujimori's administration, was barred from holding public office for a period of 10 years by the Peruvian Congress in 2003.

Despite efforts on the part of the governing APRA political party to downplay the incident, things could get much worse for those who were in charge of appointing Pandolfi to the position.

Members of Peru's Nationalist Party have informed they will begin official proceedings to denounce Peruvian Prime Minister Jorge Del Castillo and Peruvian Vice President Luis Giampietri for their roles in the irregular appointment.
(snip/...)

http://www.livinginperu.com/news-3557-politics-perus-prime-minister-hot-water-over-appointment-ex-fujimori-minister

[Judi Lynn]

3. Bush pushes U.S. Congress to pass FTA with Peru

9 April, 2007 < 15:30 >

Bush pushes U.S. Congress to pass FTA with Peru

LIP-jl) -- United States President George W. Bush has once again called on the U.S. Congress to pass U.S. bilateral free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia, and Panama.

According to the U.S. President, ratifying and successfully implementing the trade accords will generate additional exporting opportunities for U.S. businesses, in addition to providing the three involved Latin American countries with increased economical opportunities, as well as strengthening the region's democratic institutions.

Bush made these comments while officially proclaiming April 14, 2007 as "Pan-American Day" and the week of April 8 through April 14 as "Pan-American Week."

"We have recently notified Congress of our intention to subscribe to a free trade agreement with Panama, which will join the accords we have already signed with Peru and Colombia," Bush reiterated.
(snip/...)

http://www.livinginperu.com/news/3560

[formercia]

4. Making drug smuggling easier

now they will bring it in shipping containers, duty free. :sarcasm:

[Peace Patriot]

6. "...strengthening the region's democratic institutions." --GWB

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
:wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow: :wow:

[Judi Lynn]

5. Peru’s ex-military chief testifies Fujimori congratulated Army for massacre

Peru’s ex-military chief testifies Fujimori congratulated Army for massacre
Posted by Wolfy Becker on April 10th, 2007

Peru’s ex-commander in chief of the military, retired General Nicolas de Bari Hermoza Ríos

(JP-wb) — Peru’s ex-head of the Joint Chief of Staff, retired General Nicolas de Bari Hermoza Ríos, testified before a commission of Peru’s Congress that ex-president Alberto Fujimori congratulated the high command of the Armed Forces for the “murder” of nine students and a professor at La Cantuta University in 1992, according to state prosecutor Carlos Briceño.

He said that Hermoza Ríos, who was appointed by Fujimori as commander-in-chief of the Army in 1991 and held this position until 1998, recognized that the ex-president knew of the existence of the Grupo Colina death squad commanded by chief of operations Martin Rivas and administrated by Major Carlos Pinchilingue.

“After La Cantuta, Fujimori emitted a memorandum in which he congratulated Martin Rivas and other members of the Grupo Colina for their good intelligence work”, the ex-general affirmed, according to Briceño, Peru’s chief prosecutor in the Fujimori extradition case.

Hermoza Rios testified he received the memorandum “in the name of the ex-president” from Fujimori’s adviser and ex-head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos, shortly after the La Cantuta massacre on July 18, 1992.

More:
http://journalperu.com/?p=833

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Background on the massacre at La Cantuta:

With the return of democratic rule in 1980, President Belaúnde reopened the university. The radical elements among the students and lecturers were quick to return, and by the mid-1980s the country's two main revolutionary guerrilla organisations, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), had a strong presence on campus. By the early 1990s, due to a strategic withdrawal by MRTA and the fragmentation of the other left-wing groups on campus, legal and illegal alike, Sendero Luminoso had the upper hand. This was in spite of operations such as that of 13 February 1987, when 4000 police officers conducted night-time raids at the dormitories of three state universities (including La Cantuta); 20 April 1989, when a joint force of police and army descended on La Cantuta University and the San Marcos National University, arresting over 500 students on charges of subversion; or 22 May 1991, when, in response to a hostage-taking and rumours of an explosive device squirrelled away on campus, Fujimori sent the army in to restore order at La Cantuta. Graffiti alluding to Sendero Luminoso and its leader, Abimael Guzmán, were painted over with patriotic slogans; students went about their business only after passing checkpoints and under close supervision from the armed forces; and the campus remained under military control for several years.


Abduction of July 1992
In the pre-dawn hours of 18 July 1992, 2 days after the "Tarata Bombing", members of the Army Intelligence Service (SIE) and the Army Directorate of Intelligence (DINTE), most of whom were attached to the recently established Grupo Colina death squad, burst into the residences of the Enrique Guzmán y Valle National University.

Once inside, the troops forced all the students to leave their rooms and lie belly-down on the floor. Nine students, believed to be linked to the Tarata Bombing, – Bertila Lozano Torres, Dora Oyague Fierro, Luis Enrique Ortiz Perea, Armando Richard Amaro Cóndor, Robert Édgar Teodoro Espinoza, Heráclides Pablo Meza, Felipe Flores Chipana, Marcelino Rosales Cárdenas, and Juan Gabriel Mariños Figueroa – were separated from the others and taken away. Meanwhile, in the staff residences, a group of soldiers broke into the home of professor Hugo Muñoz Sánchez. After searching his bedroom, they gagged the professor and led him away. None of the ten victims were ever seen again.


Prosecutions and amnesty
In April 1993, a group of Peruvian military officers anonymously released a document detailing the events at La Cantuta. Their document claimed the death squad had abducted the victims, tortured and murdered them, and then hurriedly buried them; later, they claimed, after questions had been raised in Congress, the armed forces had exhumed, incinerated, and reburied the bodies in another location. The military whistleblowers named the members of Grupo Colina involved, identified the operations chief – Maj. Santiago Martín Rivas – and stated that the group operated under orders from Vladimiro Montesinos, the head of the National Intelligence Service (SIN) and a close advisor to President Fujimori.
(snip/...)

http://www.answers.com/topic/la-cantuta-massacre



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For more background on Peru, massacres in the early, mid-1980's, see this report:

Peru Confronts a Violent Past:
The Truth Commission Hearings in Ayacucho

http://www.hrw.org/americas/peru/