Santiago Roncagliolo - Red April

That night, two hours before they arrived, Chacaltana remembered Aramayo's words when he said that in Lima they did not want to see what happened in his village. But he also asked himself why (lately he was asking himself why a good deal) the lieutenant had refused to inform the journalists and the high command. He thought that perhaps he was ashamed. It is not easy to admit that you are dead.

On the eighth day of March, 1990, on the occasion of a Senderista assault in which the electrical installations of the region were blown up, a detachment of armed forces appeared at the domicile of the Mayta Carazo family, located at Calle Sucre 14 in the municipality of Quinua, to carry out the appropriate inquiries with regard to Edwin Mayta Carazo, twenty-three years old, suspected of terrorism.

For reasons of security the detachment, led by Lieutenant Alfredo Cáceres Salazar of the Army of Peru, exercised its prerogatives and broke into the aforementioned residence with no prior warning, its members hooded and armed with antisubversive H&K combat rifles, at which time they discovered in the interior the family composed of the abovementioned suspect, his brother Justino, and the mother of both men, Señora Nélida Carazo widow of Mayta, who were spending the night at that site.

After the detachment entered the site, the two Mayta men, who offered no resistance, were subdued with the butts of the weapons for the sake of greater security, while Nélida Carazo widow of Mayta was removed from the area of operations by two troops who, according to their statement, proceeded to place her against an exterior wall of the property at gunpoint, under orders that she not shout or attract the attention of the neighbors. The request of the troops seems to have been heeded, since none of the residents of Calle Sucre has confirmed the version of the family, the majority of the residents stating that they were absent from the location, having left for various reasons related to work from midnight until three in the morning, the hours in which these events were recorded.

By order of Lieutenant Cáceres Salazar, the troops proceeded to inspect the domicile in search of explosives or Senderista propaganda. After examining the interior of the property and removing the appropriate pieces of furniture without success, they interrogated both suspects, who denied having knowledge of any terrorist activity. Lieutenant Cáceres maintained, however, that terrorists who do not appear to be terrorists are those who present the greatest danger to national security, and consequently proceeded to seize the possessions of the family and arrest the suspect Edwin Mayta Carazo, leaving his brother at large in consideration of the fact that in the course of the interrogation the femur of his left leg had been fractured.

At the same time, the mother of both men, Nélida Carazo widow of Mayta, attempted to enter the house and join her offspring, at which point the troops of the Army of Peru found themselves obliged to detain her to prevent her from interfering with the official duties of the authorities. Subsequently, as indicated by the relevant medical certificate, Nélida Carazo suffered a fractured jaw with complications in the parietal osseous structure.

The operation having been concluded, the suspect Edwin Mayta Carazo was driven in a military vehicle to the military base of Vischongo, several hours distant from the location of his domicile, where the required interrogation was carried out.

The detainee denied repeatedly the existence of any connection to Sendero Luminoso, which convinced Lieutenant Cáceres Salazar even more firmly of the aforesaid detainee's involvement in the abovementioned assaults because, as he has stated, it is characteristic of terrorists to always deny their participation in these events. As a consequence, and in order to increase the cooperation of the detainee, he put into effect an investigative technique that consists of tying the suspect's hands behind his back and letting him hang suspended from the ceiling by the wrists until the pain permits him to proceed to confess his criminal acts.

Subsequently, since the detainee insisted on denying his culpability, the military troops then undertook another technique of inquiry designated by the name “submarine,” which practically submerges the head of the suspect in a basin of water several times until he is close to drowning, causing his receptivity to the questions of the authorities to increase significantly. According to the statement of the authorities, the detainee continued to deny his participation in Sendero Luminoso. Despite the efforts of the authorities, cooperation on the part of the aforementioned suspect was not achieved.

Finally, in the face of the repeated denials of Edwin Mayta Carazo, Lieutenant Cáceres Salazar decided to give him his freedom, leading to the aforesaid detainee's release from prison the following day as indicated in the daily records of the military base at Vischongo.

The whereabouts of Edwin Mayta Carazo have been unknown since that day. His family denies having seen him again, as do his friends and acquaintances, all of which reinforces the thesis that he has become clandestine as a member of a terrorist group, in all probability Sendero Luminoso, despite the fact that terrorism was eradicated and continues to be eradicated at the present time, April, 2000.

In an oral declaration to this official, his brother Justino admitted that Edwin engaged in dangerous acts, the nature of which he did not specify. As a consequence, this Office of the Prosecutor recommends the appearance in person in the shortest feasible time of Edwin Mayta Carazo, Justino Mayta Carazo, and Lieutenant of the Army of Peru Alfredo Cáceres Salazar to make their statements to the court.

Associate District Prosecutor Félix Chacaltana Saldívar read the report for the tenth time. This time he did not throw it in the wastebasket. But he did hesitate. He was concerned. The syntax was not bad, though perhaps too direct, showing little respect for traditional forms. For example, the ages of those involved were missing, since he had not been able to verify them in every case. But the prosecutor was concerned above all that it would be inadmissible to reopen the case, and as Captain Pacheco had told him, the police would not be the competent body to handle a problem of terrorism.

He thought again of Justino's words: My brother's the one. He does everything. Perhaps the prosecutor should have let those words go without thinking more about the matter, perhaps he should have closed his eyes, should have forgotten. Forgetting is always good. But the entire subject of Yawarmayo was a buzzing that vibrated in his ears, the back of his neck, his stomach.

Besides, he did not do anything all day. Since his return from Yawarmayo, he had turned into a ghost at the Ministry of Justice. No one had assigned him work, not even an indictment, not even a memorandum. His pending assignments had been transferred to other offices during his trip. The Provincial Prosecutor had given him no explanation. His colleagues claimed not to know anything. For his part, Judge Briceño called him aside to congratulate him in a complicitous way for being Commander Carrión's new protégé. He said that was the best way to buy a Datsun. The prosecutor thanked him for his congratulations without really understanding them, and hours later, in the bathroom, he heard the same judge at the urinal telling someone that Carrión had ordered the prosecutor isolated because he no longer had any confidence in him. “That prick is fucked,” the judge concluded. More than the ordinary intrigues of the Judiciary, what bothered Prosecutor Chacaltana was the feeling of emptiness. For twenty years he had been busy writing every morning and now, suddenly, he felt useless, as if his office were an ice bubble isolating him from the world. He was bored.