JUST ONE MORE LITTLE JOB

By General Rodolfo Robles
The Beast and his Dog

[Editor's Note. Fujimori, a tinpot tyrant with dynastic pretensions, and his cocaine advisor Montesinos have arrested this former general of the reactionary armed forces who came forward to denounce in detail, several genocides carried out by military death squads controlled directly by the regime. Most of these crimes were committed against humble unarmed people such as nine students and one professor at the Teacher's University La Cantuta, against Miner Leader Saul Cantoral, against two entire families in midtown Lima (Barrios Altos), and against dissidents in the same armed forces. It is the same bloody regime that General Robles thought he was serving with honor as the third ranking member in the military command, involved in fighting a powerful People's Army of Liberation led by the Communist Party of Peru. The unedited article by General Robles we present below, shows to the world that the U.S. propaganda that "human rights has improved in Peru," is truly a farce. The New Flag.]

What really happened at La Cantuta on Saturday July 18, 1992 at about 1:30 a.m.? What was the exact sequence of events? What tragic moments did the kidnaped and their loved ones live in those few minutes when the victims were wrested out of their beds, and taken away, never to be seen again? And ask yourself: "What would I do if some day I faced the same situation Dr. Muñoz, the university professor, or his wife faced that night?

"Petete" was restless. A cold air gust straight from Antarctica itself penetrated his bones on that July 18 early in the morning. He had been waiting since late last night yesterday, interrupting the "Social Friday" bout at Rambo's luxury residency near Miraflores. What a Huayhuaco! [TNF: Huayhuaco was the head of the Army-run paramilitary peasant ronda in Ayacucho who was caught dealing with cocaine.] Nothing that a little coke can't cure, even the winter breeze, but its effects were running out by now, and it was chilly. But duty calls! And if the chief Martin requested this operation so insistently, it must be important.

He felt lucky; Martin was a good boss, always looking after his men, and women too, of course, and after all, this was just a quick little job. Like so many others in the past, and it would be all right. Boy, that job at Canto Grande last May -4 days of fierce clash with those damned Senderistas in Canto Grande prison, and all those foreign newsmen with their noses in other people's affairs. That was a messy job, and Petete felt lucky that he was not called there. Boss Martin would never fall into that, since he leads "the magnificent"of the Colina Group; his jobs are always very neat, no traces left afterwards, like the mess at Canto Grande. [TNF: the genocide at the Cantogrande prison where 100 political prisoners were murdered] Thus, Petete urged himself to be brave in the winter breezes, and avoid the boredom of waiting.

It was almost one-thirty. What's that . . . a crisscrossing lit match . . . the signal! He grabbed his HK machine pistol with silencer, looked at the clip, and it was OK. He loaded it and began walking on the east sidewalk, about a block from the dormitory he had been watching.

For a Friday night, it had been uneventful at the campus of the Enrique Guzmán Valle Teacher's University, "La Cantuta." Like the students, weekends are not too riotous on militarily occupied campuses. And whatever else La Cantuta was, one thing no one could doubt: it was under military occupied. And that Friday night July 17, 1992, the campus dormitories had been calm. Perhaps too calm.

But not all the students in the dormitories were asleep in the early hours of Saturday July 18 about 1:30 a.m. A few Operative Intelligence Agents (AIOs) of the Army Intelligence Unit (SIE) disguised as students, male and female, were quite awake or exchanging catnaps in relay watch.

"Jackie"awoke from her brief nap on the couch: "Yawn . . . Pat, is it you?" "Hush!,"urged "Patty," code name for SIE AIO Rosario Izalde as she shook the shoulders of AIO Maria Magdalena Acevedo Sanchez. "Yes, it's time. 'Kathy' is up already." Standing by the window, AIO Isabel Barboza Bautista, "Katy," kept watch on the surroundings: "I just saw 'El Chato' down across the street with El Jefe Rivas and 'Lt. Medina', " she said. "So let's go!"ordered Izalde as the three female AIOs left their apartment in the dark, and quietly snuck downstairs and across the street. "El Chato" Sosa came to Izalde: "Good job, Lieutenant. Get into that van, Basurto's waiting." The three women got into the mirror-glass GMC van a block away from their apartment, where they would inform Capt. 'Basurto' of last-minute details, to ensure the operation's success, and then . . . Vanish!

