On July 16, prosecutor Rosa Retamozo Eguía, from the Special Team of Prosecutors for Cases with Victims during Social Protests, formalized the investigation against the former general commander of the National Police, Lieutenant General (r) Raúl Alfaro Alvarado, for the murder of the minor Robert Medina Llanterhuay (16), during the demonstrations in Andahuaylas, on December 12, 2022. Medina is one of the 7 children who died during the anti-government days, which left a total of 50 dead.
Three days after the resolution of the prosecutor Retamozo, on July 19, President Dina Boluarte, in a public act, justified the action of the Armed Forces and the National Police. Assuming her responsibility, she said: “(Since) that December 7 (2022), when I assumed the government, it is unnecessary for me to tell you, because Everyone witnessed the situation in which we received the country, and we faced 500 demonstrations, all of them violent.”
For the Head of State, it was the protesters, not the law enforcement officers, who acted violently, even though all the dead were unarmed civilians: “We were firm, stubborn, determined to reaffirm our democracy in that respect for the rule of law, based on the concern and interest that violence cannot develop in our country,” she said.
But the reports of the Special Team of Prosecutors for Cases with Victims during Social Protests, contradict the official version of President Boluarte. The officers used their firearms inappropriately, contravening the rules on the use of force, and under the slogan that those who went out to protest were “terrorists.” The July 16 report by prosecutor Rosa Retamozo confirms this. The officers who used their weapons did so with the consent of their superiors, and they acted in accordance with the directives of the chain of command, which begins with President Boluarte.
WITH BLOOD AND FIRE
The report by prosecutor Retamozo joins those of her colleagues in Ayacucho, Juliaca, Cusco, Pichanaqui and other towns, where investigations have been opened against military and police authorities for the murder of protesters. The defendants were in a position to prevent their subordinates from using their firearms, but they did not do so, resulting in 50 deaths. For the prosecution, there was no justification for shooting at civilians exercising their right to protest.
“It should be noted that even though, in the context of the protests or demonstrations held in the province of Chincheros (Apurímac), certain groups or individuals who were present could have committed acts of violence in the premises of public institutions; however, this situation does not authorize or allow the police forces to dissolve these demonstrations through the arbitrary and disproportionate use of force, which materialized with the use of lethal firearms, having been carried out indiscriminately on the bodies of people. Even more so, when those responsible for the acts were not fully identified, seriously affecting minors,” states prosecutor Rosa Retamozo in her resolution.
Former PNP commander-in-chief Raúl Alfaro and former head of the Apurímac Police Front, PNP General Luis Flores, did nothing to prevent their subordinates from using firearms.
Between December 10 and 11, 2022, police repression caused 6 deaths in Andahuaylas, but neither Governor Boluarte nor the National Police Command ordered the use of firearms to cease. This explains why on December 12, the police shot and killed Robert Medina Llanterhuay, 16, and seriously injured another child, Einer Quispe Navarro, 13, as well as Alcides Barzola Huamán, 23, in the town of Chincheros.
These bloody events occurred “due to the omission (of the former general commander of the National Police) Lieutenant General Raúl Alfaro Alvarado, of not taking effective measures to prevent the disproportionate use of lethal weapons during the demonstrations that took place in the province of Chincheros, on December 12, 2022,” said prosecutor Rosa Retamozo.
According to the chain of command established during the state of emergency period due to the protests, the Andahuaylas Police Command was under the command of Lieutenant General Raúl Alfaro, who in turn answered to President Boluarte.
COMMAND LINE
For this reason, the prosecutor formalized the investigation against Lieutenant General Raúl Alfaro and the chain that follows him:
-Head of the Apurímac Police Front, PNP General Luis Flores Solís.
-Head of the Apurímac Police Front, PNP Colonel Alexis Luján Ruíz.
-Chincheros Commissioner, Major PNP Carlos Cuya Campos
-Lieutenant PNP Litman Peña Pacheco.
However, The indiscriminate use of weapons continued to be a practice of law enforcement in the context of the repression of protests against the Boluarte government.
The same prosecutor Rosa Retamozo formalized an investigation for qualified homicide and other crimes against 14 officers and subordinates of the Apurímac Police Front for the death of a protester and the serious injuries of 5 others.
The father of 16-year-old Robert Medina Llanterhuay, murdered by a police officer who used his AKM rifle without reason.
DEADLY TERRUQUEO
The events occurred on February 9, 2023, when police officers virtually ambushed two trucks that were transporting residents to join a protest action, but since the road was blocked, they decided to return. However, the officers caught up with them with their vehicles and fired shots to make them stop. Although they did not offer resistance, they shot and killed Denilson Huaraca Vílchez and injured 4 others also with firearms.
This incident in Chincheros occurred two months after what happened in Andahuaylas, so the prosecution believes that the authorities did nothing to order their subordinates not to shoot at unarmed civilians.
“The police officers fired shots with AKM rifles and pistols (…) without anticipating that there were people riding in the trucks, and even more so, that the shots could be lethal, thereby failing to comply with the functions of the Operations Plan (…), they misused (the weapons) causing death and injuries,” the prosecutor said in the formalization of the case.
The police used their firearms indiscriminately when there was no imminent danger.
The resolution highlights that the police treated the protesters as “terrorists,” which was the discourse with which some executive authorities referred to the anti-government protests. As in the case of the head of the National Intelligence Directorate (DINI), Juan Liendo O’Connor, appointed by President Boluarte, who publicly stated: “In every place where the police and law enforcement are attacked, there is a political objective and that is called terrorist insurgency.”
Indeed, according to the victims’ statements to the prosecution, they were treated as “terrorists” by the police while they were being shot.
“Get out you fucking terrorists, dogs, mountain people, I’m going to kill you all right now,” shouted one of the police officers. (…) The accused ST2 PNP Wilfredo Oscco Nolasco and S1 PNP Wilfredo Oscco Ludeña, fired shots into the body of the truck using their assigned weapons, despite the fact that there was no imminent danger for the police personnel, since those involved had already been subdued. (…)”, the fiscal report states.
One of the witnesses, David Rojas Lazo, said: “A policeman shouted at Pablo Lazo Mariño: ‘You think you’re a macho, you fucking terrorist. Get down, you fucking terrorist!’ And He shoots him and hits Pablo Lazo in the left arm.”
Former PNP commander-in-chief Raúl Alfaro Alvarado did not order the officers under his command not to use their service weapons against protesters
The 50 deaths and 716 injuries, according to the investigation by the Special Team, were not the result of isolated actions by the military and police but rather of a higher order issued from the Government Palace to quell “500 demonstrations, all of them violent.”
