Santiago Guardamino Gonzales knew that they were going to kill him if he persisted in his attempt to invalidate the fraudulent sale of land owned by the community he led. It wasn’t an intuition. Nor did he see it in a nightmare. Much less was it an omen from Santiago Guardamino. It was a real threat because it was later fulfilled.
A subject called him on his cell phone expressly to warn him to leave the company Industrias Argüelles y Servicios Generales alone, which had acquired the community property at an undervalued price through a process in which forged documents were used. Santiago Guardamino recorded the individual. This was the conversation:
NN: Hello, Santiago Guardamino. Listen to me, daddy. Leave the Argüelles company alone. Please, already? I’m calling you from the University of Huacho. Please, I’m going to ask you a lot. Guardamino: What happened?
NN: The only thing I want is for you to completely separate the Argüelles company.
Guardamino: What am I doing?
NN: You already know, son. We are talking. We are civilized people.
Guardino. I am also a civilized person and things have to be fair. How are they!
N: Daddy, I’m asking you please and in advance. I have friends in Huaral, too.
Guardamino: Ah, you are threatening me.
NN: Don’t take it as a threat.
Guardamino: Yes, brother. Yes you are threatening me.
NN: No, no. I’m going to threaten you, Santiaguito. Please, take good care of yourself, okay, Santiaguito?
Guardamino: Yeah, anyway, old man. Take good care of yourself.
The intimidating call occurred in 2017, when Santiago Guardamino Gonzales served as head of an investigative commission appointed by the peasant community of Quipán, located in the district of Huamantanga, province of Canta, Lima. The farmers had discovered that the former president of the community Abel Mosquera Ortiz sold 10,000 hectares to Industrias Argüelles and Servicios Generales for S/600,000, in 2016. Argüelles planned to build a landfill that currently receives waste from 9 districts of Lima and Chalacos. .
IT’S AN “ARMANI”
To consummate the deal, former president Abel Mosquera falsified documents proving that he had supposedly received authorization and representation from the Quipán community. As it is said, Santiago Guardamino bought the case, and in recognition of his efforts to recover the land, the community elected him president for the period 2023-2024. But he was not able to complete his term. On April 1 of this year, two hitmen murdered him with 10 bullets, shortly before Guardamino arrived at his home in Carabayllo. The threat he received and recorded was carried out.
But for the lawyer of Industrias Argüelles and Servicios Generales, Alejo Berrocal Vergara, the audio that records the warning to Santiago Guardamino is a “montage.” And that the recording also does not prove that his client Argüelles, who made the fraudulent acquisition reported by Guardamino, is related to Guardamino’s homicide. “I listened to that audio and I can tell you one thing about it: he (Santiago Guardamino) receives it willingly. If I receive a threat of that nature, I either cut it off or scare it (the subject). But he receives it willingly and still says goodbye. That’s ‘armani’ (assembly, assembly). The police and the Prosecutor’s Office have not summoned us so far,” explained lawyer Alejo Berrocal.
“Let the police solve it,” he said.
A PURCHASE “IN GOOD FAITH”
Santiago Guardamino promoted two proceedings: criminally, against the former president of the community, Abel Mosquera Ortiz, for having organized the fraudulent sale of the 10,000 hectares of Quipán. In civil matters, to declare the nullity of Mosquera’s contract with Industrias Argüelles y Servicios. On May 6 of this year, just over a month after the murder of Santiago Guardamino, the Transitory Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court rejected an appeal presented by Abel Mosquera and confirmed four years of suspended prison, S/100,000 of civil reparation, declaring the contract void.
The civil process, which seeks for Argüelles to return the property, is still ongoing. The lawyer for the Argüelles waste collection company, Alejo Berrocal, acknowledged that the Supreme Court ruling affects them. And he added that he expected a favorable resolution in civil matters because Argüelles acquired the land in good faith.
“In the criminal process we are not part of the process, but it indirectly harms us. Regarding the civil process, we affirm that we purchased in good faith. We have not participated in any irregular act. We are a serious company and we want this to be clarified because we provide services to important municipalities and with their publications they may think that they are dealing with criminals,” said company defender Argüelles.
“There is an illicit purpose when both parties have agreed, but in our case there was no agreement (illegal with former president Abel Mosquera). In addition, we have an appraisal that indicates that we paid what that land was worth,” he added.
WAITING FOR RESTITUTION
The Argüelles company affirms that it has only begun to use the land in Quipán in August 2023. So far in 2024, it has contracted with the municipality of La Molina S/4.3 million, with Santiago de Surco S/80.5 million and with Independence S/33.8 million. In total, S/ 118.7 million. Argüelles paid S/600,000 for the property, “a fair price,” according to lawyer Alejo Berrocal.
If the objective of the murder of Santiago Guardamino was to truncate the restitution of the 100,000 hectares to Quipán, so far this has not been the case, according to the community’s lawyer, Efrey Becerra Garay.
“It has already been proven that the contract (with Argüelles) is void. With the criminal ruling (from the Supreme Court) we are now going to reinforce the civil process so that Arguelles returns the lands. The Judiciary has already declared that the contract is void because the documents were forged, so civil proceedings cannot say that it is valid. The only thing that is possible is for the civil judge to say that the contract is invalid and declare the community’s claim founded. Surely they will appeal and the process will go to the higher court, but in the long run they will have to hand over the land,” argued Becerra.
“There is no way for the judge to say that the community’s demand for nullity of the legal act is not founded, because the criminal court has already said that it is null,” noted lawyer Becerra. After Santiago’s death, the representative of the Argüelles company, Alejo Berrocal, sent several letters to the president of the Quipán community, Antenor Campos Estacio, requesting a dialogue table. “It has always been our desire to reach an agreement on both sides (…) to base our proposals for the benefit of all community members (…)”, stated in one of the letters.
The community has decided to continue the trial so that the land returns to Quipán, as Santiago Guardamino Gonzales always wanted.
BOX
● At a slow pace. The investigation into the murder of Santiago Guardamino Gonzales is being carried out by the First Office of the Third Provincial Corporate Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Carabayllo, headed by prosecutor Jorge Lozada Figueroa.
● In progress. The police interrogate relatives and acquaintances of the deceased president of the Quipán community, to clarify the motive for Guardamino’s murder.
● Version. The company’s lawyer Argüelles said: “The police and the Prosecutor’s Office have not summoned us so far.”
