×
You have 2 more free articles available this month. Subscribe today.
Tenth Anniversary of Peru Prison Massacres
[The following article is excerpted from the book Gloria al Día de Heroísmo, which is an account of the uprising and massacre of Peruvian political prisoners and Prisoners of War on June 19, 1986. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the uprising.]
The historical background of the uprising is that since 1980 the Communist Party of Peru (PCP, also known as the "Shining Path") has led a people's war to seize state power and establish a socialist republic. The ensuing civil war has resulted in widespread government repression in Peru. Several thousand Peruvians have been imprisoned as real or accused members of the PCP. Since the early 1980's PCP POWs showed themselves to be highly organized and disciplined. They were also subjected to torture, horrendous conditions of confinement and other abuses. As a result of struggle in the early 1980's they reached an agreement with the Peruvian government whereby they would be recognized as political prisoners and have relatively humane conditions of confinement. In 1985 Alan Garcia was elected president of Peru, partly on the strength of his promise to crush the PCP. One of his first steps in this regard was to announce that he would not recognize the agreement made on the prisoners' rights. Throughout 1986 there were increasing signs that the Peruvian government was planning to torture and kill the prisoners, who were held in three large prisons in and around Lima (El Fronton, an island prison, Lurigancho, and Callao, the latter being a women's prison). Both the military and prison officials were telling the prisoners what was in store for them. The first step would be to move the PCP prisoners to remote prisons scattered across the countryside, in an effort to break prisoner unity. The prisoners realized they were in a desperate situation, and repeatedly made known the government plans to kill them.
In June, 1986, the International Socialist organization was meeting in Lima. The prisoners decided that that would be the most opportune time to press for recognition of the previous agreement they had made with the government that their rights were to be respected. Prior to the uprising, the prisoners were candid that this was a high stakes gamble: either the government would negotiate with them and honor its prior agreement, or it would use the uprising as an excuse to kill them.
While many prisoners were killed during the uprising itself, especially while being bombarded by helicopter gunships and artillery, the bulk of the prisoners were killed after they had surrendered. Since the 1986 uprising, there has been continued abuse of PCP prisoners and there have been other large-scale prison massacres since then.
The 125 page book this article was excerpted from will soon be available in English. The article was written by prisoners who survived the massacres. It is already available in Spanish. For more information on this book, as well as on the situation in Peru, please contact: The New Flag, 30-08 Broadway, Suite 159, Queens, NY 11103.]
Chronology of the June, 1986 Massacre
From the Shining Trench of Combat of Fronton Prison
June 17
10 PM: All the POWs are informed of the day and hour of action. They were all in agreement with the sole decision of giving fierce resistance and of not being taken out alive as class morals were at issue and they had to be defended to the last breath of life, a unanimous decision of the communists and combatants of the Shining Trench of Combat (STC). With high morale and prepared to pay any cost required by the circumstances because the plan was just and correct and all the preparations had been made.
A night watch group is formed.
June 18
5:00 AM: Breakfast is eaten.
5:30 AM: The detachments occupy their positions.
6:00 AM: Hostages are taken. Eight Republican Guards (RGs) and 2 penitentiary employees enter. The assigned detachment successfully accomplishes its mission taking 3 RGs, 3 assault rifles, 1 submachine gun and 1 revolver. In the action the RGs who escape fatally wound one of the hostages. The action lasted three minutes.
7:00 AM: Digging in. The party waits. The first part has been successfully accomplished, now it is time to await the response. Either the government will enter to negotiate or they will enter to kill everyone. The combatants are prepared for anything, optimistic with high vigilance they prepare themselves. The hostages are given medical care and educated, applying the party's policy on prisoners.
8:00 AM: The RG carries out reconnaissance and set up a position on the water tank. A boat leaves for Callao with 4 RGs.
11:00 AM: By radio the prisoners hear about the success of the actions at the other two STCs. There is jubilation, the beginning had commenced.
The boat returned with civilians. Two destroyers with civilians and military on board are seen. The prisoners shout slogans and sing revolutionary songs.
12:00 PM: A hundred RG's arrive at Fronton.
1:00 PM: The government, through the Ministry of the Interior, makes public Communique No.1.
2:00 PM: There is movement by the navy with boats and destroyers. Army and navy helicopters fly over the prison. The combatants wait. Each detachment is attentive and vigilant.
2:50 PM: The peace commission arrives. They wait for a megaphone.
3:20 PM: Twenty five members of the navy's Special Operations Force disembark.
3:30 PM: The Peace Commission does not enter the Blue Pavilion and from the bars, by megaphone, they state they "want to resolve the problem peacefully and safeguard the lives of the hostages," another member says "and of the prisoners too." But none of them talked to the prisoners nor listened to them.
The warden of the prison, Penal Execution Judge and the Provincial Prosecutor of Callao approached the Pavilion and spoke with the prisoners. The prisoners' delegates set forth the necessity for the presence of family members, lawyers and authorities to comprise a Unitarian Commission. The judge and prosecutor accepted and agreed to this saying they would "intervene to use their good offices to make their petitions arrive and to ensure the prisoners' family members and lawyers were present." They also requested to speak with the hostages, this was allowed and they confirmed the hostages' good health. They were also asked what the navy was doing there, they replied that the navy could not enter without the wardens' authorization. They were given the prisoners' demands. All of this took place in ten minutes.
The judge, the prosecutor and the warden went to the administrative offices and they learned that the Vice Minister of the Interior, Agustin Mantilla, had arrived with a contingent of special forces from the RG and told them "from this moment on Callao finds itself in a state of emergency and by superior order of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces I take control of the prison and from now on the Joint Command will make the decisions in the form and manner in which the prisoners of the Blue Pavilion will be treated." Later the vice minister said that he had superior orders to remove by any means necessary the demonstrating prisoners and for that he counted on the support of the navy and he had been ordered not to enter into negotiations with the prisoners under any conditions. Faced with the intervention by the navy and RG who, without the warden's permission or authorization and not recognizing the legal responsibilities of his office, the warden disclaimed any and all responsibility for the serious deeds such as loss of life, massacres and such that could occur. At that moment the radio operator announced that he had been told by "Australia" to "leave the entire situation in the hands of the Joint Command, who find themselves presently in the process of savage execution."
4:00 PM: The combatants realized that the so called Peace Commission was a cover to justify genocide and that they were playing a sinister role.
4:30 PM: The marines take up positions around the pavilion, barricading themselves in the hallways and behind the walls, simultaneously a helicopter flew overhead.
A comrade said "Everyone to their posts. Kill the first bastard who enters, no one leave their post, if they come in you know to go for the man and his gun; if you die, die at your combat post."
5:00 PM: The first attack begins. They opened fire with rifles, heavy machine guns, bazookas and grenades. The walls shook from the first explosions of TNT placed by a navy demolition commando. "It was a bombardment worthy of a conventional war." "The combatants shouted "Long live president Gonzalo! Long Live the Communist Party of Peru! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!" The leadership placed itself on side B, sector 3, second floor.
6:00 PM: The prisoners wound a marine. The fire generalizes itself. It is calculated that three patrols of marines have intervened in addition to the RG and five helicopter gunships from the air force; commandos from the navy's amphibious demolition also participated.
6:30 PM: The first prisoner combatant is killed.
7:00 PM: A powerful explosion rips apart sector four of the second floor of the Blue Pavilion, everything was a deafening noise, they were demolishing it from the rear to level it. Resistance is carried out, no screams of complaint or pain are heard, the combatants encouraged each other, they continued shouting slogans, they said "death to the marines! Killers!" The combatants responded with darts, arrows, slings, rocks and the captured firearms, as protection some had tin vests. From the trenches and tunnels they fired at the marines.
The armed clash had spectacular effects, the explosives used against the Blue Pavilion did not cause major damage at first, it was necessary to use powerful demolition charges to open holes in the walls through which to throw tear gas bombs, the combatants closed the openings with fortified cots, the songs did not cease during the battle, the resistance continued, some detachments used TNT.
