PERU: Massacre Participant Unsuccessfully Seeking Asylum in US
By Ángel Páez
LIMA, Mar 5 (IPS) - In a desperate attempt to keep out of the reach of the Peruvian justice system, which is investigating a 1985 massacre of 69 highland villagers by the military, retired army captain David Castañeda is seeking -- unsuccessfully so far -- political asylum in the United States.
Castañeda alleges that he cannot return to Peru because he has received death threats from the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas that he fought against in the second half of the 1980s.
Officers Castañeda, Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera led the army units that killed 30 women, 23 children, and 16 mainly older men on Aug. 14, 1985 in the village of Accomarca in the southern highlands region of Ayacucho, where Sendero rebels were supposedly hiding.
The legal investigation concluded that Hurtado commanded the massacre, Rivera posted troops around the houses where the rounded-up victims were locked up, shot, and burnt to death, so that no one could escape, and Castañeda cut off the road and paths into the village with his "Tigre" patrol unit.
The three former military officers, who are wanted in Peru in connection with the Accomarca case, all separately took refuge in the United States.
More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41463~~~~~~~~~This massacre loving madcap is a graduate of the School of the Americas:
Peruvian SOA Graduates Arrested by ICE
Retired Peruvian military officers Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in Florida and Baltimore respectively, in violation of U.S. immigration laws this past week.
Hurtado and Rivera stand accused for the August 14, 1985 massacre of 69 children, women and men in the village of Accomarca, in the southeastern region of Ayacucho, Peru. Both are facing a 2006 extradition order by a Peruvian court for leading the four military brigades which executed the 69 civilians.
Telmo Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondon attended Arms Orientation courses at the U.S. Army School of the Americas from 1981-1982 during the height of military repression. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the political violence in Peru during the 1980's, the armed forces killed and "disappeared" more than 7,250 civilians who were not involved in the conflict.
www.soaw.org/article.php?id=205
(My emphasis.)Guess who was the Peruvian President at the time of the massacre, the President whom many believe attempted to cover up this massacre?
Good old CURRENT PERUVIAN PRESIDENT ALAN GARCIA, good bud of
George W. Bush.
Peruvian President, Alan Garcia