LOS CABITOS, BARRACKS OF INFAMY. LA HOYADA, A SANCTUARY IN DANGER

The barracks of the Motorized Engineering Battalion No. 51, better known as Los Cabitos, is situated at the edge of a narrow plateau, once difficult to access, that overlooks Huamanga. The only runway of that city's airport runs alongside it. At Los Cabitos, terrible crimes were committed during the years when, taking advantage of the State of Emergency declared by President Belaúnde, it served as the headquarters of the Political Military Command tasked with putting an end to the terrorism — also criminal — caused by Sendero Luminoso in Ayacucho. The generals responsible for this command were: Clemente Noel in 1983, Adrián Huamán in 1984, and Wilfredo Mori in 1985. In 2003, the CVR report stated that "members of the Army stationed at Barracks No. 51, known as Los Cabitos, and intelligence unit personnel known as 'La Casa Rosada' (both based in Huamanga) ordered, permitted, or committed human rights violations against the local population between 1983 and 1984. They carried out arbitrary detentions, torture, selective releases, disappearances, and extrajudicial executions of at least 136 citizens."