It has been 32 years since the capture of Abimael Guzmán ‘Comrade Gonzalo’, one of the bloodiest terrorists in South America, and because of whom Peru lived through a true era of terror in the early 80s and mid-90s, which ended with the lives of at least 60 thousand Peruvians, both civilians and military personnel.
It was September 12, 1992, when months of preparation, monitoring and superhuman effort ended in the so-called ‘Capture of the Century’, that day, in the midst of the adrenaline of a tremendous police operation, The current PNP general, Julio Becerra, was the one who at the young age of 23 entered Abimael Guzmán’s room alone, He managed to subdue him, and while pointing his Smith & Wesson 38 special at his head, he told him “Stop, damn it, or I’ll kill you”the rest is history.
General Becerra is now head of the Macrepol Cusco and is in command of 5,000 police officers in the Cusco region, his homeland, and while we ask him for the details of that successful operation of the now defunct Gein (Special Intelligence Group), he does not hide his emotion and nostalgia. “Gein gave me a career, made me know what honor is, and even what love is,” solemnly cites.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE OPERATION
Operation ‘Victoria’ began months before the capture of Abimael Guzmán. The Gein, under the command of then Major Benedicto Jiménez and Colonel Marco Miyashiro, They used their best men for the coup, since everything indicated that the leader of Sendero Luminoso was housed and sheltered in a house in Surquillo in Lima, which they named ‘the Castle’.
To reach the Castle, the best of the best was needed, as is commonly said in military and police jargon, so the leadership chose the best of the 82 men and women who made up their operations group, who were highly trained and provided with technology that had not been used in Peru before, all in order to capture the leadership that ran Sendero Luminoso at that time.
General Becerra remembers those years with relish. He says that as a second lieutenant in the Police he responded to a call for a special group that was being created in the Police, he did not know exactly what he would face, But I was certain that I wanted to fight terrorism.the one that was bleeding the country dry at that time.
“I arrived at the interview (to be part of Gein), and all the applicants were from Lima, There were no people from the provinces, so because of my way of speaking, even because of my physiognomy, I was chosen almost immediately from among the candidates, since the special force needed personnel who could cover all sides and from all positions; just as there were gringuitos and criollitos, they also needed a strong cholo like me (laughs).”
In order to obtain first-hand information, the GEIN agents disguised themselves as all kinds of characters. There were garbage collectors, who would then search the house’s waste in search of evidence, there were those who acted as peddlers and street vendors, who would knock on the door of the house and check whether there were people there or not, and there were even street musicians. Becerra had to play one of the latter, and with a charango in his hand he toured Surquillo collecting all kinds of valuable information.although in practice he did not play a single note on his assigned instrument.
‘D-DAY’
The capture of the Sendero leader was planned for September 15, 1992, a date that coincided with another anniversary of the now defunct Peruvian Investigation Police, but the evidence obtained by the undercover agents, such as medications for Abimael’s exclusive use, oversized clothing in his size, In addition to a brief visualization of the individual a few days before, everything was in place and the decision was made not to waste any more time and conclude the operation with the capture of the terrorist.
On September 12, the Police were determined, and from early on they designated the positions and tasks to be carried out. Julio Becerra ‘Ardilla’ and his operating partner, Cecilia Garzón ‘Gaviota’, had one of the most complicated tasks. They settled down a few meters from the house in question, in a grocery store, and pretended to have a few beers until they were given the order to enter the house and capture ‘Cachetón’.
The man from Cusco says that things were complicated from the beginning, but that he was able to resolve them. When he arrived at the winery, he was surprised to find that there was no beer, and he had to improvise, so he asked for a Coca Cola and some snacks, which he and Gaviota consumed with exaggerated slowness over the course of two hours. “You can drink some beers in a while, but a soda goes down in no time. We were nervous but determined, with a Coca Cola in one hand, and the other ready to draw our revolvers as soon as the signal was given.account.
