Santiago Roncagliolo - Red April

“Noooooo!”

The rest was a matter of a second. Perhaps a thread of air, the slight vibration a body produces when it moves through space. Perhaps for Chacaltana it was an intuition. He turned, still shouting, and emptied the magazine of the pistol into the body he felt close by. Again and again and again he pulled the trigger, as if his entire life were devoted to that, as if he alone waged war against the killers, as if the pistol were a machine gun in a helicopter, or a two-man saw, until he sensed he was no longer shooting, because he was out of bullets or simply because nothing was breathing on the other side.

He spent another hour crouched on the staircase, afraid to reload the weapon or move, afraid he would hear Carrión's voice again.

But that did not happen.

The prosecutor breathed heavily and heard no other breathing in the air. Outside, he could hear the songs of Easter Sunday that he had heard so often. He felt along the wall until he reached one of the windows and opened it. In the light that filtered in from the street and the fireworks, he saw Carrión lying on the landing. The shots had pierced a lung, his forehead, a kidney, and a leg. When he approached to inspect the body, he discovered that the commander was not carrying a weapon. Commander Carrión had not been trying to kill him in this final duel. He had merely walked to his death, just like the others, just like all of us. The head of the monster was his. Now his work was done.

Wiping away his tears, the prosecutor walked out to the street. At each corner of the crowded square, the previous Sunday's branches were burning. In the cathedral, the imposing white pyramid of the Resurrection was about to appear at the door, to the accompaniment of fireworks. It carried lighted candles on each of its steps. The prosecutor was lost in the crowd. Slowly, from the interior of the pyramid, the resurrected Christ emerged to the applause of the people. More than three hundred of them began to pass the platform from shoulder to shoulder around the square. When the platform reached his shoulders, Chacaltana crossed himself and said a silent prayer. In the background, between the dry hills, the sun intimated the first light of a new time.

The bullets found in the body of Commander Carrión came from the same weapon that had been fired in the parish house. Based on this evidence and on statements attributing recklessly violent attitudes to Prosecutor Chacaltana, as well as the presence of motive and opportunity for the crimes, the Fourth Criminal Court of the Judicial Branch has initiated proceedings against him for multiple aggravated homicides, a procedure which for the moment is pending until the accused appears in person for the oral hearing.

The officials who are supposed to testify as witnesses in this case, however, have been transferred following the bloody deeds recorded during Holy Week: Colonel Olazábal, promoted to the rank of general, is currently responsible for logistical supply in the Second Police Region. Captain Pacheco, although he did not receive a promotion, was transferred to the district of Máncora, on the northern coast of Piura, to guarantee the security of the area. Judge Briceño, for his part, is a regular member assigned to the Family Court of Iquitos. As for the accused, the whereabouts of Félix Chacaltana Saldívar are unknown.

It must be emphasized in this extensive report that the armed forces, in conjunction with the institutions responsible for maintaining public order and the Army Intelligence Services, have been able to keep the facts out of the press, thus avoiding the spread of panic throughout the region. Similarly, it is a noteworthy achievement to have removed all the files related to the case, which have been transferred to the National Intelligence Service so that it may act in accordance with its judgment and at its own discretion. It should be noted that the opening of proceedings in criminal court lacks binding power with relation to the aforementioned Intelligence Service, and by the same token, civil institutions lack competence in cases that may be related to national security, such cases being automatically transferred to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Military Justice.

Remitted to the Intelligence Service, along with these files, is the totality of documents referring to disappearances, torture, and mistreatment engaged in during the period of the state of emergency by the following members of the military and police, to wit: Alejandro Carrión Villanueva, commander in the Army of Peru; Alfredo Cáceres Salazar, lieutenant in the Army of Peru; Gustavo Olazábal Goicoechea, general in the National Police. For the moment, it is not expected that these cases will be brought to civil justice or to the attention of the press, lest they be manipulated by unscrupulous elements with the intention of damaging the image of our nation abroad or obscuring the significant achievements of the government with regard to the countersubversive struggle.

The documents missing from the records, that is to say, the reports signed by Associate District Prosecutor Félix Chacaltana Saldívar and the lower-case notes written by Commander Alejandro Carrión Villanueva, are attached to this report, along with a detailed and exhaustive narration of the facts known firsthand by the undersigned, due to his having carried out his duties close to the suspects during the interval of time corresponding to the first six-month period of the year 2000.

Recently, new reports from the Army Intelligence Service indicate that the accused, Félix Chacaltana Saldívar, Associate District Prosecutor, has been seen in the environs of the Ayacuchan localities of Vischongo and Vilcashuamán, on the occasion of his attempting to organize “defense militias” with intentions that remain unclear. Our informants state that the abovementioned prosecutor displayed evident signs of psychological and moral deterioration, and that he still retains the murder weapon, which he flourishes constantly and nervously at the least provocation, although it lacks the appropriate ammunition.

Neither the patrols in the area nor the outposts of the forces of law and order have attributed excessive importance to the bellicose attitude of the abovementioned prosecutor, whom they do not consider to constitute a serious danger for the moment. Although members of the police have requested instructions in this regard, the command staff has issued orders not to carry out the detention and capture of the accused, at least while the nation is still engaged in the electoral process, since under these circumstances the case could come to light, with lamentable consequences for our institutional structures.

Having taken these steps, the undersigned official considers his work in the district concluded and takes the liberty of recommending that, for reasons of security, he be transferred to a new post. My sky-blue tie has been destroyed and my connections to the military forces, in expectation of a replacement for Commander Carrión, have been weakened. Furthermore, the intervention of the Intelligence Service in this case has fulfilled its mission of safeguarding the peace and security of the region, at the same time that it has directed information to the channels most suited to the interests of law and order, thus collaborating in the future development of a nation like ours.

In witness whereof the above is hereby signed, on May 3, 2000, by

Carlos Martín Eléspuru

Agent of the National Intelligence Service

The Senderista methods of attack described in this book, as well as the countersubversive strategies of investigation, torture, and disappearance, are real. Many of the dialogues of the characters are in fact citations taken from Senderista documents or the statements of terrorists, officials, and members of the armed forces of Peru who participated in the conflict. The dates of Holy Week, 2000, and the description of its celebration, are also factual. However, all the characters, as well as most of the situations and places mentioned here, are fictitious, and even factual details have been taken out of the context of their place, time, and meaning. Like all novels, this book recounts a story that could have happened, but its author does not confirm that it did happen this way.