Families destroyed in Ica: illegally detained farm workers face prison (Wayka [Spanish] - 2/17/2023)
Families destroyed in Ica: illegally detained farmworkers face prison (Spanish)
Relatives of farmworkers arrested on January 25 in the town of Expansión in Ica denounce arbitrary arrests during a police raid during protests against President Dina Boluarte. The Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman) and Ica Human Rights Commission (CODEHICA) confirmed that the Peruvian National Police (PNP) violated the human rights of the detainees with physical mistreatment, restrictions on the entry of food and the denial of access to lawyers.
Ghiomara Rafaele
Yoni Mendoza Llamocca left his home in Ica at approximately three in the afternoon to pick up her eight-year-old daughter who was at his mother-in-law's house, three blocks from the Panamericana Sur highway. From her home, she heard people's screams and smelled tear gas. The sound of shots alerted the citizens of Expansión that the PNP had entered the urban area. According to the Prosecutor's document, the police entered the town center at 3:10 p.m.
Despite the danger, Yoni left his mother-in-law's house with only one idea in mind: to move his daughter to a safe place. When he was about to enter her mother-in-law's home, some civilians, with their faces covered, violently detained him and, together with the police, began to beat him.
Illegal raid
On the Panamericana Sur, at the height of Ica, there are three sectors: Barrio Chino, Expansión and El Álamo. They are the populated centers that house citizens from various provinces of Peru who arrive during the harvest and planting seasons.
It is not the first time that these three sectors have organized to protest on the Highway. In 2020, during the transitional government of Francisco Sagasti, they left their tools to demand fair payment for their work done on the Ica farms. Now, they are demanding the resignation of President Boluarte, the advancement of elections and a Constituent Assembly, as are many parts of the country.
In Ica, clashes between civilians and the PNP have left sixty-three injured on both sides. However, on January 25, according to CODEHICA and the Ombudsman's Office, the PNP with six hundred troops led by General Jorge Castillo Vargas violently and illegally entered the urban areas of Expansión where children, elderly, mothers, fathers, and adolescents who were not participating in the protests live.
“That day the Regional Government had summoned mayors, the business sector, and some civil society organizations to request dialogue and leave the Panamerican Highway. At that same time [of the meeting], the police were raiding the Expansión urbana populated center… In Expansión there was a confrontation between the population and the PNP, but that confrontation was provoked by the Police,” says Rosario Huallanca, CODEHICA spokesperson.
The repression was brutal: the smell of tear gas in the homes, the sound of shotgun blasts near the sports fields and the presence of civilians who - protected by the PNP - attacked citizens, caught them, and handed them over to the Police. People who stayed at home were forced to leave their homes. Their walls, doors and windows could not defend them from violence. One of them was Yoni Mendoza.
“My cousin is caught in the third block of town; they don't catch him in Panamericana. He was not in protest, but because they entered the town [the Police] to shoot pellets, gas. He went to help his little daughter who was with his maternal grandmother. He was not a participant,” says his cousin Gloria Yauri.
Although that Yoni was detained far from the highway, as confirmed by the video shared by relatives with Wayka, the police report says he was detained at the Highway, that he "threw stones in both directions of the road" and that he carried a "bucket of oil." However, in the video Yoni is observed without any object or material in his hands. He is also attacked by the PNP and their civilian accomplices.
Now Yoni faces four months preventive detention in prison for the alleged crime a of riots against the State and a non-commissioned officer, crimes against the media, transportation and other services, violence, and resisting authority. But he is not the only one, there were ten others arrested at the same time in similar circumstances. Among them, Felimón Huamaní Medina, who arrived in Ica with his wife Susana Cori and his five-year-old daughter from Ayacucho looking for better employment opportunities. Both farmworkers had been told they could earn a few soles if they worked in the grape harvest. They left their farms and embarked on a journey of more than seven hours. Their little savings only allowed them to rent a small room on the third floor. It was a room for three with wooden walls and a tin roof,
That same day, Felimón left home in the morning to see what was happening on the road. Susana asked him to not go out, but Felimón insisted. He left their room and headed for the Panamericana Sur. In a corner, he observed the demonstration and the repression by the police and the civilians. But that afternoon they arrested him, and he faces the same charges as Yoni.
Susana watched the hours go by in her room, while she waited for Felimón's return. She called him on her phone, but it was turned off. She left home to look for him and did not find him. She thought the worst, until she found out on social media that he had been arrested. Susana is worried about Felimón's health because he is epileptic.
“I want justice for him, so they stopped him out of nowhere. There is no one to support me or my daughter. I have a five-year-old daughter and I want justice. It is unfair. I want it to come out as soon as possible”, demands Susana.
Felimón is also being investigated for the crime against public peace and security in the form of riots against the State and a non-commissioned officer, crimes against the media, transportation, and other services, and hindering the operation of public services.
Another case is that of Ezequiel Fernández Ponce, who lives in Ayacucho and works planting potatoes. Every season of the grape harvest he traveled to Ica to work in one of the vineyards. With his work, she financially supported her elderly mother and his sister, the single mother of a three-year-old girl. He arrived a week before being arrested.