SEPTEMBER 12, 1992 TERRORISTS FROM THE SENDERO LUMINOSO, THE LEADER ABIMAEL GUZMAN AND CARLOS INCHAUSTEGUI DEGOLA PHOTO: EL COMERCIO
The couple continued with their role when suddenly the door of the ‘Castle’ opens and out come Carlos Incháustegui ‘Lolo’ and Maritza Garrido Lecca ‘Lola’, owners of the house where Abimael and his occasional hosts were hiding. “Green light, proceed, I repeat, proceed!”was heard on the communication radio that the agents had and then they run towards the entrance door. ‘Ardilla’ fights with ‘Lolo’ so that he does not close the door and ‘Gaviota’ does the same with ‘Lola’, they were seconds of fierce resistance, which finally ended when ‘Gaviota’ took out his service weapon and fired a shot into the air, leaving ‘Lolo’ and ‘Lola’ petrified. and began to subdue them, while his partner quickly climbed the stairs to the second floor of the house, where they had identified Abimael Guzmán’s office.
“I just had to make sure the door didn’t close and keep it that way so the shock group could get in, but the adrenaline got the better of me and I went inside, then I broke a plywood door that separated a room, I entered and I saw him (Abimael), He was sitting at his desk, surrounded by many books and I pointed at his head, and then he looked lost and just said to me “calm down boy, I already lost”then reinforcements arrived and the task was accomplished,” says the current police general.
CELEBRATION WITH WEDDING
What follows is history, Following the news of the capture of the leader of Sendero Luminoso, images of people hugging each other in the streets could be seen, The media went crazy and the police officers involved in Operation Victory were hailed as heroes. People demanded that they be given the million dollars that the government had promised to whoever caught Abimael Guzmán, and so it was, but with exaggerated cuts that meant that Julio Becerra received only 200 dollars of the entire prize, something that the police officer remembers more as an anecdote.
“We risked our lives out of conviction, to end the scourge that at that time was killing our children and our parents, We know that our lives were at risk many times, even on the day of the operation, When we felt that our legs were weakening and that at any moment they could ‘hit us with a bomb’ we said to ourselves: “strength, damn it, strength”, and finally we did get it and it was our turn to win.”
After the successful operation, the couple decided to tie the knot, and six months after ‘Victoria’ they were already at the altar, in a small church in Miraflores, where all their colleagues from Gein and other units arrived. The couple that managed to capture ‘Comrade Gonzalo’ and began the overthrow of the most dangerous faction of terrorism in Peru had to be recognized. There they were, he in a tuxedo and she in a white suit, a police fairy tale that ended at the altar.
“I insisted on getting married in Miraflores because that was where I first felt discrimination. There was a place called ‘Tiendita Blanca’, where they prevented me from having a coffee because of my Andean features, they stopped me at the door and threw me out, so as revenge and since I was already quite famous (laughs), we went to that district so that everyone could see us, so that white, black, chola and whatever people would realize that Peru is a mixture of races, and that physical appearance and skin color do not matter when it comes to fighting for your country and doing a lot for it, “Even at the risk of life”concludes the police general.
DATA:
– General Becerra did finally receive financial recognition after the capture of Comrade Gonzalo, 10 thousand dollars, who used them to buy the house where he still lives with his wife in the San Miguel district.
– Agents ‘Squirrel’ and ‘Seagull’ did not get along at first in the Gein, so their superiors decided to assign them together, as a punishment, without imagining that they would fall in love and become a couple in real life.
– Of the 82 agents that made up the Gein, There were only three women and ‘Gaviota’ was one of themthis demonstrated the incipient entry of women into high-risk tasks in the Police, something that changed to date.
– After the capture, the members of the Special Intelligence Group – Gein, were declared ‘Heroes of Democracy’, Some time later, the Gein was dissolved by the then President of the Republic, Alberto Fujimori.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE
