They entered through the main door. Once they were inside we heard their boots. In a few minutes four policemen appeared on the second floor, where we were resting. I recognized officers Largo and Brujo. The police asked for Marcelino Cabana and my husband kept quiet. Largo insulted my husband and forcibly grabbed him by his hair and threw him down the stairs. My husband cried out for help. Out of fear I stayed in the house. Testimony presented in the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Book VII, Chapter 2. "Cases Investigated by the CVR."

On March 14, 1991, an army patrol of about 25 soldiers based out of the Pampa Cangallo Military Barracks entered the town of Chuschi, Cangallo Province, Ayacucho. Once there, some of the soldiers fired shots and detonated explosives in order to make it seem as if the Shining Path was coming into the village. Meanwhile, other soldiers, along with police from the local Chuschi police station, searched the houses in the village looking for local leaders. After detaining such leaders, they transferred them to the Pampa Cangallo Military Barracks. The victims have never been seen since then, despite pressure put on the military by domestic and international organizations to produce them.

The Acts

Since December 1900, the General Police of Chuschi, Cangallo Province, Ayaucho had demanded that the villagers formation of a ronda campesina ("peasant round"), also known as a Comité de Autodefensa ("Self-Defense Committee") to confront possible Shining Path columns. Such organizations were composed of local villagers, often lightly-armed, who were expected to fight against the Shining Path. The authorities of Chuschi refused to form such a committee, as the people of Chuschi had already organized a Vigilance Committee against Terrorism in which villagers took daily turns watching over their zone in order to support the members of the General Police of Chuschi.

The local and civil authorities of Chuschi denounced the police for putting pressure on them to form a new committee. The police effectively took the villagers hostage, demanding that the villagers feed them and carrying out arbitrary detentions.

On March 14, 1991, an army patrol of about 25 soldiers based out of the Pampa Cangallo Military Barracks led by Lt. Collins Collantes entered the town of Chuschi, Cangallo Province, Ayacucho. Once there, some of the soldiers fired shots and detonated explosives in order to make it seem as if the Shining Path was coming into the village. Meanwhile, other soldiers, along with police from the local Chuschi police station, searched the houses in the village looking for local leaders. National Police of Peru – General Police (PNP-GP) Second Lieutenant and Chief of the Chuschi police station Luis Juárez Aspiro, a/k/a "Largo" ("Long"), as well as PNP-PG Sergeant Domingo Morales Ampudia, a/k/a "Brujo" ("Wizard"), and other police officers searched several houses looking for the civil and local leaders. They detained Mayor Manuel Pacotaype Chaupín, Secretary Martín Cayllahua Galindo, Lieutenant Governor Marcelo Cabana Tucno, and minor Isaías Huamán Vilca.

Those who witnessed the detentions and the later transfer of the detained to the Pampa Cangallo Military Barracks were the people who had been posted in the plaza of Chuschi carrying out their anti-terrorist vigil duty at the request of the police. These witnesses categorically denied that there was any attack by a terrorist organization that night, but rather by their own police and soldiers who had faked a Shining Path attack. Likewise, they testified that while the police and soldiers carried out the searches and arrests, other police officers shot in the air and detonated explosives at various points, in order to fake a Shining Path incursion.

In the early morning hours, the wives and other relatives of the detained persons were suddenly brought to the police station. The family members demanded that the police produce their relatives, but the police denied having them. Pacotaype Chaupín, Cayllahua Galindo, Cabana Tucno, and Huamán Vilca had been hooded, tied up, and transferred to the Pampa Cangallo Military Barracks.

Since that date the family members of the victims and the villagers as well as non-governmental human rights organizations have conducted multiple campaigns to bring about the liberation of the victims. These efforts targeted many different authorities, including the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of both local and national governments. For example, on April 14, 1991, Mrs. Yrena Huamaní, Mrs. Francisca Tucno de Pacotaype, and Mrs. Teófila Rocha wrote an open letter to the Huamanga Superior Prosecutor Charged with Human Rights. They later brought complaints before the Provincial Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Ayacucho as well as the National Prosecutor’s Office. They have also carried out campaigns aimed at the Senate’s Justice and Human Rights Commission and the Libertadores-Wari Region Prefect. The further demanded a writ of habeas corpus from the judge of first instance in Cangallo, Ayacucho. For its part the press gave detailed reports about what took place. Nevertheless, despite all of the efforts made, the victims never appeared.