8:00 PM: The enemy ran out of ammunition, they ceased fire to return to their supply point and get provisions. The combatants remained at their posts and checked their contingents, the wounded and casualties; the leadership discussed plans with optimism.
8:30 PM: They return and attack with tear gas bombs, a strong explosion knocks down a wall and part of the roof. An RG attack group tried to enter through the breach but was repulsed, without ceasing their shouting of slogans the combatants detonated a "Russian cheese" and occasionally fired darts and even rocks. The enemy launched grenades and continued firing, one by one the combatants fell with their fists high, shouting long lives for President Gonzalo. The RG attack group did not manage to enter the Blue Pavilion.
9:00 PM: The combatants burn documents and papers on the leadership's orders. There are attacks with mortars, bazookas, they bombard the roof with missiles; the marines throw gasoline on the Pavilion and light it on fire but the combatants stop it from spreading by mixing the gasoline with water and they withdraw to the kitchen and hallway.
12:00 PM: The shots are intermittent. Comrade Alejandro falls wounded. A detachment is sent to enter the tunnels with orders to emerge from the ventilators and throw dynamite at the marines.
Communique Number 3 from the Joint Command.
June 19
1:30 AM: The gunfire intensifies, they launch flares, tear gas bombs and incendiary bombs; the combatants extinguish the incendiary bombs and throw back the grenades.
3:00 AM: The attack is suspended with the goal of restarting it at dawn, the marines receive reinforcements with more provisions. The leadership wondered about the possibility that "had they reached the limit of the genocide?" Two boats leave Callao, they turn towards San Lorenzo.
4:30 AM: Three boats appear in San Lorenzo; this is communicated to the leadership who says: "then it has arrived too, prepare yourselves comrades!"
5:00 AM: They reinitiate the attack (2nd attack) with bazookas and cannons that they placed in the bars, more than 30 explosions occurred which were destroying the walls of the Blue Pavilion opening holes in it, both sides could see each other face to face. This encouraged the resistance, needless to say, the combatants continued firing.
9:00 AM: A group of marines with an officer tried to enter through a hole, the officer fell dead. The bodies of the combatants were underfoot but the survivors continued struggling until 11:30 AM, repulsing the group of marines.
11:00 AM: The combatants make a hole in the wall which leads to the hallway of the second floor, comrades from the leadership shouted long lives to President Gonzalo, Marxism-Leninism- Maoism guiding thought, to the Communist party of Peru and "Honor and Glory Comrades and Combatants!"
At mid morning the order from Alan Garcia Perez (President of Peru at the time) by radio instructed that steps be taken to favor the surrender of the survivors. Shortly thereafter Vice-Admiral Nicolini arrived who reiterated Garcia's order. Then Villanueva arrived and from that time on there was a ceasefire every fifteen minutes and they would offer to allow the prisoners to surrender.
The combatants listened to the plea by megaphone that they surrender to avoid further bloodshed. They responded with "sons of bitches, killers, go to shit!" they were quiet for a while and then continued firing. This lasted until about 1 PM. The combatants were grouped in the kitchen prepared for hand to hand combat if the marines entered. Comrade Alejandro gave long lives to President Gonzalo, the Communist Party of Peru, socialism and communism, the people's war and "honor and glory comrades, honor and glory!"
2:00 PM: There came an attack with cannon blasts, the third attack, with rifle fire, more grenades and incendiary bombs, the target was the kitchen where the combatants were.
Comrade Alejandro was leading the resistance to the marine's attack. At about 2 PM on June 19 three marines entered the kitchen of the Blue Pavilion throwing grenades which caused the death of some of the combatants, immediately afterwards the marines fired bursts of machine gun fire which killed other combatants. Comrade Alejandro was wounded in the head and waist by grenade shrapnel and with redoubled energy grabbed a red flag and ordered the singing of The International, long lived President Gonzalo, the people's war, the Communist party of Peru and with class hatred he condemned the killers, at that moment he was vilely murdered by the marines with FAL bullets. It was 2:30 PM. His body, together with those of the other heroic combatants, remained buried in the ruins of the Blue pavilion which would be demolished and totally leveled by the genocidal marines.
Other leaders continued agitating and taunting the marines "shoot murderers, sons of bitches! Long Live President Gonzalo! Long Live the PCP!" The heavy gunfire continued. Comrade Ignacio said "Well comrades, we're all going to die blown up. What an outrage by reaction, by those miserable genocides! They want us to surrender, no one surrenders!"
The attack continued, more explosions, grenades and bullets, the marines shouted "surrender dammit, surrender!" Comrade Daniel replied "Let your mother surrender, you miserable genocidal murderers!" Through this the grenades and explosives were dismembering and blowing to pieces the bodies of the various guerrillas, the combatants would throw back live grenades and bombs that were about to explode, they used cans and the lids from pans. Various comrades died there; it was 3:00 PM. Comrade Daniel was without his legs but did not complain. Osvaldo was gravely wounded and shouted "murderers, kill me dammit! Long live President Gonzalo!" He dragged himself to the opening in the wall in front of the bullets and fell. Jorge was another who was wounded but continued agitating.
4:00 PM: In these attacks on the kitchen a great number died, comrade Felipe, a tranquil peasant, coldly watched standing there in the middle of the others saying: "They are putting the cannon in place, they are aiming, they are going to fire." He died from a bullet. There was discussion to go into the pavilion or descend. One comrade in the leadership said: "Let's stay here, we're going to die blown up. Honor and glory comrades! Long live President Gonzalo! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Guiding Thought! Long live the PCP! Long live the People's War! For communism and socialism!" He added: "We have carried out the resistance, it is for history, a resistance in which we have seen it all: hostages, confrontation, annihilation and more than 20 hours of resistance, not a single cry of complaint or pain, our enemies will never succeed comrades, the people's war is invincible, we have the guarantee of triumph: our president, we serve him, the greatest." It was after 4 PM.
5:00 PM: The battle continued, the marines tried to enter from the rear, the prisoners fired their last bullet and a marine fell, the rest ran away. They decided to continue their attack with more cannon fire, bullets, grenades and explosives. When the marines came closer we shouted at them: "We are going to remove the wounded and the hostages!" They replied: "First your weapons." The comrades threw out the captured FALs, then the hostages. Albino agitated and they killed him, the combatants who removed the hostages were shot.
The combatants from the first and second floor emerged, between 60 and 80 of them. Surprised, a marine said "what resistance, what resistance."
They separated the combatants into two groups. They were looking for the leaders, some were recognized by the enemy, they were made to undress and then in groups of five were taken out and shot. They fell agitating and shouting long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Guiding Thought, President Gonzalo, the Communist Party of Peru and the revolution. They did not shut up even in agony. The dead bodies were dragged to a trench which they used as a grave, there they put between 30 and 40 of the executed combatants then threw a grenade on top.
6:00 PM: The national prosecutor arrived at Fronton and did not interview a single political prisoner and spoke on the government television.
When the prosecutor left the navy set off a powerful explosion of C-4 which completely destroyed the Blue Pavilion.
The enemy forced the remaining combatants to remain on the floor next to the prison administration building. Of the 29 survivors, they separated the most seriously wounded.
Communique Number 6 of the Joint Command.
8:00 PM: All 29 survivors are taken to the island of San Lorenzo, they were beaten, tortured and identified. Peter was killed in torture. The marines asked him "who is comrade Gonzalo?" Peter replied "the leader of the contingent," and the marines shot him. The marine's leader told the survivors: "you are warriors of the new democracy, Maoist imperialists, dogs that make our country look bad."
Fourteen or fifteen of the survivors are transferred to the Alcides Carrion Hospital, the RG removes their IV's. At midnight they are removed, naked, and transferred to Canto Grande where they are beaten and placed in the prison hospital with no type of medical attention, isolated from their relatives, lawyers and held incommunicado.
