Background

On Sunday, August 11, 1991, at 7:00 p.m., the mayor of Pativilica, Carmen Velásquez Copara, was assassinated, supposedly by terrorist groups. At the time of her death, she was in a village meeting with the locals and talking about their water and drainage system.

Velásquez had a son-in-law who was a member of the Investigative Police of Peru (PIP) who at the time was the Commissioner of Paramonga. After Velásquez’s death, the PIP broke into and searched several houses. The police entered the house of Anuncia Rivera Santos, mother of Agüero Rivera, three times. They also entered the house of Olimpo Rodríguez López, father of Cesar Olimpo Rodríguez Esquivel. At no point did the police find any evidence that linked any of these people to subversive groups or terrorist activities.

The acts

In the early morning hours of January 29, 1992, a group of approximately twenty people who were led by a woman entered the houses of Jhon Calderón Ríos (18), student of mechanics; Toribio Ortiz Aponte (25), farmer; Felando Castillo Manrique (38), farmer; Pedro Agüero Rivera (35), farmer and driver; Ernesto Áreas Velásquez (27), teacher; and César Rodríguez Esquivel (29), driver.

That same day four tall, brawny subjects and one short woman, all of whom carried powerful flashlights, entered the house of Cesáreo Calderón and his wife. The five threw the couple on the ground and tied them up. At the same time, other hooded subjects entered the rooms of their children. One of those children, Enrique, could see some of the hooded subjects carry off Jhon Calderón Ríos while others smashed up a kiosk that was outside of the house. The subjects stole the money that was in the house and later caused and explosion that frightened the family. In the midst of all this confusion, the family managed to see two trucks drive away from the village. Hours later, the body of Jhon was found in a sugarcane field. His hands were still tied together and he had been shot twice.

Toribio Ortiz Aponte was resting a house owned by his cousins, Paulo and Abraham Fernández Migo, in Pampa San José. The cousins became frightened when they heard the door of the house being kicked at, thinking of the robbery that they had been victims of only days before. The Fernández Migo Brothers ran out of the house, while Ortiz Aponte said that he would confront the people who were kicking the door. The bothers managed to hide and watch as a group of armed men detained their cousin, beat him, and then put him in one of the two trucks in which they arrived. The body of Toribio was discovered hours later in a sugarcane field.

A group of approximately fifteen people broke into the house of Felando Castillo and his wife, Ada Ochoa Solano. Screaming curses, the group threatened to kill the couple if they made any noise. Ada Ochoa was covered with a bedspread and forced to stay in the room with two of the subjects as her husband, Felando Castillo, was carried off. The subjects who took him wore black jackets and ski masks. Just like in the pervious cases, Felando was found the following day in a sugarcane field. He had been shot four times in the head, and his hands and feet were tied up.

At 3:30 a.m. on January 29, José Luis Agüero Rivera climbed up on the roof of his house in Caraqueño and saw two trucks park in his village. Twenty to thirty people got out of the trucks. They lit up Agüero’s house with a searchlight and quickly entered it. Among the subjects that entered was a woman wearing commando-style clothing whose face was painted. She was short, and had dyed hair. When they entered the house they pointed their weapons at Anuncia Rivera Santos, mother of Pedro Agüero Rivera. They then beat both her and her husband in the head with a shotgun. Pedro Agüero attempted to defend his father, who they had threatened to kill, but Pedro was tied up, wrapped in a blanket, and brought to an unknown location. He was later found dead in a nearby sugarcane field. His body showed signs of having been tortured, and he had several gunshot wounds to the head.

That same morning, a group of people violently entered the house of Nicanor Vilca Quispe, also located in the village of Caraqueño. They kicked down the door and shot their weapons. Once inside the house, they put Nicanor and his wife face down on the ground. A woman who was with the group that entered the house told the others, “if they move, eliminate them.” The searched the house and beat the brother-in-law of the two. They later left for the house of Ernesto Nieves Arias Velásquez. Arias Velásquez was brought out of his house and taken with the group. The next day his body was found in a sugarcane field. His hands were tied together and he had been shot in the head.

In the case of César Rodriguez Esquivel, fifteen people, one of whom was a woman, kicked the door of his house in order to enter. However, they were unable to break down the door, so they yelled through a window ordering Rodríguez to “open up.” Rodríguez asked who they were, but they only responded with insults. The family attempted to leave through a backdoor. However, by the time that they arrived at the second door the group had managed to break into the house. The troops, who carried powerful flashlights, forcefully threw Rodriguez on the floor. His wife, Erlinda Lucas Muñoz, was brought into a second room and asked where the guns were. Ms. Erlinda cried, begged for her husband, and assured the people that there were no guns in the house. Later, the woman who arrived with the group pointed her gun at Ms. Erlinda’s father-in-law, César’s father. After not being able to find any guns, the group brought César out of the house. Erlinda Lucas and her father-in-law went to the door, where they could see the woman walking towards the rest of the group. The woman told the group, “Hold on, I’m going to kill this boy.” Erlinda Lucas and her father-in-law shut the door out of fright and heard shots. Upon opening the door they saw the trucks leaving.

After these acts, the group painted graffiti which read “death to snitches.”

The denunciation

The family members of the victims visited all of the police stations in the area, where they were told again and again that the police had not carried out and searches in their village. They also went to several hospitals and the morgue, but were unable to find anything.

Around 6 p.m. on January 30, José Luis Agüero, brother of one of the victims, found the bodies. He stated, “A friend of mine who had come down in his truck told me that he was able to see some bodies in a sugarcane field near the highway. When I went to check it out I found a horrible scene. My brother had gunshot wounds to his head, but there were two other men who had been tortured, burned, it looked like a blowtorch had been used on them.” At that point the family members told the police that the perpetrators were soldiers. However, little was ever done to investigate the case.

For APRODEH, the crimes against the villagers of Pativilca fit into the same pattern of murders carried out by Grupo Colina, such as the cases of the kidnapping of Huacho-based journalist Pedro Yauri and the murders of the Ventocilla family. The testimony of the family members and witnesses coincides with the declarations made by several members of Group Colina in court that detailed exactly how Group Colina carried out its crimes.

This operation formed part of Plan Cipango, a plan to carry out counter-subversive actions in Norte Chico. The plan was known by extradited former president Alberto Fujimori.