Agents had been planted by SIE --very professional work-- for the past one year. At the time of the events, eight AIOs were successfully undercover, at La Cantuta. All of whom, except one, were wide awake that morning. That one, in deep cover, was asleep as most normal students, and he was forcibly taken out of his bed and beaten up early that morning, just like the rest of the kidnaped by the detachment commanded by Maj. EP Santiago Martin Rivas.

The AIO acting in this case belonged to the Airport Intelligence Post (IP) commanded by Captain. "Basurto," who personally selected the men and women in mid 1991, who would carry out the La Cantuta operation. The AIOs were trained at the Special Forces Division (DIFE0 by a Security Major named "Jay," who taught them about the "general situation of the mission to be done," and they studied the personal records of the people to be watched, presumed to be subversive elements of or sympathetic to the Communist Party of Peru or "Sendero Luminoso." Operative "covers" were fabricated: Some entered as "workers," others as "students" coming from the provinces.

The operation to infiltrate the academic community in La Cantuta was agreed upon in July of 1991 when Army General Juan Rivera Lazo was head of Intelligence Direction of the Army's General Staff (DINTE) and Col. of the Army Alberto Pinto Cardenas head of the Army Intelligence Unit (SIE). A commander under the assumed name "Arias" transmitted the high command's order to carry out the plan. [TNF: in a further testimony General Robles identified these as Vladimiro Montesinos and Alberto Kenyo Fujimori]

"Honey, what's that noise?" Mrs. Antonia Perez de Muñoz asked her husband, La Cantuta tenured Professor Dr. Hugo Muñoz Sanchez. Heavy steps on the back patio. "I'll go see. Don't worry love, go back to sleep." Dr. Muñoz tried to reassure his wife that there was no problem while putting on his pants, he went to the back service door of apartment E-11 in the faculty's residence. "OK . . . OK, this is an expensive door, and the school doesn't have money to repair it! I'll open!" No need; the door shattered, the intruders holding guns rushed into the kitchen and grabbed the helpless Dr. Muñoz.

Standing at the kitchen door, Mrs. Muñoz screams as a group of men dressed in black turtleneck sweaters, dark ski masks and dark pants rush in; one grabs Dr. Muñoz by the arm and a second one pulls him to the floor by the hair. "Shut up, bitch, you'll get a better man when we're through with this one," says one; "Yeah, sweetheart, just give me a call!" says a second.

"You miserable rat!" protests Dr. Muñoz, trying to get loose from the grip, but three attackers and two more standing by the door keep him subdued. "Enough!" An authoritative figure who was standing by the door, and his face concealed by the dark, issued stark orders to the five automatons inside. "You and you, bring him outside to the van! Move!" "Hugo!" screams Mrs.To¤a de Mu¤oz, trying futilely to grab her husband's arm. The authoritative figure pulls her hand away: "Ma'am, you'd better go back to sleep. That's an order! Stay out of this!" Outside, a hooded Operative Intelligence Agent (AIO) videotapes the scene.

"You cowards, take me too . . . Hugo, my love, Hugo! Where are you taking him, cowards! Take me too, you miserable wretches!" The woman is pushed back and falls to the floor, The door is slammed shut.

"Rosa, what's that noise out there?" La Cantuta Professor Octavio Mejia Martel asks his wife Rosa de Paz Sepulveda de Mejia. Mejia grabbed his house robe and went to the window followed by his wife. "Oh my God. My precious God! Octavio, they are taking someone away! Those masked men are kidnaping that man with a sack over his head, who could that be? Oh my God . . . " Dr. Mejia rushed outside to the front of the building. Rosa followed him. "Hey, you, what do you think you are doing? This is a civilized society, don't you know that? This is not the Middle Ages . . . " Two of the hooded men turned around pointing their guns at Mejia and his wife: Would you like to join them, buster? This gun here says I can! Now go back to your house or we are taking you and the little lady here to! Go back now!"