When the police raid took place, Ezequiel was alerted from his wooden room. The reason for his concern was his cousin: he was afraid that a tear gas canister, a shotgun pellet, or a policeman would hurt her. She lived five blocks from the Panamericana Sur Highway and according to testimonies from Ezequiel's friends, he had met them before arriving at his cousin's house. He did not manage to visit her because he was stopped a few steps from knocking on her door.
“They accused him of having stones, huaracas, he says he was blocking the track. That's how they say they planted it. But it was practically not like that. My brother doesn't like to go out, he doesn't like to participate in those things. He was just looking for his cousin,” said his sister Yolanda.
The First Corporate Criminal Provincial Prosecutors Office of Ica accuses Ezequiel of violating public peace and security in the form of riots against the State and a non-commissioned officer, crimes against the media, transportation and other services, violence against authority to prevent the exercise of their aggravated functions.
Yolanda was one of the first to find out about her brother's arrest at the Guadalupe Police Station, but until now has not been allowed to see him in prison. “I want my brother released. I practically need my brother a lot. For me, for my mom, we have a lot to do with it”, asks Yolanda.
Parapolice forces?
During the police operation, the presence of Julio Carbajal, the President of the Agricultural Workers' Front (FRENTAGRI) and linked to the coup protests against former President Castillo in Ica, was observed. According to an interview in La Mula with Hernando Guerra García from the right-wing Fuerza Popular party, Guerra García said that he had met with Carbajal up to three times. Likewise, other agrarian leaders such as Susan Quintanilla, President of the Committee for the Fight of the Agrarian Sector of Ica, and Miguel Trujillo, Secretary of the Agrícola Chapi Organization confirmed that they do not recognize Carbajal as President of FRENTAGRI.
According to the Ombudsman of Ica Jorge Hernández, Carbajal was participating in the liberation of the road. Carbajal's intervention would be irregular because the PNP are the entity in charge of this action, not civilians. Due to this action, the Ombudsman declared that “the attention of the Police should be called because the responsibility for restoring order belongs to the National Police, not to the civilian population. The fact of allowing civilians in the confrontations is an irregular act”, declared Hernández for CODEHICA.
According to witnesses in the area and videos shared by La Lupa, the civilians next to the police who carried slingshots (huaracas with stones) were attacking citizens including those who were not participating in the protests.
Inhumane treatment of detainees
According to relatives of the citizens who are now imprisoned, the PNP did not provide detainees with food or water. This fact was confirmed by Porfirio Barnechea, Commissioner of the Ombudsman's Office, who visited the Expansion zone to corroborate alleged human rights violations.
“When they are taken to the police station, a second moment of violence develops. Acts of violence against detainees have been reported. The conditions or guarantees for access to the lawyer have not been respected, there were delays by the Public Ministry arriving at the place of detention, to be informed of their rights and the reasons for which they are detained. In addition, they did not give them food and water”, declared Barnechea.
Statement of the Ombudsman's Office in which they requested legal medical examinations for citizens detained on January 25.
One of the relatives who denounces the mistreatment of her husband by the PNP is Maritza Infante, the wife of Wilber Huamaní Flores and mother of three children. “They have made it difficult for the lawyer to talk to him. They beat him, they didn't feed him. We have brought [food], they have not given him,” says Maritza. Wilber is also investigated for the alleged crimes attributed to Felimón and Ezequiel.
Preventative prison
On January 28, three days after the arrests, the Second Preparatory Investigation Court of Ica declared the request for preventive detention of the Public Ministry for eleven people for four months to be founded, for the alleged crime of hindering the operation of public services.
These citizens come from Junín, Bagua, Ayacucho, La Libertad, Tacna, several came to the valley to work during the agricultural season. Now they are behind bars. The Commission of the Ombudsman's Office managed to visit them in the Cristo Rey Prison in Cachiche and they point out that the detainees have bruises on their bodies and that two of them had to receive emergency care.
“The clinical history prepared in the Cachiche Prison does not mention any type of affectation to the health of the people. But in the interview with the detainees, they told us: they have beaten me, I have here the marks, the scabs. You could see the blows; they showed the wounds. There was one who had a lot of pain on the left side of his ribs”
Due to the Ombudsman's request, a new evaluation was carried out in the Cachiche Prison and the various injuries was left on the bodies of the detainees was documented; including, scabs on the head, bruises on the body, and that one of them had to be attended for a fissure on the left side of the rib. Another of the detainees, Wilber Huamaní, suffered an epileptic fit while the Commission was at the Cachiche facility.
The wives, mothers, and children of those who are now in pretrial detention in the Cachiche prison are asking for justice. Maritza demands the release of her husband Wilber, who worked to support her family while she took care of her three daughters. “Who is going to feed me? There is no one who works, I have no resources. I want justice, I want my partner released."
Yolanda and her mother also ask for the release of Ezequiel, who only went out to visit his cousin. Susana, Felimón's wife, asks for justice: "he only came from work" and Yoni's daughter has stopped eating and constantly asks where her father is. Family members still hope to see them leave the prison and return through the doors of their homes.
Tags: #Ica #Expansión #Protests #FRENTAGRI #PNP
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