| Putis massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Internal conflict in Peru | |
 "Putis (123)" detail at The Eye that Cries memorial in Lima | |
| Location | Putis, Peru |
| Date | December 1984 |
| Target | Peasants |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 123 |
| Perpetrators | Peruvian Army |
The Putis Massacre was a massacre of 123 campesinos carried out by the Peruvian Army in a rural hamlet in the Santillana District of the Huanta Province in the Ayacucho Region of Peru. [1] The massacre occurred in December 1984.
According to a 2003 report by the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the guerrilla group Shining Path was very active in the Huanta Province since the start of the Internal conflict in Peru in 1980. [2] During 1983, Shining Path murdered the lieutenant governor of Putis, Santos Quispe Saavedra, and carried out similar acts of violence in nearby towns; as a consequence, the inhabitants of Putis were forced to seek refuge in the nearby mountains. [3]
To parry this threat, the Peruvian Army established a military base in Putis in November 1984 and called on all refugees to return to the town. [4]
By December 1984, most of the population had returned to the Putis settlement. The military ordered the men of the community to dig a pit, then gathered the local population around it, executed all of them with gunfire and buried them in the excavated pit. [5] It is believed that the reasons for these executions were suspicions that the inhabitants of Putis were sympathetic to Shining Path and a desire to steal and sell the cattle of the community. [6]
The total number of victims is estimated at 123 men and women from the settlements of Cayramayo, Vizcatánpata, Orccohuasi and Putis; 19 of those murdered were minors. [7] The Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified two mass graves in Putis, one behind the church and the other inside the school. [8] Some persons from Putis survived the massacre by staying in the mountains, where they remained until a few of them returned in 1997; as of 2002 some ten families lived in Putis. [9]
In May 2008, a group of forensic investigators began the exhumation of the Putis mass graves belatedly following a 2003 recommendation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate all such massacre sites. [10] Around 50 relatives of the persons killed joined the investigators to watch the recovery of their family members remains. [11] Despite the exhumation procedures, no one has been indicted so far for the Putis massacre as the Peruvian Military refuses to give any explanation about the events, claiming all related documentation was destroyed in a fire. [12]
In August 2009, a mass funeral was held for ninety-two victims of the 1984 massacre. The remains of only twenty-eight were identified through the use of DNA and many of the coffins contained only partial remains. [13]
The Shining Path, self-named the Communist Party of Peru, is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru.
The Barrios Altos massacre occurred on 3 November 1991 in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima, Peru. Members of Grupo Colina, a death squad comprising Peruvian Armed Forces personnel, were later identified as the assailants who killed fifteen individuals, including an eight-year-old child, and injured four others. The victims were reportedly partygoers associated with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group Shining Path. Nevertheless, judicial authorities found that they were not terrorists.
Luis Alejandro Giampietri Rojas was a Peruvian politician belonging to the Peruvian Aprista Party and an admiral of the Peruvian Navy. Giampietri ran successfully as Alan García's first running mate in the 2006 general election. He was sworn in on 28 July 2006 and served until 28 July 2011. He was also elected as Congressman representing the Constitutional Province of Callao for the 2006–2011 term. He lost his seat in the 2011 elections when he ran for re-election under the Radical Change party, but he received a minority of votes, and the Radical Change failed to pass the electoral threshold and subsequently lost its registration the following year. Before he served as Vice President and Congressman, Giampietri was a Lima City Councilman from 1999 to 2002, elected under the Fujimorist Vamos Vecino, close to then-President Alberto Fujimori.
El Frontón is a deserted island and former penal colony off the coast of Callao, Peru.
The Peruvian prison massacres occurred on June 18–19, 1986, after a series of riots in the San Pedro, Santa Mónica, and El Frontón prisons in Lima and Callao. The military repression of these riots resulted in the loss of at least 224 lives.
The Peruvian Internal Conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Peru and the Maoist guerilla group Shining Path and its remnants. The conflict's main phase began on 17 May 1980 and ended in December 2000. From 1982 to 1997 the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement waged its own insurgency as a Marxist–Leninist rival to the Shining Path.
Mamara District is one of the fourteen districts of the province Grau in Peru.
Huanta District is one of eight districts of the Huanta Province in Peru. Its seat is Huanta.
Ayahuanco District is one of eight districts of the province Huanta in Peru.
Llochegua District is one of eight districts of the province Huanta in Peru.
Casa Grande District is one of eight districts of the province of Ascope in Peru.
Chao District is one of three districts of the province Virú in Peru.
Moche District is one of eleven districts of the province Trujillo in Peru.
Cascas District is one of four districts of the province Gran Chimú in Peru.
Huanta is a town in Central Peru, capital of the province Huanta in the region Ayacucho.
Angélica Mendoza de Ascarza was a Peruvian Quechua human rights activist. She is considered to be a symbol of human rights in Peru and of those who disappeared in the country from 1980 to 2000 as a result of the internal violence in Peru and has been recognized by the International Red Cross and Amnesty International as a "tireless advocate for those women who lost their loved ones."
Peru's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a truth and reconciliation commission established by President Alejandro Toledo to investigate the human rights abuses committed during the internal conflict in Peru between 1980s and 1990s. The TRC was a response to the violent internal conflict between 1980 and 2000 during the administration of Presidents Fernando Belaúnde (1980–1985), Alan García (1985–1990), and Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000). The commission's mandate was to provide a record of human rights and international humanitarian law violations committed in Peru between May 1980 and November 2000, as well as recommend mechanisms to promote and strengthen human rights. The TRC reported on the estimated 70 000 deaths, assassinations, torture, disappearances, displacement, employment of terrorist methods and other human rights violations executed by the State, Shining Path, and the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. The report concluded that there is both institutional and individual accountability, as well as identifying racial and cultural factors that became a catalyst for conflict.
Burundi's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is a truth and reconciliation commission established in the African country of Burundi to investigate crimes during ethnic conflict which started after the country became independent in 1962. The TRC arose from the Arusha Agreement of 2000. Established by the ruling CNDD-FDD party in 2014, the commission was intended to run for an initial four years; however, its terms of reference were extended for a further four years in 2018.
The Sinchis, also known as the Sinchis de Mazamari after their training location, are a paratrooping unit of the National Police of Peru specialized in counterinsurgency and anti-narcotics operations.
The Socos massacre, or Soccos massacre occurred on 13 November 1983, when a group of Sinchis of the Peruvian Civil Guard in a state of drunkenness, led by Lieutenant Luis Alberto Dávila Reátegui, killed 32 people from the town of Socos, in the Department of Ayacucho, during the Peruvian conflict.
12°34′44″S74°13′44″W / 12.57889°S 74.22889°W