On that July 18, the AIO who remained behind in deep cover was forced like the rest to throw himself on the floor; he was then beaten, pulled by the hair and drawn outside. It's possible that was not a pretense, as anything can happen in the heat of such an operation. He was identified and released later on in the vans.

At both the male and the female student residences the kidnappers forced all students to get out and lay face down in the central hallway while the kidnappers, their faces concealed, went around, pulling each student by the hair so as to see his or her face. The nine kidnaped students were then taken away. Juan Luis Menacho Taype, at the men's residence, and Kelly Calixto Rodriguez, Nelly Dalila Dionisio Gómez and Yerli Elizabeth Medina Flores were among the students left on the floor, while nine of their fellow students were taken away by the hooded gunmen.

Army Lieutenant Aquilino Portella Nu¤ez, "alias Lt. Medina"in charge of the military occupation force at La Cantuta, was who began identifying the detained. He was not alone. The deep cover AIO who was taken out with the professor and the nine students also helped to identify who was who.

A convoy of three to five vans took the detained away: There were at least a single cabin, a double cabin pickup, and a closed van. All vehicles had KQ license plates, proper for the intelligence service (SIE and SIN). The agents carried HK submachine guns with silencers, pistols and revolvers. All belonged to the dreadful "Colina Group," A death squad of the Peruvian Army.

Santiago Marin Rivas, "El Jefe," Traveled in a "Hare" pickup, the one leading the convoy with Spec. -3 AIO Eduardo "El Chato" Sosa Davila, earmarked by DINTE as the operative in charge of burning the corpses later on. The rest of the group was basically the same as the one that operated in the Barrios Altos genocide, in central Lima, in November of 1991. And how many more genocides did they carry out? No one knows for sure, but there were big ones. This was to be just one little job, a simple one, a quick one, and one to be quickly forgotten by the state and denied and cover up by the mercenary hacks of the official press. "Disappearances? In Peru? Oh no! "It never happened."

The detained had their hands tied and were piled one on top of the other in two of the vehicles. Even transported cattle each gets its own space, but not so for the victims of the Colina Group. Even the deep cover AIO had to suffer such discomfort. Intelligence reports charged Professor Hugo Muñoz Sanchez as being responsible for the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) in La Cantuta. With him were Dora Oyague Fierro and Bertila Lozano Torres: to SIE one of them was a high PCP political cadre, as were two of the male students detained. The others were deemed by SIE as mere "Sendero-mass," in the process of being promoted withing the PCP Ranks. They were Luis Enrique Ortiz Perea, Armando Richard Amaro Condor, Robert Edgar Teodoro Espinoza, Heraclides Pablo Meza, Felipe Flores Chipana, Marcelino Rosales Cardenas and Juan Gabriel Mari¤os Flores.

When they left La Cantuta, the group was then taken to a vacant lot outside Lima, next to Central Highway, to re-check the "Senderista cadres" and "soften" them. It was a violent encounter. Nelson Carbajal Garcia, Eliseo Carlos Pichilingue and "El Chato " Sosa showed the most sadism. Martin Rivas was rather nervous, worried about the security of the operation and of the excesses that might end up blowing the lid. Dawn was approaching far away and vehicle traffic would get heavy sooner than he liked.

Likely, the convoy took the bypass loop, because the vehicles were seen at the Rimac bridge a block away from the Government Palace. The deep cover AIO stepped down there, ostensibly being "freed." Of course neither that deep cover AIO nor the female AIO were ever seen again at La Cantuta. Another female AIO, pretending to be a relative, took away his belongings from the university dorm. The alibi given was that what had happened convinced them to return to the provinces.

The detained were later taken to the SIE basement, on the northern slope of the Army's General Headquarters at San Borja. [TNF: the same building where Nicolás Hermoza Rios works] The vehicle caravan entered Gate 3. At this point, the directive was given that any inquiry about the detained should be addressed to the Rimac Army Fort and DINCOTE (National Counter terrorism Directorate), thus capping off the kidnaping.