The Senate of the Republic designated an Investigatory Commission whose conclusion, after much detailed study, established that there were serious indicators that members of the police and army were responsible for the disappearances, among whom were Second Lieutenant Luis Juárez Aspiro, Communications Lieutenant Collins Collantes Guerra, and Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Ruiz Camargo, Chief of the Pampa Cangallo Base (at the time it was unknown Collins Collantes Guerra’s real name was Mario Caldas Dueñas). Those men were considered the authors of the detention and disappearance of the Chuschi villagers.

The location of the victims remains unknown to this day.

Trial in the Civilian Courts

In 2002 the Huamanga Criminal Prosecutor’s Office brought a formal denunciation before the Judicial Branch. The denunciation named Collins Collantes Guerra and Mario Caldas Dueñas of the army and Luis Juárez Aspiro, Domingo Morales Ampudia, Luis Bobadilla Cuba, Stalin Rivera Herrera, and José Leiva Casaverde of the police.

On May 4, 2003, the Criminal Judge of Cangallo started a criminal process against those accused of the kidnapping and aggravated forced disappearance of Manuel Pacotaype Chaupin, Martín Cayllahua Galindo, Marcelo Cabana Tucto, and Isaías Huamán Vilca. The judge issued an arrest warrant for the defendants.

The criminal judge solicited the Ministry of Defense to produce Collantes Guerra and Ruiz Camargo in order to put them on trial. However, the Ministry argued that it did not know the address of the two officials and thus could not formally produce them. It also claimed that it had an open process against the two in the military courts, and that this process prevented them from being available to the civilian courts.

On June 7, 2004, the Second Superior Mixed Prosecutor’s Office of Ayacucho said “there is sufficient merit to put Collins Collantes Guerra and others on trial for the commission of crimes against humanity by the aggravated forced disappearance of Manuel Pacotaype Chaupín and others.” The First Mixed Court of Ayacucho sent the case to the National Criminal Division.

Obstacles set up by the Military Justice System

After learning that a case had been opened against two soldiers and that Collins Collantes had been requested by the courts, the military justice system opened a parallel investigation with the sole purpose of preventing the detention of the soldiers and an investigation into the acts.

In December 2004, the Supreme Court resolved the jurisdictional dispute in favor of the civilian courts. The Provisional Judge of the Mixed Court of Cangallo changed the detention orders to allow the four policemen to be tried.

The Trial

On May 3, 2006, the National Criminal Division in Lima began the oral trial against the six defendants for the detention and disappearance of three authorities and one minor from the community of Chuschi, Cangallo, Ayacucho, on March 1991.

Prosecutor María Maguiña Torres requested twenty years of jail time for the army officials, Collins Collantes Guerra and Mario Caldas Dueñas, and fifteen years for the policemen, Luis Juárez Aspiro, Domingo Morales Ampudia, Luis Bobadilla Cuba, Stalin Rivera Herrera y José Leiva Casaverde.

Weighing heavily on the criminal intent of the accused, particularly Mariano Juárez Aspiro, the trial advanced normally for five months.

In mid-August, the cross-examination of the last of the five defendants who were present ended. Since then many witnesses have been heard by the court, including the wives for three of the of the victims and the mother of Isaías Huamán, who was seventeen at the time of his disappearance.

Francisca Tucno, wife of Manuel Pacotaype, the dissapeared mayor as well as Teofila Rocha, with wife of Marcelo Cabana, recognized police officers Luis Juárez Aspiro and Domingo Morales Ampudia as the people who entered their rooms, beat, and took away their husbands.

Army officials who served in the Pampa Cangallo base as well as in the Los Cabitos Barracks of the Huamanga Front testified in the trial. That allowed members of the High Command of the Huamanga Front to be brought before justice. Among those from the High Command who have faced justice are Carlos del Busto Herbias and Bernarht Braun Luy, as well as the former Political-Military Commander of Huamanga, Hugo Martínez Aloja, and the Military Inspector, Guillermo Condemarín Luque.

Marco Aguilar Biaggi, who was Intelligence Attaché from the Pampa Cangallo Base and José Humberto Zavaleta Angulo, who was charged with operations in that base in 1991, have also been presented before court.

Throughout the oral trial, the National Criminal Division has issued two judgments that are very positive for the fight against impunity. First, it rejected the petition filed by Mario Caldas Dueñas’ defense to find the case res judicata Mario Caldas Dueñas himself is currently a fugitive from justice. Second, it rejected the petition to lift the arrest warrant for Caldas Dueñas, who to this day has refused to present himself before the court.

In a session currently scheduled for January 30, the defendants will make their case, the court will deliberate, and a sentence will probably be made.