Aside from these 29 who stayed on the boat, none of the other survivors have ever been seen again.
The marines stole the watches and money from the bodies of the dead political prisoners.
June 20
On Fronton island, a combatant who had not died in the shooting emerges from the common grave, the marines take him to San Lorenzo, identify him and after taking him to the hospital take him to Canto Grande.
The detachment that was in the tunnel with knives continued digging, trying to get out, the tunnel was closed by the explosions and the marines poured concrete on top of it. One combatant managed to get out alive. The marines captured him and took him to a cell threatening to shoot him, they interrogated him, then they gagged him with a rag in his mouth reinforced with tape and put him in a marine uniform with a rifle, saying that neither the RG nor prison employees must see them at the dock, they put him on a boat and took him to a place in Callao where they tortured him. On Wednesday the 25th they took him to Canto Grande.
The Shining Trench of Combat at Lurigancho
June 17
In the evening the leadership committee carries out reconnaissance.
6:00 PM: The cell committees meet where they go over the plan under the political orientation of "Crush the new genocidal plan!" The objective of the action: fulfillment of the Acts, withdrawal of Decree 24499 which proposes the prisoners' transfer to the provinces. A firm position is taken on its content and the decision to give fierce and heroic resistance with the last breath of life is reaffirmed.
11:00 PM: The cohesion in all the apparatuses is finished. The measures taken are minutely applied. The most important documents are guarded, the rest are burned.
The clothes are taken out. The available weapons are checked and they decide to sleep with them. The watch tours are set up. Each detachment of the People's Guerrilla Army goes over its tasks with great care.
June 18
5:00 AM: The action begins according to plan. A hostage is taken, a prison employee. Then the order is given for all the combatants to take their posts. This concludes with the preparation of an aid station for the wounded. The beginning is a success.
5:30 AM: The party orders barricading, the combatants are filled with enthusiasm. There is a special detachment to support the evacuation of the leadership.
The barricades are raised, openings and windows are covered with clothe. There is an order not to show the weapons.
8:00 PM: Some common prisoners appear on the roof.
The party's leadership committee informs that the struggle is successful at El Fronton as well as Callao.
A group of employees from the Sanguinetti Union ask about their comrade who has been taken hostage and the reason for the struggle is explained to them.
8:30 AM: The detachments eat breakfast. On the outside the RG's troops have doubled.
9:30 AM: The common prisoners protest over the interruption of their visits, they are mobilized and they calm down.
10:00 AM: Warden Lazarte goes around the exterior observing the doors and walls of the pavilion.
The Coordination of the Judges of Penal Law and Dr. Isabel Marin present themselves and offer to do what they can, but they do not promise anything. The combatants demand that the agreements be fulfilled and the formation of a Unitarian Commission.
The union employees return to ask about the hostage and the delegates are informed that he is well.
The party informs that the actions in the STC are having an international repercussion already, the international proletariat and the oppressed people of the world have their eyes on Peru. The reactionaries are afraid for their Socialist Congress, Alan Garcia is going to meet with the Council of Ministers.
Some reactionaries try to throw the common prisoners against the combatants of the trench but they are persuaded and neutralized.
1:00 AM: A low flying helicopter from the army appears, observing the entire prison, mainly the trench, it flies around several times.
1:30 AM: A good number of the common prisoners have taken the roofs, the yard and the pampa, including some who reach the trench, they are given a list of the demands. All of the pavilions support the struggle, there are more than 4,000 common prisoners.
The shouting by family members outside is heard.
The government, through the Minister of the Interior, publishes Communique Number 1 of the Council of Ministers which says that at 6 AM in a concerted attack all of the prisons have been taken. It says that at Fronton there are 3 wounded RGs and 6 wounded prison employees and four RG's have been taken hostage. It says that at Lurigancho two prison employees have been taken hostage. In Santa Barbara it says the warden and two prison employees are hostage. That the government has and will maintain serenity. That this action seeks to take advantage of Socialist International congress to sully the image of Peru. The prisons cannot become territory foreign to the state's authority. As a complement to today's takeovers various members of police institutions have been assassinated, bombs have been placed in churches, street disorders seeking higher salaries have taken place.
The party evaluates and plans:
1. We are prepared; the entire contingent is united; we have reaffirmed our promise of fierce and heroic resistance and we will not be taken out of here alive. We are determined to crush the new genocidal plan, class morals are at stake, we shall assume our duty because it is infinitely superior, prepared to pay the highest price applying President Gonzalo's plan which is victory. 2. In the communique there are contradictions, ambivalences, pressures, taunts, needless to say they could send their forces, we shall be alert. 3. It could be that they published the communique to satisfy the pressures from some sectors. Regardless of the circumstances we shall maintain our position, it will be an example for the peoples of the world. On the other hand there may be negotiations because judges and lawyers arrived at Callao.
The agitations unfold each hour, expressing their class hatred, with historic optimism revolutionary songs were sung.
2:00 PM: Food is distributed to each detachment.
More RG's with blue berets are observed carrying out reconnaissance of the trench, the army helicopter returns for longer periods each time and slowly observes the trench.
3:30 PM: The party proposes: It appears the reaction will not appear today, they will do so at night so remain vigilant. Watch groups are assigned and all the units orally recount the operational plan.
The Peace Commission is not allowed to enter the STC of Lurigancho.
6:00 PM: The government issues Communique Number 2 which says that since the first hours of the morning judges of the courts, representatives of the national prosecutor's office, a member of the Senate's Human Rights Commission and the Peace Commission have appeared at the prisons. The efforts by the Peace Commission are unsuccessful. Members of the security forces under the direction of the Joint Command are proceeding at this very moment to reestablish authority in the prisons and transfer the prisoners to the prison at Canto Grande.
7:30 PM: The party evaluates: Continue applying the party's plan; burn absolutely all documents. As to the communique it states: 'The reaction has defined the situation, the government has delivered command of the prisons to the Joint Command and has declared them to be in a state of emergency; from the reaction we can expect nothing, they will come in to kill, they will do so simultaneously or in parts, we shall remain alert, at any moment they will appear, we shall await them."
8:30 PM: Dr. Marin again appears with a commission of employees and says that faced with the government's communique we should desist because they fear for the lives of the political prisoners. She says this is the last time she will come because they are being removed from the prison.
The prisoners tell her: "Any blood that is shed in the prisons will fall on the head of Alan Garcia."
The agitations intensify every 20 minutes as well as the songs. All the lights are kept off. Each detachment is in its respective post.
9:30 PM: A commission of prison employees approaches and informs us that at that very moment warden Lazarte and the union are signing a decree in which they deliver the prison to the Joint Command which removes all their authority, that a contingent of the RG and army units have arrived. They are over 300 troops, 220 soldiers and 100 RGs.
The Pavilion is surrounded.
The party informs: "1. Our opportunity has presented itself, once more we shall demonstrate our infinitely superior morale, it is the morale of the Party applying a fierce and heroic resistance in function of the IV Campaign of "Close the Great Leap with a Seal of Gold!" against wind and tide whatever circumstances present themselves. 2. The reaction has arrived, on the exterior are the army and the RG, it appears they are waiting for more materials to arrive, at any moment they will attack. Agitate."
The hostage Jose Suares Olivera was freed alive and in good health. The hostage leaves at the combatants' decision to release him before the attack begins, the reaction doesn't recognize him and almost shoots him.
10:15 PM: The employees commission again appears, they say they have asked for permission to approach, that the lives of the political prisoners are in danger. No authority or official ever appeared, not even the prison warden Lazarte.
11:30 PM: The common prisoners are removed from pavilion A, known as TBC, in twenty minutes they were taken to the auditorium, this operation was carried out by prison employees on their superior's orders.
June 19
12:15 AM: A brigade of firemen enters. Tanks and armored cars of the army are prepared to intervene: 11 army trucks, 2 from the police, 5 armored cars with rifles and machine guns are at the prisons' doors.
