Washington, DC, December 10, 2007
: As disgraced former president
Alberto Fujimori goes on trial in Lima, Peru, for human rights
atrocities, the National Security Archive posted a
declassified Defense Intelligence Agency
cable tying him directly to the executions of unarmed rebels
who had surrendered after the seizure of the residence of
Japanese ambassador in 1997. “President Fujimori issued the
order to ‘take no prisoners,’” states the secret “roger channel”
intelligence cable. “Because of this even MRTA [Tupac Amaru
Revolutionary Movement members] who were taken alive did not
survive the rescue operation.”
The new DIA cable was released on the Archive Web site along with other
declassified documents that shed light on human rights crimes
under Fujimori’s government, his close ties to his intelligence
chieftain, Vladimiro Montecinos, and the two cases for which the
imprisoned former president is now being prosecuted: the death
squad kidnapping and disappearance of nine students and one
professor at La Cantuta University in July 1992, and the
massacre of a group of 15 leftists and an eight-year-old
child during a neighborhood community barbeque in Barrios Altos
in November 1991.
The documents were obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act by analysts at the Archive’s Peru
Documentation Project. The project has provided declassified
evidence drawn from U.S. records to Peruvian human rights
advocates and officials for over a decade.
“The prosecution of Alberto Fujimori
is nothing less than a historic event in the history of the human
rights movement in Latin America,” according to Peter Kornbluh, a
senior analyst on Latin America at the Archive. “It is a major
step toward truth and justice in Peru and the Western
Hemisphere.”
READ THE DOCUMENTS
l) Defense
Intelligence Agency, Cable, [Deleted] Commando Execution of Two
MRTA Hostage Takers and “Take No Prisoners” Order, June
10, 1997, Secret, 2 pp.
This DIA cable,
classified SECRET and sent from Lima through a special “roger
channel” to the Pentagon, ties President Alberto Fujimori to a
specific human rights atrocity committed at the end of the siege
of the Japanese Ambassador’s residence by MRTA guerrillas. An
intelligence source who appeared to have participated in the
assault to retake the residence, stated that two rebels
surrendered and were then summarily executed. According to the
source, “The order to take no MRTA alive was given by President
Alberto Fujimori. …because of this, even MRTA who were taken alive
did not survive the rescue operation.” The document also describes
the way Peruvian paramilitary commandos attempted to cover up the
execution of the guerrillas. (Another source later reported that
three rebels, two men and a woman, were executed after
surrendering.)
2) State Department,
Bureau of Intelligence and Research, “Peru, Freefall,” July
31, 1997. Top Secret/Codeword, 2 pp.
In a classified
report, State Department intelligence analysts summarize the
dramatic decline of President Fujimori’s popular support in Peru.
The report describes Fujimori’s “murky” relationship to his top
military and intelligence aides and states that they have
“alienated most Peruvians with strong-arm measures.”
3)
U.S. Embassy Cable, [Excised] Comments
on Fujimori, Montesinos, but not on Barrios Altos, January
22, 1993, Secret, 10 pp. (previously posted)
An undisclosed
source describes the close and complicated relationship between
President Fujimori and his top intelligence aide, Vladimiro
Montesinos. The source notes that while Fujimori understands
the importance of human rights, in practice he “is prepared to
sacrifice principles to achieve a quick victory over terrorism.”
He is “absolutely committed to destroying Sendero Luminoso and
the MRTA within his five year term and is prepared to countenance
any methods that achieve that goal.”
4) US Embassy Cable,
Systematic Human Rights Violations Under Fujimori: Ex-Army Officer
Describes his Role in Assassinations, Letter Bombs, Rape and
Torture, June 30, 1994, Secret, 29pp. (previously posted)
In one of the most “detailed
accounts” of human rights violations ever transmitted by the U.S.
Embassy, this cable describes the history of state-sponsored
abuses from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s in Peru, covering both
the Garcia and Fujimori eras of power. The source,
an ex-Army officer, outlines the structure of the army and
intelligence units who participated in atrocities such as torture,
rape, and terrorism, as well as his personal involvement in human
rights abuses. The summary includes detailed descriptions of the
types of torture used by the military; their assassination
targets; and the use of anti-bomb training assistance from the
U.S. to create better bombs for assassination attempts. "None of
the source's statements on methods are new,” the Embassy political
officer reports. “What was striking, not to say chilling, about
his allegations - apart from his total lack of remorse - was his
insistence that such violations were the norm, rather than
excesses."
5) U.S. Embassy,
Cable, Claimed Member of ‘Colina’ Describes Barrios Altos
Executions, March 15, 1994, Secret, 11 pp. (previously
posted)
The Embassy
cables a highly classified summary of a report allegedly drafted
by a member of the feared Peruvian death squad known as “La Colina.”
The report details the creation, organization, leadership,
training and atrocities committed by the death squad. It includes
some of its nick names such as “Special Intelligence Annihilation
Group.” The cable contains a graphic account of how death squad
members
prepared for the Barrios Altos operation, which was authorized by
President Fujimori’s top advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos. The
victims were lined up against a wall. “Using submachine guns with
silencers, the shooting took 20 seconds,” according to the report.
An eight-year old boy who witnessed the executions was then also
shot.
6) U.S. Embassy
Cable, Military Watcher on Army Attitudes to La Cantuta
Disappearances, June 3, 1993. confidential. 2 pp.
An embassy
contact discusses with US officials the feeling among the Peruvian
military that the Army Commander and President of the Joint Armed
Force Command, General Nicolas Hermoza, should "take responsibility"
for the La Cantuta massacre. The source claims that “senior and
mid-grade officers acknowledge the existence of military hit
squads” and believe that the operation at La Cantuta University,
was “terribly planned and the details too widely known.” But the
military reportedly feels that the death squad who carried out the
attack should not be punished “just for killing terrorists.”
7. U.S. Embassy Cable, Reported Secret Annex to National Pacification/Human
Rights Plan, August 23, 1990. Secret, 4 pp.
Following the
Fujimori government’s announcement of a “National
Pacification/Human Rights Plan” in 1990, the US embassy reports
that there is “an alleged secret” annex to the public plan. The secret
plan calls for the military to take a greater role in security
operations, and allows for the National Intelligence Service (SIN)
to form new sub-committees to direct the “pacification” plan. The
plan also alters the SIN’s charter to expand the power of the
secret police. The cable goes on to question if the plan was
actually put into effect by Fujimori, or whether it was just the
product of a group of retired military officers close to
Montesinos. They refer to reports that Fujimori may be trying to
distance himself from Montesinos because of public exposure of his
links to drug traffickers. Embassy officials conclude, however,
that even if the secret plan did not receive Fujimori’s
endorsement, it does in fact exist, and is held by a group of men
who “at least one time had considerable influence and access to
decision-making circles.”