witch-hunt. A bank holdup in Lima, staged by some youths, allegedly to obtain money for guerrilla efforts, was utilized by the regime as an "excuse" for the new wave of repression.
{Further information about the holdup and subsequent events appeared in the January issue of Solidarite Pérou, the monthly bulletin of the French Conmittee of Solidarity with the Victims of Repression in Peru. The following is a translation of the article. ]
* * *
On December 5, 1967, the Magdalena district branch of the International Bank of Lima was raided by a group of six young men, who made off with 800,000 soles [38.46 soles = US#1]. One of the attackers, Marcos Benavidez, was killed by the police and two others were gravely wounded. According to latest reports, all but one have been arrested.
The police claim that the assailants were members of the ELN [Ejército de Liberacién Nacional -- Army of National Liberation] and that their operation was aimed at financing the establishment of a new guerrilla action in Puno in the south of the country.
The chief of the PIP [Policia de Investigaciones del Peri], Campos Montoya, made an immediate public accusation in the papers that Hector Bejar, a leader of the ELN, who has been held in prison for two years, was the instigator and organizer of the holdup; he demanded that Bejar be handed over to the PIP for interrogation (the consequences can be easily imagined).
In the meantime, the PIP is continuing to question its young prisoners, one of whom, Gerardo Benavidez ("Chingolo") is badly wounded. His mother, his wife and six members of his family have been arrested on the same charge and have been confined in the dungeons of the PIP for a month. The doctor and nurse who gave first aid to Benavidez have also been locked up.
On January 1, Marcos Benavidez, who was killed at the time of the assault on the bank, was buried. His coffin was followed by four agents of the PIP -- his murderers ~- his father and the lawyer. The fear was so great that no one dared show up...
However, two members of the group
escaped (according to the official police
statements). The PIP was hunting then.
But now the body of one, Alfredo Choque
Chirinos, has been discovered under pecu-~
liar circumstances in the outskirts of
Lima. The police recovered 460,000 soles
attached to his belt.
Our correspondent in Lima described
the circumstances of this "discovery" in
this way:
",..Yesterday, the police (the
Civil Guard) announced that they had
"found" the body of Alfredo Choque Chiri-
nos ("Suche") dumped in a field of cotton
near La Molina with 360,000 soles at-
tached to his belt; the body showed four
bullet holes, with two large holes in each
breast. The body was found by a tractor
driver on the farm, who reported it to the
police.
The explanation which the PIP has
given is that Choque was murdered by his
accomplices in a fight over the loot, or
else by robbers who killed him for the
money...The question comes to mind, logi-
cally, why, if his murderers knew he had
the money on him, didn't they take it.
Why did they leave it on the body?
I think the truth is that the po-
lice arrested Choque Chirinos some days
before but did not announce it, that they
subjected him to "severe" questioning and
he died under torture. After he had been
liquidated, they threw him in a field so
that someone else might find him "by ac-
cident."
These methods are as familiar as
they are crude. A few months ago, a simi-
lar case occurred in Callao when a taxi
driver accused of theft succumbed under
torture and was "found" the next day in
a street near the port.
Choque Chirinos may have been
killed in a gun battle with the police
or been wounded and finished off after-
wards. But the question is still unan-
swered why his murderers did not take
the money. What is clear is that the po-
lice had a hand in this murder and the
whole story of the attack and fight is
nothing but a cover up.
What is most serious in all this
is the implications of such an act. Un-
questionably this means a turn toward
tougher methods. Up until now all the
murders of revolutionaries have taken
place in the provinces where such things
could be more easily hushed up and con-
cealed. This is the first murder to be
perpetrated publicly right in the capital
itself.
Another ominous symptom is the fact that there have been changes in the top echelons of the state security division. César Livia Alva has been made one of the top-ranking chiefs of this body. He is an exchief of the criminal brigade, notorious for his mastery of torture, his expertness in a thousand forms of "physical pressure." This means then that the "peaceful" and "courteous" methods which the Lima police (not the provincial police) have used up until now have been dispensed with.
In the meantime, the police have unleashed a veritable manhunt to find
Dante Cunti, the leader of the pro-Chinese
Communist party, whom they accuse of be-
ing the author and leader of the bank as-
sault as well as the instigator of a so-
called wave of terror throughout the coun-
try.
Camilo Valqui Cachi, a leader of
the students of the University of Truji-
llo, has also been arrested along with
four other students at that university
and accused of making bombs; they have
been transferred to Lima without their
names even having been made known by the
police.