Informative statement by Marcial Bellapatinos Calirgos, chief of the sallyport door at Lurigancho prison. Part No. 746-JS-GI-EPSP-86 directed by the Chief of the Prison Door by the Service Group I of the prison, says:
[12:15] '18 Commandos from the Peruvian army entered carrying 6 bazookas, 4 boxes of dynamite, automatic rifles, teargas bombs, electric cables and gas masks.
[6:00 AM:] 'Three army trucks with license plates No. 443, 446, 363 entered.
'The RG was in a support role."
12:30 PM: They enter in groups and prepare to attack. They wait for the curfew. The pavilion is surrounded.
The First Attack
12:50 AM: The army troops and RG go into action. They begin with mortar fire, in a one minute interval they fire four rounds which land on the roof and explode.
No one is wounded. The detachments respond with their weapons.
They continue with machine gun fire from FALs and fire bazookas. The shooting stops and on a megaphone they say "Come out." This is responded to with slogans. The firing continues and explosions of TNT blow away the exterior wall of the trench to allow entry through there. Machine gun fire at the windows try to prevent the combatants from returning fire, grenades are thrown through the windows. Firing stops.
1:30 AM: In the STC the military command orders the barricades to be armed with cots, tables, clothes hampers, mattresses, the cots are dragged up to the third quadrant.
They reinitiate the attack with machine gun fire and grenades.
The barricade is advanced a quadrant, to the door of the trench, kerosene is placed on the mattresses against the door, in the midst of all the movement the slogans continue. The prisoners return fire.
With an explosion the reaction starts a fire in the kitchen and blow a hole in the wall, launching grenades, the fire lights the cans of kerosene in the kitchen. In the midst of the gunbattle the combatants regained the hole and for nearly an hour denied them entry causing them casualties with basic weapons like slings, arrows, spears, rocks and homemade grenades.
2:00 AM: Up until 2 AM three explosions are heard. General E.P. Rabanal asks for more powerful bombs from the army's arsenal.
During the nearly 40 minutes that this ceasefire lasted the combatants regrouped and launched harangues that they would rather die than surrender.
2:40 AM: The second attack. They launched a violent explosion with a radius of half a kilometer. Through the hole they fired vomit gas bombs and through the door of the trench they repeatedly fired machine gun rounds. This situation forced a retreat, no more cots were brought to make more barricades, the combatants fiercely returned bombs and fired rocks and arrows. The enemy in the hole launched explosives that landed in the middle of the pavilion covering it with shrapnel, the combatants take cover alongside it, behind the posts and barricades.
3:00 AM: There is a total of 18 explosions and despite the intense attack the commandos were unable to enter the Industrial Pavilion. Thirteen wounded policemen and soldiers are transferred to the military's hospital.
The prisoners note the lessening intensity of gunfire, which has become sporadic. In the STC, reconcentration takes place. The reactionaries shoot to prevent the prisoners from retaking the barricades. The commanders are verifying their contingents by calling them by numbers, the attack groups place themselves at the front, the bulk are farther behind and other detachments are in reserve and support.
3:30 AM: Third Attack: They begin with intense rifle fire, they enter a few steps into the opening, a group of combatants are surrounded, they are the first ones that are taken out, seven of them are machine gunned, it is probable that here there was an attack to disarm the military. They attack again with another intense barrage of machine gun fire advancing in leapfrog fashion, their shots were at waist height, their advance was contained with slings, spears and homemade grenades. The enemy retreats and with a megaphone they insist "Come out with your hands behind your neck," they lose patience. Another group of about 20 enters again with intense gunfire, they advance farther, they brought with them three flamethrowers; they took the positions in the barricades and controlling us from the other angle, the fire favored the enemy. The prisoners tried to put out the fires but were unable to do so, the enemy was near, the combatants enter at the last moment, they make noise by beating on the floor, sharpening their knives on the floor, voices shout "attack", an attempt is made to enter into hand to hand combat. The enemy fires selectively, to kill, at those who are inside. The combatants resistance is heroic, the enemy advances, it wants to capture them alive to kill them outside. The combatants want to extinguish the fire and launch a grenade which does not put it out, some of the enemy throw themselves onto the floor. The enemy discharges its fury against the heroic comrades and combatants who resisted by massacring them. They are reduced and group by group begin to emerge, the leadership emerges in the next to last group, approximately 112 combatants, most wounded, emerge from the entrance.
Outside, there are soldiers and RG's assigned to kill one by one, the combatants are thrown to the floor face down, they are then shot with rifles.
5:00 AM: Everyone is immobile, that is when they start to check if they are dead and identify them. There are orders to double check and verify the death of all. Someone asks "who is Diaz Martinez?" They pick three combatants who say nothing, they are shot in the mouth and head. Then the traitor "Poma" stands up and says "I know him" and points him out. Diaz Martinez was alive but wounded. They asked him "Where is comrade Gonzalo?" He did not say anything, four shots are heard, then another three.
After checking the dead they give the order to count them, they pulled the cadavers out and made a line with 122 cadavers outside. To this number must be added the 42 dead inside the prison from the battle earlier. Some of the bodies were bayonetted, all had their shoes, watches and valuables stolen.
5:30 AM: Someone orders "It's all over! Fall into formation!" The soldiers and RG withdraw.
Army trucks with 4 soldiers in each enter and take away the bodies.
Shining Trench of Combat at Callao
June 18
6:00 AM: The combatants (these are the women prisoners) take the entire prison and three hostages and then communicate their demands and the goals of the struggle to Radio Programas. The hostages are the warden and two prison employees.
5:20 PM: The Peace Commission "dialogues" with the prisoner representatives and are given a list of the demands and they seek the creation of a Unitarian Commission.
6:20 PM: Acting Judge Victor Chumbes arrives, he guarantees the lives of the prisoners.
Republican Guard General Jorge Jares Gago, sub chief of the RG region, appears and he together with the general command approves the operation directed and carried out by the Peruvian Air Force.
6:30 PM: 200 troops from the Air Force, RG and GC remove the press from the area surrounding the prison and cordon off a 100 meter perimeter around it. Simultaneously inside the prison the "Llapan Atic" under the command of an Air Force general place cables against the bars to dynamite the prison, the bars are cut through.
Navy personnel take possession of Plaza Grau. During this and through the morning the combatants sing revolutionary songs and slogans and also put a red hammer and sickle flag out the window.
9:00 PM: The enemy breaks through the bars with electric charges, enter the patio, dynamite the doors and open a hole in the roof of cell two on the second floor, the prisoners resist with the elemental weapons they have at their disposal.
10:40 PM: With heavy machine gun and rifle fire the enemy opens a path, they kill two and wound five prisoners. Comrade Mazel Chavarry and combatant Beatriz Sarmiento are killed. Then they went to cell three and ordered the firing of a burst of machine gun fire, a bullet wounds a comrade, someone gives the order not to shoot or kill. In that manner the combatants were overcome, the hostages rescued and the combatants were dragged out to the patio. The prisoners heroically resisted. They were thrown on the ground and walked on and kicked, they were hogtied and made to wait until curfew to be taken to the prison at Chorrillos.
June 19
12:00 AM: Before being put on trucks for the transfer to Chorillos the prisoners were made to run a gauntlet of 100 RG's under the command of the Air Force.
Once at Chorillos 12 combatants were separated from the rest and they were beaten until 6:30 AM, during this time they were thrown face down on the floor and jumped on and kicked.
June 20
5:00 AM: The prisoners are transferred to Cachiche, a mens prison located in Ica, they arrived at 11 AM. They were again beaten. They were placed in 16 punishment cells, they are 2-3-4-5 to a cell. Comrade Meche is isolated on the orders of the general command and it is rumored the Navy wanted her tortured to extract information.
The conditions inside the prison are of heavy security, they only leave their cells to bathe and only receive visits from lawyers and the red cross.
July 13
The prisoners are again moved back to Lima and imprisoned in Canto Grande.
The historical background of the uprising is that since 1980 the Communist Party of Peru (PCP, also known as the "Shining Path") has led a people's war to seize state power and establish a socialist republic. The ensuing civil war has resulted in widespread government repression in Peru. Several thousand Peruvians have been imprisoned as real or accused members of the PCP. Since the early 1980's PCP POWs showed themselves to be highly organized and disciplined. They were also subjected to torture, horrendous conditions of confinement and other abuses. As a result of struggle in the early 1980's they reached an agreement with the Peruvian government whereby they would be recognized as political prisoners and have relatively humane conditions of confinement. In 1985 Alan Garcia was elected president of Peru, partly on the strength of his promise to crush the PCP. One of his first steps in this regard was to announce that he would not recognize the agreement made on the prisoners' rights. Throughout 1986 there were increasing signs that the Peruvian government was planning to torture and kill the prisoners, who were held in three large prisons in and around Lima (El Fronton, an island prison, Lurigancho, and Callao, the latter being a women's prison). Both the military and prison officials were telling the prisoners what was in store for them. The first step would be to move the PCP prisoners to remote prisons scattered across the countryside, in an effort to break prisoner unity. The prisoners realized they were in a desperate situation, and repeatedly made known the government plans to kill them.
In June, 1986, the International Socialist organization was meeting in Lima. The prisoners decided that that would be the most opportune time to press for recognition of the previous agreement they had made with the government that their rights were to be respected. Prior to the uprising, the prisoners were candid that this was a high stakes gamble: either the government would negotiate with them and honor its prior agreement, or it would use the uprising as an excuse to kill them.
While many prisoners were killed during the uprising itself, especially while being bombarded by helicopter gunships and artillery, the bulk of the prisoners were killed after they had surrendered. Since the 1986 uprising, there has been continued abuse of PCP prisoners and there have been other large-scale prison massacres since then.
The 125 page book this article was excerpted from will soon be available in English. The article was written by prisoners who survived the massacres. It is already available in Spanish. For more information on this book, as well as on the situation in Peru, please contact: The New Flag, 30-08 Broadway, Suite 159, Queens, NY 11103.]
Chronology of the June, 1986 Massacre
From the Shining Trench of Combat of Fronton Prison
June 17
10 PM: All the POWs are informed of the day and hour of action. They were all in agreement with the sole decision of giving fierce resistance and of not being taken out alive as class morals were at issue and they had to be defended to the last breath of life, a unanimous decision of the communists and combatants of the Shining Trench of Combat (STC). With high morale and prepared to pay any cost required by the circumstances because the plan was just and correct and all the preparations had been made.
A night watch group is formed.
June 18
5:00 AM: Breakfast is eaten.
5:30 AM: The detachments occupy their positions.
6:00 AM: Hostages are taken. Eight Republican Guards (RGs) and 2 penitentiary employees enter. The assigned detachment successfully accomplishes its mission taking 3 RGs, 3 assault rifles, 1 submachine gun and 1 revolver. In the action the RGs who escape fatally wound one of the hostages. The action lasted three minutes.
7:00 AM: Digging in. The party waits. The first part has been successfully accomplished, now it is time to await the response. Either the government will enter to negotiate or they will enter to kill everyone. The combatants are prepared for anything, optimistic with high vigilance they prepare themselves. The hostages are given medical care and educated, applying the party's policy on prisoners.
8:00 AM: The RG carries out reconnaissance and set up a position on the water tank. A boat leaves for Callao with 4 RGs.
11:00 AM: By radio the prisoners hear about the success of the actions at the other two STCs. There is jubilation, the beginning had commenced.
The boat returned with civilians. Two destroyers with civilians and military on board are seen. The prisoners shout slogans and sing revolutionary songs.
12:00 PM: A hundred RG's arrive at Fronton.
1:00 PM: The government, through the Ministry of the Interior, makes public Communique No.1.
2:00 PM: There is movement by the navy with boats and destroyers. Army and navy helicopters fly over the prison. The combatants wait. Each detachment is attentive and vigilant.
2:50 PM: The peace commission arrives. They wait for a megaphone.
3:20 PM: Twenty five members of the navy's Special Operations Force disembark.
3:30 PM: The Peace Commission does not enter the Blue Pavilion and from the bars, by megaphone, they state they "want to resolve the problem peacefully and safeguard the lives of the hostages," another member says "and of the prisoners too." But none of them talked to the prisoners nor listened to them.
The warden of the prison, Penal Execution Judge and the Provincial Prosecutor of Callao approached the Pavilion and spoke with the prisoners. The prisoners' delegates set forth the necessity for the presence of family members, lawyers and authorities to comprise a Unitarian Commission. The judge and prosecutor accepted and agreed to this saying they would "intervene to use their good offices to make their petitions arrive and to ensure the prisoners' family members and lawyers were present." They also requested to speak with the hostages, this was allowed and they confirmed the hostages' good health. They were also asked what the navy was doing there, they replied that the navy could not enter without the wardens' authorization. They were given the prisoners' demands. All of this took place in ten minutes.
The judge, the prosecutor and the warden went to the administrative offices and they learned that the Vice Minister of the Interior, Agustin Mantilla, had arrived with a contingent of special forces from the RG and told them "from this moment on Callao finds itself in a state of emergency and by superior order of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces I take control of the prison and from now on the Joint Command will make the decisions in the form and manner in which the prisoners of the Blue Pavilion will be treated." Later the vice minister said that he had superior orders to remove by any means necessary the demonstrating prisoners and for that he counted on the support of the navy and he had been ordered not to enter into negotiations with the prisoners under any conditions. Faced with the intervention by the navy and RG who, without the warden's permission or authorization and not recognizing the legal responsibilities of his office, the warden disclaimed any and all responsibility for the serious deeds such as loss of life, massacres and such that could occur. At that moment the radio operator announced that he had been told by "Australia" to "leave the entire situation in the hands of the Joint Command, who find themselves presently in the process of savage execution."
4:00 PM: The combatants realized that the so called Peace Commission was a cover to justify genocide and that they were playing a sinister role.
4:30 PM: The marines take up positions around the pavilion, barricading themselves in the hallways and behind the walls, simultaneously a helicopter flew overhead.
A comrade said "Everyone to their posts. Kill the first bastard who enters, no one leave their post, if they come in you know to go for the man and his gun; if you die, die at your combat post."
5:00 PM: The first attack begins. They opened fire with rifles, heavy machine guns, bazookas and grenades. The walls shook from the first explosions of TNT placed by a navy demolition commando. "It was a bombardment worthy of a conventional war." "The combatants shouted "Long live president Gonzalo! Long Live the Communist Party of Peru! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!" The leadership placed itself on side B, sector 3, second floor.
6:00 PM: The prisoners wound a marine. The fire generalizes itself. It is calculated that three patrols of marines have intervened in addition to the RG and five helicopter gunships from the air force; commandos from the navy's amphibious demolition also participated.
6:30 PM: The first prisoner combatant is killed.
7:00 PM: A powerful explosion rips apart sector four of the second floor of the Blue Pavilion, everything was a deafening noise, they were demolishing it from the rear to level it. Resistance is carried out, no screams of complaint or pain are heard, the combatants encouraged each other, they continued shouting slogans, they said "death to the marines! Killers!" The combatants responded with darts, arrows, slings, rocks and the captured firearms, as protection some had tin vests. From the trenches and tunnels they fired at the marines.
The armed clash had spectacular effects, the explosives used against the Blue Pavilion did not cause major damage at first, it was necessary to use powerful demolition charges to open holes in the walls through which to throw tear gas bombs, the combatants closed the openings with fortified cots, the songs did not cease during the battle, the resistance continued, some detachments used TNT.
