Peru: Army identifies patrols that acted in Ayacucho Massacre (Spanish)
Two captains, twelve sergeants, nine non-commissioned officers, twenty-two corporals and seven soldiers of the Voluntary Military Service (SMV), who served in the areas where the ten citizens were murdered on December 15, 2022, according to information provided by the General Commander of the Second Wari Infantry Brigade Brigadier General Jesús Vera Ipenza.
The Prosecutor's Office is investigating the deaths of ten people during protests in Ayacucho (photo diffusion)
Maria Elena HildagoThe members of the Army patrols that were in the areas of the city of Huamanga, where ten citizens were shot to death during the anti-government protests on December 15, were identified and will soon be questioned by the office of prosecutor Karen Obregón Ubaldo, responsible for the proceedings of the case.
It was the General Commander of the Second Wari Infantry Brigade Brigadier General Jesús Vera Ipenza who communicated about the 218 uniformed officers who served in the Ayacucho capital on December 15.
With this key information, the Prosecutor's Office can identify the soldiers who were at the scene when the ten people were fatally shot by bullets from Galil Assault Rifles, a long-range weapon carried by members of the Wari Infantry Second Brigade that day.
On the day of the bloody events, Army troops used Galil Assault Rifles (photo: Twitter)
In this way, the fiscal interrogation, it was indicated, will concentrate on those elements of the Army that were assigned - according to the documents sent by General Jesús Vera Ipenza - in the points where the homicides of civilians were registered.
The deadly scenarios
Based on the information sent by General Vera to Prosecutor Karen Obregón, La República has identified the Army Patrols that were in the area where the crimes took place (see infographic).
Leonardo Hancco Chacca received a fatal impact on the thorax when he was in the Conchopata archaeological complex, near the Ayacucho airport. Patrols No. 10 (7 troops), No. 16 (10 troops) and No. 18 (11 troops) were deployed in the area.
Victims of the December 15, 2022, Ayacucho Massacre
Clemer Rojas García and Josué Sañudo Quispe fell into the Amancaes prolongation, two blocks from the Ayacucho Airport, where the troops of the same Patrols No. 10, No. 16, and No. 18 were located.
At the intersection of Evitamiento and Ejército avenues, where soldiers from Patrols No. 10, No. 16, and No. 18 also moved, Jhonatan Alarcón Galindo was killed.
Six of the ten victims were murdered in the area that corresponded to Patrols No. 1 (12 troops), No. 2 (12 troops) and No. 19 (11 troops). Its members were responsible for protecting the streets where they were killed with Galil rifle bullets:
- Edgar Prado Arango, at the intersection of Los Angeles and Abancay Avenues. Prado was only attending to a wounded man.
- Cristofer Ramos Aime, who was crossing Abancay avenue, after working in the cemetery. Ramos was not at the protests.
- José Aguilar Yucra was shot in the head, according to a forensic ballistics survey, with a projectile compatible with the Galil rifle. Ramos was walking down the first block of Abancay Avenue.
- Luis Urbano Sacsara was in the vicinity of the cemetery, near the airport, when he was shot in the back.
- Raúl García Gallo killed by a shot to the stomach in the same area of the cemetery, adjacent to the airport.
- Jhon Mendoza Huarancca died after being pierced through the thorax by a Galil projectile, on Sao Paulo Avenue.
Chain of Command
One of the first questions that the Prosecutor's Office will ask the members of Patrols No. 1, 2, 10, 16, 18 and 19 will be who was the military authority that ordered them to shoot indiscriminately disregarding the provisions of the Regulation the Use of Force (RUF).
In force since 2020, the RUF prohibits military personnel from using their weapons, except in extreme situations of threat of loss of human life. According to all videos collected so far, this situation did not arise when the soldiers fired their Galil rifles.
General Commander of the Second Wari Infantry Brigade Brigadier General Jesús Vera Ipenza
The first citizen knocked down by a fatal bullet was Leonardo Hancco, at 2:05 pm; and the last one, Clemer Rojas, at 3:23 pm. The timeline is essential to identify the perpetrators of the shots that caused the loss of life.
As the witnesses to the events and the relatives of the victims interviewed by La República declared, most of the deceased did not intervene in the demonstrations, and therefore did not represent any threat.
According to a report released by the General Commander of the Second Wari Infantry Brigade, the personnel of the six Patrols that carried out their duties in the areas where the fatal shots were recorded were made up of troop personnel, dependent on superior directives:
- 2 captains.
- 7 first class petty officers.
- 1 petty officer second.
- 1 petty officer third.
- 22 corporals of the Voluntary Military Service (SMV).
- 4 top technicians.
- 2 second technicians.
- 4 third-rate technicians.
- 12 sergeants.
- 12 SMV soldiers.
Due to the rank they held, most of these troops could not have made the decision to fire on the civilans of their own free will. They must have responded to instructions from their superiors.
La República has chosen not to publish the identities of members of the patrols so as not to hinder the proceedings of the Ayacucho Prosecutor's Office in charge of the investigations.
The explanations could be offered by the General Commander of the Second Wari Infantry Brigade, Brigadier General Jesús Vera Ipenza; the Chief of Staff, Colonel Leonardo Huamán Gabino; and the Chief of the Operational Staff, Colonel Luis Vivanco Palomino.
Prosecutor Karen Obregón Ubaldo has also received the registration with the name and surname of the troops who were assigned Galil Assault Rifles on the day of December 15, with the respective serial number of each weapon.
Ayacucho Prosecutor Karen Obregón Ubaldo (photo diffusion)
It is understood that the Prosecutor's Office will order that said rifles be subjected to ballistics tests to determine if the troops used them, at what time and in what circumstances.
The authorities' idea is to cross-reference information with the results of the forensic ballistics tests as published by La República yesterday. As reported, the experts from the Criminalistics Directorate concluded that the bullet wounds of the ten victims corresponded to 5.56 mm ammunition, used by Israeli-made Galil long-range rifles. These were the weapons used by the Army on December 15.
Officially, neither the Army, nor the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, nor the Ministry of Defense have publicly that shots from the Galil Assault Refles were the cause of death for the ten victims.
Who were the airport police officers?
The Ayacucho office of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) also sent Prosecutor Karen Obregón Ubaldo the list of police officers who served on December 15.
PNP operations were overseen by the head of the Ayacucho Police Region, PNP Colonel José Solano Grandez.
Colonel Solano also sent the names and surnames of the police officers who were at the Alfredo Mendívil airport, in Ayacucho on the day the protesters tried to take control of the public establishment.
The information will be useful to establish who were the police officers who coordinated the actions of repression on December 15. This information may also explain why elements of the Army fired when the protesters had already withdrawn from the airport.
The Data
Different versions: sources related to the military investigation for the events of December 15 alleged that the deceased were killed by projectiles fired from 'artisanal weapons' used by the protesters, only to later hold the military responsible.
Tags: #AyacuchoMassacre #FFAA #PNP #Protests
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