Commission criticizes Peru’s terrorists and government

In a residential district on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, members of the Shining Path murdered María Elena Moyano in front of her two children and other onlookers. On Feb. 15, 1992, the insurgents shot the well-known women’s rights advocate to death. They then blew up her body with dynamite.

This accounts for just one of the 69,280 people that died or disappeared in Peru between 1980 and 2000, as estimated by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The TRC was established in June 2001 to examine the human rights violations committed by terrorist organizations and government agents over a 20-year period. The final report went public on Aug. 28, 2003.

“The report we hand in contains a double outrage: that of massive murder, disappearance and torture; and that of indolence, incompetence and indifference of those who could have stopped this humanitarian catastrophe but didn't,” TRC chairman Salomón Lerner said.

Counter-terrorism efforts

Peru has taken an active stance against terrorism and has aggressively prosecuted suspected terrorists. In June 2003, Peru ratified the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism.

Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru from 1990-2000, passed broad legislation abridging the legal rights of alleged terrorists.

Amnesty International expresses concern with the number of innocent people mistakenly charged without a fair trial since new anti-terrorism legislation took effect in 1992.

The TRC found that military agents also violated human rights through executions, forced disappearances and torture.

On Nov. 7, 2005, authorities detained Fujimori when he arrived in Chile after five years of self-imposed exile in Japan. The former president faced more than 20 counts of corruption and human rights violations in Peru. A week later, the extradition process had not yet been carried out.

The Shining Path

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission holds the Shining Path responsible for 54 percent of the total deaths between 1980 and 2000. The commission deemed the group “the principal perpetrator of crimes and violations of human rights,” guilty of extreme violence and brutality.

Abimael Guzmán formed the Shining Path in the late 1960s. The Maoist guerrillas aim to establish a communist peasant revolutionary regime and overthrow existing Peruvian institutions.

Activity dramatically declined with the capture of Guzmán in 1992.

Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison soon after he was arrested, but the court was later deemed unconstitutional. A second attempt at his civilian retrial began in September 2005. A month into the retrial, Guzmán denied that he was a terrorist, calling himself a “revolutionary combatant.”

Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement

According to the TRC report, 1.5 percent of the total victims during the years analyzed can be attributed to the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA).

The MRTA formed in 1983 with the intention of launching a Marxist regime and purging the country of its imperialist influences.

On Dec. 17, 1996, members of the MRTA held 72 hostages for more than four months at the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Lima. Peruvian troops freed the captives, but one hostage, two Peruvian soldiers and all of the MRTA rebels died in the process.

Later investigations revealed that the Peruvian Armed Forced executed as many as eight of the MRTA rebels after they had been captured and likely defenseless.

The group has not been very active since.

“The [TRC] report's release is a major step forward for Peru,” said José Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch´s Americas Division, “but it also shows how much remains to be done to end years of impunity for human rights abuses."