8:00 PM: The enemy ran out of ammunition, they ceased fire to return to their supply point and get provisions. The combatants remained at their posts and checked their contingents, the wounded and casualties; the leadership discussed plans with optimism.
8:30 PM: They return and attack with tear gas bombs, a strong explosion knocks down a wall and part of the roof. An RG attack group tried to enter through the breach but was repulsed, without ceasing their shouting of slogans the combatants detonated a "Russian cheese" and occasionally fired darts and even rocks. The enemy launched grenades and continued firing, one by one the combatants fell with their fists high, shouting long lives for President Gonzalo. The RG attack group did not manage to enter the Blue Pavilion.
9:00 PM: The combatants burn documents and papers on the leadership's orders. There are attacks with mortars, bazookas, they bombard the roof with missiles; the marines throw gasoline on the Pavilion and light it on fire but the combatants stop it from spreading by mixing the gasoline with water and they withdraw to the kitchen and hallway.
12:00 PM: The shots are intermittent. Comrade Alejandro falls wounded. A detachment is sent to enter the tunnels with orders to emerge from the ventilators and throw dynamite at the marines.
Communique Number 3 from the Joint Command.
June 19
1:30 AM: The gunfire intensifies, they launch flares, tear gas bombs and incendiary bombs; the combatants extinguish the incendiary bombs and throw back the grenades.
3:00 AM: The attack is suspended with the goal of restarting it at dawn, the marines receive reinforcements with more provisions. The leadership wondered about the possibility that "had they reached the limit of the genocide?" Two boats leave Callao, they turn towards San Lorenzo.
4:30 AM: Three boats appear in San Lorenzo; this is communicated to the leadership who says: "then it has arrived too, prepare yourselves comrades!"
5:00 AM: They reinitiate the attack (2nd attack) with bazookas and cannons that they placed in the bars, more than 30 explosions occurred which were destroying the walls of the Blue Pavilion opening holes in it, both sides could see each other face to face. This encouraged the resistance, needless to say, the combatants continued firing.
9:00 AM: A group of marines with an officer tried to enter through a hole, the officer fell dead. The bodies of the combatants were underfoot but the survivors continued struggling until 11:30 AM, repulsing the group of marines.
11:00 AM: The combatants make a hole in the wall which leads to the hallway of the second floor, comrades from the leadership shouted long lives to President Gonzalo, Marxism-Leninism- Maoism guiding thought, to the Communist party of Peru and "Honor and Glory Comrades and Combatants!"
At mid morning the order from Alan Garcia Perez (President of Peru at the time) by radio instructed that steps be taken to favor the surrender of the survivors. Shortly thereafter Vice-Admiral Nicolini arrived who reiterated Garcia's order. Then Villanueva arrived and from that time on there was a ceasefire every fifteen minutes and they would offer to allow the prisoners to surrender.
The combatants listened to the plea by megaphone that they surrender to avoid further bloodshed. They responded with "sons of bitches, killers, go to shit!" they were quiet for a while and then continued firing. This lasted until about 1 PM. The combatants were grouped in the kitchen prepared for hand to hand combat if the marines entered. Comrade Alejandro gave long lives to President Gonzalo, the Communist Party of Peru, socialism and communism, the people's war and "honor and glory comrades, honor and glory!"
2:00 PM: There came an attack with cannon blasts, the third attack, with rifle fire, more grenades and incendiary bombs, the target was the kitchen where the combatants were.
Comrade Alejandro was leading the resistance to the marine's attack. At about 2 PM on June 19 three marines entered the kitchen of the Blue Pavilion throwing grenades which caused the death of some of the combatants, immediately afterwards the marines fired bursts of machine gun fire which killed other combatants. Comrade Alejandro was wounded in the head and waist by grenade shrapnel and with redoubled energy grabbed a red flag and ordered the singing of The International, long lived President Gonzalo, the people's war, the Communist party of Peru and with class hatred he condemned the killers, at that moment he was vilely murdered by the marines with FAL bullets. It was 2:30 PM. His body, together with those of the other heroic combatants, remained buried in the ruins of the Blue pavilion which would be demolished and totally leveled by the genocidal marines.
Other leaders continued agitating and taunting the marines "shoot murderers, sons of bitches! Long Live President Gonzalo! Long Live the PCP!" The heavy gunfire continued. Comrade Ignacio said "Well comrades, we're all going to die blown up. What an outrage by reaction, by those miserable genocides! They want us to surrender, no one surrenders!"
The attack continued, more explosions, grenades and bullets, the marines shouted "surrender dammit, surrender!" Comrade Daniel replied "Let your mother surrender, you miserable genocidal murderers!" Through this the grenades and explosives were dismembering and blowing to pieces the bodies of the various guerrillas, the combatants would throw back live grenades and bombs that were about to explode, they used cans and the lids from pans. Various comrades died there; it was 3:00 PM. Comrade Daniel was without his legs but did not complain. Osvaldo was gravely wounded and shouted "murderers, kill me dammit! Long live President Gonzalo!" He dragged himself to the opening in the wall in front of the bullets and fell. Jorge was another who was wounded but continued agitating.
4:00 PM: In these attacks on the kitchen a great number died, comrade Felipe, a tranquil peasant, coldly watched standing there in the middle of the others saying: "They are putting the cannon in place, they are aiming, they are going to fire." He died from a bullet. There was discussion to go into the pavilion or descend. One comrade in the leadership said: "Let's stay here, we're going to die blown up. Honor and glory comrades! Long live President Gonzalo! Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Guiding Thought! Long live the PCP! Long live the People's War! For communism and socialism!" He added: "We have carried out the resistance, it is for history, a resistance in which we have seen it all: hostages, confrontation, annihilation and more than 20 hours of resistance, not a single cry of complaint or pain, our enemies will never succeed comrades, the people's war is invincible, we have the guarantee of triumph: our president, we serve him, the greatest." It was after 4 PM.
5:00 PM: The battle continued, the marines tried to enter from the rear, the prisoners fired their last bullet and a marine fell, the rest ran away. They decided to continue their attack with more cannon fire, bullets, grenades and explosives. When the marines came closer we shouted at them: "We are going to remove the wounded and the hostages!" They replied: "First your weapons." The comrades threw out the captured FALs, then the hostages. Albino agitated and they killed him, the combatants who removed the hostages were shot.
The combatants from the first and second floor emerged, between 60 and 80 of them. Surprised, a marine said "what resistance, what resistance."
They separated the combatants into two groups. They were looking for the leaders, some were recognized by the enemy, they were made to undress and then in groups of five were taken out and shot. They fell agitating and shouting long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism Guiding Thought, President Gonzalo, the Communist Party of Peru and the revolution. They did not shut up even in agony. The dead bodies were dragged to a trench which they used as a grave, there they put between 30 and 40 of the executed combatants then threw a grenade on top.
6:00 PM: The national prosecutor arrived at Fronton and did not interview a single political prisoner and spoke on the government television.
When the prosecutor left the navy set off a powerful explosion of C-4 which completely destroyed the Blue Pavilion.
The enemy forced the remaining combatants to remain on the floor next to the prison administration building. Of the 29 survivors, they separated the most seriously wounded.
Communique Number 6 of the Joint Command.
8:00 PM: All 29 survivors are taken to the island of San Lorenzo, they were beaten, tortured and identified. Peter was killed in torture. The marines asked him "who is comrade Gonzalo?" Peter replied "the leader of the contingent," and the marines shot him. The marine's leader told the survivors: "you are warriors of the new democracy, Maoist imperialists, dogs that make our country look bad."
Fourteen or fifteen of the survivors are transferred to the Alcides Carrion Hospital, the RG removes their IV's. At midnight they are removed, naked, and transferred to Canto Grande where they are beaten and placed in the prison hospital with no type of medical attention, isolated from their relatives, lawyers and held incommunicado.
Aside from these 29 who stayed on the boat, none of the other survivors have ever been seen again.
