2023-08-12 21:15:00
Peruvian justice has imposed sentences of between 8 and 15 years in prison on 18 retired military personnel after the massacre of 39 peasants in 1988 in the Andes region of southern Ayacucho, as part of the Maoist guerrilla war Sendero Luminoso, informed the Judiciary.
“The court, presided over by Judge Jhonny Contreras Cuzcano, imposes sentences of eight to fifteen years in prison on those accused of aggravated homicide in the #CasoCayara”, announced the Judiciary on Friday night on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
The case dates back to May 14, 1988, when two patrols entered the peasant community of Cayara, where they tortured and executed peasants with the argument of obtaining information about the murder of four soldiers in the area during an attack by the Sendero Luminoso group the day before.
The longest sentences (15 years) went to Lieutenants Marco Llontop Jess and Luis Castaeda Marn, co-authors of the crime of aggravated homicide. The remaining members of the patrols, 16 soldiers, will be sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Retired army general José Valdivia Dueas, one of Ayacucho’s military leaders during the years of conflict (1980-2000), has not been sentenced for being on the run from justice since December 2021.
The Public Ministry had asked for up to 25 years in prison for the retired military man for the crimes of homicide and enforced disappearance.
The hearing was virtual and without an audience, ending 35 years of seeking justice for family members.
At trial, the military rejected the accusations, claiming that the peasants were dead when they arrived in Cayara. The military blamed the guerrillas for the crime, but the court dismissed this version based on the testimonies of witnesses who survived the massacre.
According to the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR, 2003), in the armed conflict that Peru experienced between 1980 and 2000, around 69,000 people died, most of them poor peasants in the Andes region.
The CVR blamed Sendero Luminoso for being the main perpetrator of human rights violations, but also accused the security forces that fought that organization of committing crimes against humanity.
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