In February 1992, a Peruvian military tribunal court-martialed CJA defendant Telmo Hurtado Hurtado in connection with the Accomarca Massacre, but only on charges of disobeying orders for failing to inform his superiors of the killings. But his conviction was later annuled under an amnesty law enacted under the regime of former President Alberto Fujimori.
The amnesty law was subsequently nullified by Peru’s Supreme Court, and a criminal investigation into the Accomarca Massacre was opened in 2002, as part of the findings of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The investigation proceeded in fits and starts until prosecutors brought charges against 29 army staff, including both defendants in CJA’s cases, Telmo Hurtado Hurtado and Juan Rivera Rondón. Trial hearings began in November 2010.
CJA formed an international legal team to assist in the prosecution, partnering with local lawyers from APRODEH and the Institute for Legal Defense.
CJA and our partners worked to ensure that Hurtado was extradited to Peru in July 2011 and brought to trial. This transnational strategy paid off: in April 2012, Hurtado admitted in open court that he took part in the Accomarca Massacre of August 1985 and commanded a patrol that killed 69 civilians, including 30 women and 23 children: “There are things that one cannot cover with his thumb. Not even the silence of oneself. This is the moment to consider and recognize what one has done.”
After many years of investigation and court hearings, the Accomarca Massacre case will soon reach a verdict.