The marines stole the watches and money from the bodies of the dead political prisoners.
June 20
On Fronton island, a combatant who had not died in the shooting emerges from the common grave, the marines take him to San Lorenzo, identify him and after taking him to the hospital take him to Canto Grande.
The detachment that was in the tunnel with knives continued digging, trying to get out, the tunnel was closed by the explosions and the marines poured concrete on top of it. One combatant managed to get out alive. The marines captured him and took him to a cell threatening to shoot him, they interrogated him, then they gagged him with a rag in his mouth reinforced with tape and put him in a marine uniform with a rifle, saying that neither the RG nor prison employees must see them at the dock, they put him on a boat and took him to a place in Callao where they tortured him. On Wednesday the 25th they took him to Canto Grande.
The Shining Trench of Combat at Lurigancho
June 17
In the evening the leadership committee carries out reconnaissance.
6:00 PM: The cell committees meet where they go over the plan under the political orientation of "Crush the new genocidal plan!" The objective of the action: fulfillment of the Acts, withdrawal of Decree 24499 which proposes the prisoners' transfer to the provinces. A firm position is taken on its content and the decision to give fierce and heroic resistance with the last breath of life is reaffirmed.
11:00 PM: The cohesion in all the apparatuses is finished. The measures taken are minutely applied. The most important documents are guarded, the rest are burned.
The clothes are taken out. The available weapons are checked and they decide to sleep with them. The watch tours are set up. Each detachment of the People's Guerrilla Army goes over its tasks with great care.
June 18
5:00 AM: The action begins according to plan. A hostage is taken, a prison employee. Then the order is given for all the combatants to take their posts. This concludes with the preparation of an aid station for the wounded. The beginning is a success.
5:30 AM: The party orders barricading, the combatants are filled with enthusiasm. There is a special detachment to support the evacuation of the leadership.
The barricades are raised, openings and windows are covered with clothe. There is an order not to show the weapons.
8:00 PM: Some common prisoners appear on the roof.
The party's leadership committee informs that the struggle is successful at El Fronton as well as Callao.
A group of employees from the Sanguinetti Union ask about their comrade who has been taken hostage and the reason for the struggle is explained to them.
8:30 AM: The detachments eat breakfast. On the outside the RG's troops have doubled.
9:30 AM: The common prisoners protest over the interruption of their visits, they are mobilized and they calm down.
10:00 AM: Warden Lazarte goes around the exterior observing the doors and walls of the pavilion.
The Coordination of the Judges of Penal Law and Dr. Isabel Marin present themselves and offer to do what they can, but they do not promise anything. The combatants demand that the agreements be fulfilled and the formation of a Unitarian Commission.
The union employees return to ask about the hostage and the delegates are informed that he is well.
The party informs that the actions in the STC are having an international repercussion already, the international proletariat and the oppressed people of the world have their eyes on Peru. The reactionaries are afraid for their Socialist Congress, Alan Garcia is going to meet with the Council of Ministers.
Some reactionaries try to throw the common prisoners against the combatants of the trench but they are persuaded and neutralized.
1:00 AM: A low flying helicopter from the army appears, observing the entire prison, mainly the trench, it flies around several times.
1:30 AM: A good number of the common prisoners have taken the roofs, the yard and the pampa, including some who reach the trench, they are given a list of the demands. All of the pavilions support the struggle, there are more than 4,000 common prisoners.
The shouting by family members outside is heard.
The government, through the Minister of the Interior, publishes Communique Number 1 of the Council of Ministers which says that at 6 AM in a concerted attack all of the prisons have been taken. It says that at Fronton there are 3 wounded RGs and 6 wounded prison employees and four RG's have been taken hostage. It says that at Lurigancho two prison employees have been taken hostage. In Santa Barbara it says the warden and two prison employees are hostage. That the government has and will maintain serenity. That this action seeks to take advantage of Socialist International congress to sully the image of Peru. The prisons cannot become territory foreign to the state's authority. As a complement to today's takeovers various members of police institutions have been assassinated, bombs have been placed in churches, street disorders seeking higher salaries have taken place.
The party evaluates and plans:
1. We are prepared; the entire contingent is united; we have reaffirmed our promise of fierce and heroic resistance and we will not be taken out of here alive. We are determined to crush the new genocidal plan, class morals are at stake, we shall assume our duty because it is infinitely superior, prepared to pay the highest price applying President Gonzalo's plan which is victory. 2. In the communique there are contradictions, ambivalences, pressures, taunts, needless to say they could send their forces, we shall be alert. 3. It could be that they published the communique to satisfy the pressures from some sectors. Regardless of the circumstances we shall maintain our position, it will be an example for the peoples of the world. On the other hand there may be negotiations because judges and lawyers arrived at Callao.
The agitations unfold each hour, expressing their class hatred, with historic optimism revolutionary songs were sung.
2:00 PM: Food is distributed to each detachment.
More RG's with blue berets are observed carrying out reconnaissance of the trench, the army helicopter returns for longer periods each time and slowly observes the trench.
3:30 PM: The party proposes: It appears the reaction will not appear today, they will do so at night so remain vigilant. Watch groups are assigned and all the units orally recount the operational plan.
The Peace Commission is not allowed to enter the STC of Lurigancho.
6:00 PM: The government issues Communique Number 2 which says that since the first hours of the morning judges of the courts, representatives of the national prosecutor's office, a member of the Senate's Human Rights Commission and the Peace Commission have appeared at the prisons. The efforts by the Peace Commission are unsuccessful. Members of the security forces under the direction of the Joint Command are proceeding at this very moment to reestablish authority in the prisons and transfer the prisoners to the prison at Canto Grande.
7:30 PM: The party evaluates: Continue applying the party's plan; burn absolutely all documents. As to the communique it states: 'The reaction has defined the situation, the government has delivered command of the prisons to the Joint Command and has declared them to be in a state of emergency; from the reaction we can expect nothing, they will come in to kill, they will do so simultaneously or in parts, we shall remain alert, at any moment they will appear, we shall await them."
8:30 PM: Dr. Marin again appears with a commission of employees and says that faced with the government's communique we should desist because they fear for the lives of the political prisoners. She says this is the last time she will come because they are being removed from the prison.
The prisoners tell her: "Any blood that is shed in the prisons will fall on the head of Alan Garcia."
The agitations intensify every 20 minutes as well as the songs. All the lights are kept off. Each detachment is in its respective post.
9:30 PM: A commission of prison employees approaches and informs us that at that very moment warden Lazarte and the union are signing a decree in which they deliver the prison to the Joint Command which removes all their authority, that a contingent of the RG and army units have arrived. They are over 300 troops, 220 soldiers and 100 RGs.
The Pavilion is surrounded.
The party informs: "1. Our opportunity has presented itself, once more we shall demonstrate our infinitely superior morale, it is the morale of the Party applying a fierce and heroic resistance in function of the IV Campaign of "Close the Great Leap with a Seal of Gold!" against wind and tide whatever circumstances present themselves. 2. The reaction has arrived, on the exterior are the army and the RG, it appears they are waiting for more materials to arrive, at any moment they will attack. Agitate."
The hostage Jose Suares Olivera was freed alive and in good health. The hostage leaves at the combatants' decision to release him before the attack begins, the reaction doesn't recognize him and almost shoots him.
10:15 PM: The employees commission again appears, they say they have asked for permission to approach, that the lives of the political prisoners are in danger. No authority or official ever appeared, not even the prison warden Lazarte.
11:30 PM: The common prisoners are removed from pavilion A, known as TBC, in twenty minutes they were taken to the auditorium, this operation was carried out by prison employees on their superior's orders.
June 19
12:15 AM: A brigade of firemen enters. Tanks and armored cars of the army are prepared to intervene: 11 army trucks, 2 from the police, 5 armored cars with rifles and machine guns are at the prisons' doors.
Informative statement by Marcial Bellapatinos Calirgos, chief of the sallyport door at Lurigancho prison. Part No. 746-JS-GI-EPSP-86 directed by the Chief of the Prison Door by the Service Group I of the prison, says:
[12:15] '18 Commandos from the Peruvian army entered carrying 6 bazookas, 4 boxes of dynamite, automatic rifles, teargas bombs, electric cables and gas masks.
[6:00 AM:] 'Three army trucks with license plates No. 443, 446, 363 entered.
'The RG was in a support role."
12:30 PM: They enter in groups and prepare to attack. They wait for the curfew. The pavilion is surrounded.
The First Attack
12:50 AM: The army troops and RG go into action. They begin with mortar fire, in a one minute interval they fire four rounds which land on the roof and explode.
No one is wounded. The detachments respond with their weapons.
They continue with machine gun fire from FALs and fire bazookas. The shooting stops and on a megaphone they say "Come out." This is responded to with slogans. The firing continues and explosions of TNT blow away the exterior wall of the trench to allow entry through there. Machine gun fire at the windows try to prevent the combatants from returning fire, grenades are thrown through the windows. Firing stops.
1:30 AM: In the STC the military command orders the barricades to be armed with cots, tables, clothes hampers, mattresses, the cots are dragged up to the third quadrant.
They reinitiate the attack with machine gun fire and grenades.
The barricade is advanced a quadrant, to the door of the trench, kerosene is placed on the mattresses against the door, in the midst of all the movement the slogans continue. The prisoners return fire.
With an explosion the reaction starts a fire in the kitchen and blow a hole in the wall, launching grenades, the fire lights the cans of kerosene in the kitchen. In the midst of the gunbattle the combatants regained the hole and for nearly an hour denied them entry causing them casualties with basic weapons like slings, arrows, spears, rocks and homemade grenades.
2:00 AM: Up until 2 AM three explosions are heard. General E.P. Rabanal asks for more powerful bombs from the army's arsenal.
During the nearly 40 minutes that this ceasefire lasted the combatants regrouped and launched harangues that they would rather die than surrender.
2:40 AM: The second attack. They launched a violent explosion with a radius of half a kilometer. Through the hole they fired vomit gas bombs and through the door of the trench they repeatedly fired machine gun rounds. This situation forced a retreat, no more cots were brought to make more barricades, the combatants fiercely returned bombs and fired rocks and arrows. The enemy in the hole launched explosives that landed in the middle of the pavilion covering it with shrapnel, the combatants take cover alongside it, behind the posts and barricades.
3:00 AM: There is a total of 18 explosions and despite the intense attack the commandos were unable to enter the Industrial Pavilion. Thirteen wounded policemen and soldiers are transferred to the military's hospital.
The prisoners note the lessening intensity of gunfire, which has become sporadic. In the STC, reconcentration takes place. The reactionaries shoot to prevent the prisoners from retaking the barricades. The commanders are verifying their contingents by calling them by numbers, the attack groups place themselves at the front, the bulk are farther behind and other detachments are in reserve and support.
3:30 AM: Third Attack: They begin with intense rifle fire, they enter a few steps into the opening, a group of combatants are surrounded, they are the first ones that are taken out, seven of them are machine gunned, it is probable that here there was an attack to disarm the military. They attack again with another intense barrage of machine gun fire advancing in leapfrog fashion, their shots were at waist height, their advance was contained with slings, spears and homemade grenades. The enemy retreats and with a megaphone they insist "Come out with your hands behind your neck," they lose patience. Another group of about 20 enters again with intense gunfire, they advance farther, they brought with them three flamethrowers; they took the positions in the barricades and controlling us from the other angle, the fire favored the enemy. The prisoners tried to put out the fires but were unable to do so, the enemy was near, the combatants enter at the last moment, they make noise by beating on the floor, sharpening their knives on the floor, voices shout "attack", an attempt is made to enter into hand to hand combat. The enemy fires selectively, to kill, at those who are inside. The combatants resistance is heroic, the enemy advances, it wants to capture them alive to kill them outside. The combatants want to extinguish the fire and launch a grenade which does not put it out, some of the enemy throw themselves onto the floor. The enemy discharges its fury against the heroic comrades and combatants who resisted by massacring them. They are reduced and group by group begin to emerge, the leadership emerges in the next to last group, approximately 112 combatants, most wounded, emerge from the entrance.
Outside, there are soldiers and RG's assigned to kill one by one, the combatants are thrown to the floor face down, they are then shot with rifles.
5:00 AM: Everyone is immobile, that is when they start to check if they are dead and identify them. There are orders to double check and verify the death of all. Someone asks "who is Diaz Martinez?" They pick three combatants who say nothing, they are shot in the mouth and head. Then the traitor "Poma" stands up and says "I know him" and points him out. Diaz Martinez was alive but wounded. They asked him "Where is comrade Gonzalo?" He did not say anything, four shots are heard, then another three.
After checking the dead they give the order to count them, they pulled the cadavers out and made a line with 122 cadavers outside. To this number must be added the 42 dead inside the prison from the battle earlier. Some of the bodies were bayonetted, all had their shoes, watches and valuables stolen.
5:30 AM: Someone orders "It's all over! Fall into formation!" The soldiers and RG withdraw.
Army trucks with 4 soldiers in each enter and take away the bodies.
Shining Trench of Combat at Callao
June 18
6:00 AM: The combatants (these are the women prisoners) take the entire prison and three hostages and then communicate their demands and the goals of the struggle to Radio Programas. The hostages are the warden and two prison employees.
5:20 PM: The Peace Commission "dialogues" with the prisoner representatives and are given a list of the demands and they seek the creation of a Unitarian Commission.
6:20 PM: Acting Judge Victor Chumbes arrives, he guarantees the lives of the prisoners.
Republican Guard General Jorge Jares Gago, sub chief of the RG region, appears and he together with the general command approves the operation directed and carried out by the Peruvian Air Force.
6:30 PM: 200 troops from the Air Force, RG and GC remove the press from the area surrounding the prison and cordon off a 100 meter perimeter around it. Simultaneously inside the prison the "Llapan Atic" under the command of an Air Force general place cables against the bars to dynamite the prison, the bars are cut through.
Navy personnel take possession of Plaza Grau. During this and through the morning the combatants sing revolutionary songs and slogans and also put a red hammer and sickle flag out the window.
9:00 PM: The enemy breaks through the bars with electric charges, enter the patio, dynamite the doors and open a hole in the roof of cell two on the second floor, the prisoners resist with the elemental weapons they have at their disposal.
10:40 PM: With heavy machine gun and rifle fire the enemy opens a path, they kill two and wound five prisoners. Comrade Mazel Chavarry and combatant Beatriz Sarmiento are killed. Then they went to cell three and ordered the firing of a burst of machine gun fire, a bullet wounds a comrade, someone gives the order not to shoot or kill. In that manner the combatants were overcome, the hostages rescued and the combatants were dragged out to the patio. The prisoners heroically resisted. They were thrown on the ground and walked on and kicked, they were hogtied and made to wait until curfew to be taken to the prison at Chorrillos.
June 19
12:00 AM: Before being put on trucks for the transfer to Chorillos the prisoners were made to run a gauntlet of 100 RG's under the command of the Air Force.
Once at Chorillos 12 combatants were separated from the rest and they were beaten until 6:30 AM, during this time they were thrown face down on the floor and jumped on and kicked.
June 20
5:00 AM: The prisoners are transferred to Cachiche, a mens prison located in Ica, they arrived at 11 AM. They were again beaten. They were placed in 16 punishment cells, they are 2-3-4-5 to a cell. Comrade Meche is isolated on the orders of the general command and it is rumored the Navy wanted her tortured to extract information.
The conditions inside the prison are of heavy security, they only leave their cells to bathe and only receive visits from lawyers and the red cross.
July 13
The prisoners are again moved back to Lima and imprisoned in Canto Grande.
As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.
Already a subscriber? Login