What transpired next? It's anyone's guess why the "disappearance" took place. An accidental death during interrogation? An accidentally caused permanent sign of torture? Excessive "zeal" by El Chato, by Carbajal, by Pichilingue? For sure, the detained were savagely tortured, and how long the interrogations lasted, the sources about this are imprecise, though the sessions were long and were followed by new rounds of the same. The shrill cries of pain by the detained could be heard throughout the building, particularly those by Dr. Muñoz, the torture sessions were so cruel and bloody for sure. Some were beaten dirtied by their own feces: the tension and beatings made many lose control of their bowels. Their hands were tied at all times.

The detained were kept at SIE at least two days. After the kidnaping, the families and relatives began insistently to press the authorities to reveal where their loved ones had been taken. At once they went to the press. Orders came from upper command [TNF: again the orders from Fujimori, Montesinos and Hermoza] to the captors to take the so-called "pigeons" away from the Army General Headquarters.

The group of kidnaped was taken out of the SIE basement, always by the team commanded by Major Martin Rivas, to the installations of the School of Commands of the Army (the darling of the Special Forces Division's DIFE chief Brigadier General of the Army Luis Perez Documet.) It's located in Chorrillos, in back of the same Artillery School, earlier attended by Vladimiro Montesinos.

At the School of Commandos the group was received by the Director, Col. EP Edmundo Obregón Valverde. "Sentry, stop that van! Driver, who's in command?" "It's OK, Chato," says Martin while dismounting. Colonel Obregon returns the salute. "I'm in command, I'm Army. Major Santiago Martin Rivas, I carry prisoners by the express orders from the General Commander of the Army (CGE). [TNF: Nicolás Hermoza Rios] We request the use of your facilities, temporarily, then we'll leave." Obregon responded "Orders? Whose orders, Major? I haven't received any such orders, if this is so important why haven't I been informed by the CGE?" "Er . . . Sir: it's a operation of the Intelligence Direction of the Army's General Major Staff (DINTE), I understand high orders come directly from the President of the Republic," responded Martin Rivas. "The president of what Republic? Of Peru? Of Japan? Sorry, Major, my facilities are off limits. Use DINTE or use the Japanese Embassy for all I care! But unless I get explicit orders to the contrary, you and your men and the prisoners cannot remain here: this is a military academy, not a prison!" Obregon half-turned and walked away, as the sentry lowered the barrier. [TNF: Colonel Obregón paid with his life for this. Two weeks later, a decision was taken by Fujimori, Montesinos and Hermoza to murder him, this was carried out by the same Grupo Colina. Reports of SIE (captured by the insurgents) accused Col. Obregón of being a member of the Communist Party of Peru.]

An angry Martin got back into the van as El Chato drove away. "Don't worry, Major; in Peru all terrorist sympathizers find an early grave," said Sosa. The other vehicles in the caravan followed; That was the last time anyone outside the Colina Group had any knowledge of the prisoners. "Disappeared" without a trace! Some sources from the Army's Chorrillos Military School (EMCH) say that the detained were taken to Lima, killed there, and then the bodies were buried under a layer of quicklime, which quickly eats up flesh. The place of burial remained unknown for two years. This is unusual, since the "disappeared"seldom show up again. [TNF: This time the most notorious Fujimori's death squad "grupo colina" -there are more operating within the police and armed forces- was caught red handed. They didn't know they were being followed by the people's intelligence services. El Diario, the pro-PCP clandestine newspaper in Peru denounced first the genocide of La Cantuta.]

Fifteen days later, on August 3, 1992, Col. Edmundo Obregón Valverde lost his life shoe several times by "unidentified" armed masked men on 17th St. in the Los Gladiolos, in the district of Surco, Lima. The mercenary hacks of the loyal press blamed "Sendero Luminoso" for the killing. Not everybody in Peru believes the killing was done by the PCP.

http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp