Report of the Investigative Commission on the Events of Uchuraccay

During the following months, Uchuraccay continued to be the scene of violence, death, and desolation: one hundred and thirty-five community members were killed as a result of attacks by the Partido Comunista del Perú – Sendero Luminoso, the repression of counter-subversive forces, and the peasant rondas. In mid-1984, Uchuraccay ceased to exist because the surviving families fled, taking refuge in nearby communities and towns in the sierra and jungle of Ayacucho, as well as in the cities of Huanta, Huamanga, and Lima. Only in October 1993 did some families venture to return to their former lands. The murder of the journalists generated two investigations. The first was conducted by the Investigative Commission on the Events of Uchuraccay appointed by President Fernando Belaúnde Terry on February 2, 1983, and chaired by the writer Mario Vargas Llosa, which presented its report a month later, identifying the peasants of Uchuraccay as responsible. The second investigation was carried out by the judiciary through an extremely confused and protracted criminal proceeding, whose final ruling was issued on March 9, 1987, sentencing the peasants Dionisio Morales Pérez, Simeón Auccatoma Quispe, and Mariano Ccasani Gonzáles for homicide, and ordering the arrest of fourteen other peasants from Uchuraccay. (Excerpt from introduction).