On June 24, 1992, the same day that Campesino Day is celebrated, a military patrol kidnapped six members of the Ventocilla family. Their bodies turned out the next day at the Haucho morgue.

At the time of their detention, Rafael Ventocilla Rojas and two of his sons, Alejandro and Simón Ventocilla Castillo, had been previously presented before military authorities after having been detained on April 25, 1993 by army troops from the Atahuampa military base north of Huara. There were detained in that installation for 24 hours. Perhaps their captivity would have been longer had it not been for the intervention of the journalist Pedro Sauri and the Human Rights Commission of Huacho, who pleaded for the liberty of the detained.

The day of the operation the soldiers stormed into the house of Ventocilla Rojas, where one of his other sons, Agripino Ventocilla Castillo, who worked as a teacher in the city of Huaral, was. Those carrying out the assault stole valuables and personal documents. In the barracks they accused the victims of being "terrorists" and members of the band known as "The Destructors." After this they were driven to a beach where they were tortured and left half naked.

The Ventocillas were politically experienced. Don Rafael was a militant of the Popular Action party and had been the mayor of Cochamarca, in the Province of Oyón, during the governments of Fernando Belaunde and Alan García. However, he had to abandon his office due to threats made by subversive elements. His two sons were militants of the UNIR, which was a member of the United Left, and Simón had the opportunity to occupy the office of Secretary General of SUTEP, the teacher’s union, in the region. After a frustrated tenure, Ventocilla Rojas dedicated himself, together with his son Paulino, to agricultural stock breeding.

The family believed that the April 25 incident was behind them, and thus they continued with their normal lives. However, at 3:00 in the morning of June 24, 1992, ten armed men violently burst into their house.

Rafael Ventocilla Rojas, his sons Alejandro, Simón, and Paulino, his grandson Rubén, and his brother Marino –who that night had arrived from the sierra– had their hands tied behind their backs and were brought to an unknown destination. Mrs. Catalina Castillo León, wife of Rafael Ventocilla, demanded to know the reason of the detention of her family members and above all the place that they were brought to, but she was tied up and told to keep quiet or her youngest son who lived in the house would also be disappeared. She recalled that the assailants wore uniforms that looked like those used by the army and black boots, and were accompanied by a woman wearing camouflage. The unknown persons not only took her family members, but they also stole appliances and money.

After being freed from the ropes that tied her up, Mrs. Castillo presented herself before the police detachment of the Huaura Bridge and the Cruz Blanca military post to ask for help, but did not obtain any. Later, a commune member told the family members of the victims that during the early morning hours some thirty subjects came by the “La Quinta” hacienda and there crossed an asparagus farm to get to Cejetuto Hill. Later they went by Santa Ana Street and entered various houses, among them the house of the Ventocilla Castillo family. Very shortly later, they returned in groups carrying various detained people that they transported in three cars. Simultaneously, in Huacho, the journalist Pedro Yauri was kidnapped by subjects from the military post.

The bodies of the six members of the Ventocilla Castillo family were found by some commune members in the settlement of Balconcillo, 8 kilometers from the Huaura-Sayán highway. Their murderers had buried them in a common grave covered by a thick layer of lime.

On June 15 the Cruz Blanca police told the family members that six bodies had been deposited in the Huacho Morgue. Once there the family victims identified the dead as their loved ones. The victims presented torture wounds, point-blank gunshot wounds, and bullet holes in their temples.

Thee case is currently being handled by the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office.