Martín Javier Roca Casas and Kenneth Ney Anzualdo were students of the School of Economics of the National University of Callao. The two were university leaders and great friends. Roca was 27 years-old and Anzualdo was almost 25 years-old.

On August 17, 1993, Martín Roca participated in a protest march with other students. It was at that time that the students surprised two subjects who were filming them and who would not identify themselves. An altercation took place and the students wrested away the tape and destroyed it.

According to witnesses, at 11:15 p.m. that night three individuals wearing civilian clothes – who later would be identified as Percy Tarazona Estévez, Ricardo Moreno Bautista, and Oscar Alarcón Montes, all officers of the Navy of Peru– went to the house of Martín Roca, located in the Villa Señor de los Milagros shanty town in Carmen de la Legua, Callao, to ask him for the video tape. The student denied having it. The officials left but soon returned with more soldiers and with an order from Commander Elías Ponce Feijoo to raid the house.

The next day, Officer Tarazona returned to the house. At that point the family members of the student captured him and took him to the local police station. There, the officer communicated with an intelligence officer identified as Commander Ponce, who arrived at the police station to confirm that Officer Tarazona had fulfilled his intelligence duties.

After this the house of Martín Roca was put under permanent surveillance by suspicious people who, according to witnesses, belonged to the security forces. The father of Martín, Javier Roca, turned to the lawyer Alberto Lau Cavero to get legal assistance. In accordance with his lawyer’s advice, the student had an interview with the National Counter-Terrorism Directorate (DINCOTE). There he was told that there was no ongoing investigation.

Martín Roca sent requests to the Prefect of Callao that his life and personal integrity be guaranteed and informed the National Police, who refused to carry out such an order.

It was 5:00 in the afternoon of October 5, 1993 when Martín Roca left his home. After finishing his university classes at 10:30, he began the return trip to his house. He was later detained by members of the Naval Intelligence Service. Since then, his whereabouts have been a mystery. That night, the police and the navy conducted a search of the shanty town where Roca lived. The operation lasted until dawn of the following day.

On April 7, 1994, the Callao Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of the Third Criminal Prosecutor’s Office accused Navy Frigate Capitan Manuel Ponce Feijoo and Percy Tarazona Estevez in the disappearance of Martín Roca Casas. The General Command of the Navy contracted two lawyers for the accused. Furthermore, it opened a case against the lawyer Alberto Lau for Crimes against the Public Faith in the State.

On November 17, 1994, the First Criminal Court of Callao archived the case as having not found sufficient proof. Later the Supreme Court of Justice decided in favor of the sailors. With the Amnesty Law, the case was permanently archived.

The judicial authorities did not request the presence of the sailors and police who participated in the search operation where the Roca family lived on the night that the victim was detained. Furthermore, they did not take any statements from the Naval Intelligence Service. Also, the Ministry of Defense did not recognize the detention of Martín Roca. The Ministry did admit that it detained four people during the operation, but said none of them was the disappeared victim.

But the disappearances do not stop there. Two students from the same school that Martín Roca attended that were also participating in the search operation also disappeared.

One December 16, 1993, Kenneth Anzualdo left his home, located in La Perla, Callao, for the university. It was 4:00 in the afternoon. Three of his classmates saw him off when he got on a bus from the 19-B line.

It was 8:30 at night. There were only a few days left to make declarations before the Third Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in the case of the disappearance of Martín Roca. He was one of the people who had been with Martín Roca the day of his disappearance, and for that reason, he denounced the act to APRODEH.

The driver of the vehicle that picked up Anzualdo said that the bus was intercepted at Santa Rosa Avenue and La Paz Avenue by a light-blue car. Three men got out of the car and identified themselves as Investigative Police. They detained Anzualdo. This act was denounced before the Provincial Criminal Prosecutor of Callao. No satisfactory results were obtained.

The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights received the accusation in the case of Kenneth Anzualdo on April 14, 1994. In 2001, the Peruvian state accepted responsibility for the disappearance of Martín Roca Casas.

In December 2004, the publication of the book Muerte en el Pentagonito clarified the participation of the authors of the kidnapping. Before then, the family members had attributed the kidnapping and disappearance of the students to troops from the Directorate of Naval Intelligence. However, in accordance with the revelations of the said publication, the authors of the crime were from the Army Intelligence Service (known by its Spanish initials SIE).

In Anzualdo case, Uceda revealed that three SIE agents pursued Anzualdo the night of December 16. On of those agents was Jesús Sosa Saavedra, a member of Grupo Colina, who stopped the car a few blocks ahead of Anzualdo, faked a police roadblock, detained Anzualdo, and later brought him to the General Barracks of the Army, known as El Pentagonito (The Little Pentagon). There Anzualdo was interrogated and probably tortured in the basements of the SIE.

Uceda collected testimony from Sosa Saavedra himself, who said that Anzualdo and Roca alike were incinerated at the SIE facilities and that the operation – of which he was in charge – was ordered by the Department of Information Collection or SIE-1.

The cases of Roca Casas and Kenneth Anzualdo Castro have been presented jointly and are in the police investigation stage, led by the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office Specializing in Force Disappearances, Extrajudicial Executions, and Clandestine Graves.