Thursday 7 May 2009

Peru: Lurigancho Survivor Captured

Spanish speakers can read about this story directly at el utero de marita.

As the Peruvian blog points out, it's a minor news story that the police have picked up a senderista known variously as Efrén Eloy Ticona Condori or Efraín Eloy Rojas Orozco or Isrem Quispe Gamarra (depending on his mood?).

The interesting point is that, according to utero de marita, the person in question was the only survivor of the rioting prisoners from Lurigancho, site of the one of the notorious prison massacres in 1986. At the time, Shining Path prisoners staged coordinated uprisings in three prisons, the security forces were sent in, and a huge number of deaths was the result. Here, you can see a U.S. embassy document noting '30 to 40' summary executions carried out after the prisoners had already surrendered. It's fair to say that this is a highly conservative estimate.

Actually, sources including the Dictionary of Contemporary Politics of South America state that there were no survivors at all from Lurigancho. But this website shows what it references as an article from La Republica in 2004 citing Efren Ticona as the sole survivor of the massacre. If this is accurate, he's a crucial witness from one of the iconic events of the Peruvian conflict. And now, it looks like he could be heading back behind bars.

Oh yes, and we do remember who was in charge during the Lurigancho massacre, right? Hint.

3 comments:

otto said...

http://es.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/tumi/message/46731?var=1

Lillie Langtry said...

Yes, that is a really interesting account.

I've edited the post since I meant to write that it's often said that there were no survivors in LURIGANCHO, but I missed out that part. It has always been clear that there was a small group of survivors from El Fronton.

That's what comes from writing your posts in front of the TV!

Guy said...

He needs support from external countries that can get the real story.

Peruvian recipes