General Eduardo Bellido and the 98 Percent Torture Rate in Tarapoto
Secrets kept for over three decades reveal how the U.S. viewed the systematic brutality of Peruvian commanders used to clear the Huallaga Valley.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Peru
Vladimiro Montesinos and the Dismemberment of Mariela Barreto
A Peruvian agent was beheaded and butchered for leaking the truth about a military massacre, a horror kept in U.S. diplomatic cables while the operational ties to the killer remained blacked out.
By Desmond Okafor ·
General Hermoza and the Reward for the La Cantuta Massacre
A DIA report from 1994 details how the Peruvian High Command traded justice for loyalty, rewarding death squad members with European postings while exiling those who exposed narcotrafficking.
By Theo Marchetti ·
Buke's $70,000 Ransom and the Uchiza Massacre
Kept secret for decades, a 1989 intelligence update shows how the paid release of a Colombian trafficker paved the way for a Maoist-cartel alliance to execute a police captain
By Desmond Okafor ·
DIA and the 1988 Justification for Peru's Strongmen
While thousands died in the Andean highlands, the Defense Intelligence Agency mapped the fragility of the state to prepare the ground for an authoritarian takeover.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Carlos Escobar Pineda and the Army's License to Kill Non-Entities
The U.S. knew the Army slaughtered villagers in the 1988 Cayara massacre but viewed the deaths as a baseline reality, weighing a prosecutor's life against the utility of a military ally.
By Theo Marchetti ·
Huancayo’s Morgue and the US Embassy’s Audit of the Dead
US Embassy political officers visited the Mantaro Valley in 1991 to find a city abandoned by its police but filled with corpses, a reality preserved in a 15-page cable.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Le Duc Tho and the Quiet Abandonment of the Saigon Government
Kept secret for 47 years, a June 1969 brief shows the US tracking a Soviet push to trade South Vietnam’s sovereignty for a managed political exit.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Maria Elena Moyano and the "Loud Silence" of Lima's Shantytowns
An Afro-Peruvian feminist was murdered to instill "raw fear" in a coastal district, according to a 1992 cable that monitored the collapse of public order in Peru
By Desmond Okafor ·
Leonor La Rosa and the 2000 Diplomatic Shield for a Torturer
A torture survivor was denied justice when the State Department overrode the FBI to shield a Peruvian intelligence chief who had permanently disabled her.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Bill Richardson and the 2000 Push to Ease Amazon Gas Rules
Indigenous communities in the Cusco region were left out of the loop as the U.S. weighed a request to pressure the World Bank into loosening environmental safeguards, a plan kept secret for twenty-four years.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Ayacucho's 1988 Death Squads and the Military's License to Kill
Peruvian peasants were trapped between Maoist strikes and state-backed death threats in a region where the law ceased to exist for the military.
By Theo Marchetti ·
CIA’s Fatal Math and the Ayacucho Jailbreak
A 1982 intelligence review predicted a Maoist insurgency would be 'shattered' by the military, prioritizing a 'favorable human rights image' over the reality of the coming slaughter.
By Harlan Pryce ·
Soviet Military Reach Targeted Egypt and Peru to Breach US Perimeters
Kept secret until 2017, the file tracks Soviet naval and air intrusions into the Caribbean and Africa, mapping a global shadow empire that operated for decades under a SECRET stamp.
By Roy Castellano ·
Velasco Faced October 1974 Coup Threat as Washington Managed Its Image
Marked "Secret; Sensitive," a 1974 memo shows US officials prioritized the appearance of non-involvement over the stability of Peru's reformist government.
By Desmond Okafor ·
Pluspetrol Left 20,000 Peruvians With Contaminated Water
For 20,000 Amazon residents, a rudimentary cleanup left water five times past permissible limits while Pluspetrol executives fought Peruvian officials over the cause.
By Desmond Okafor ·