CABITOS: Sanctuary for Memory

During the years 1983 and 1985, Ayacucho became the main arena of violence. The bloody terrorist actions of Sendero Luminoso were met with fierce repression by the Armed Forces. In January 1983, General Clemente Noel Moral, Political-Military Commander of Ayacucho, established his main center of operations at General Headquarters No. 51, also known as "Los Cabitos." From then on, this barracks became the main clandestine center for illegal detention, torture, extrajudicial execution, and forced disappearance of people from throughout the region. In 1985, General Wilfredo Mori Orzo was appointed Political-Military Commander of Ayacucho and has been identified as responsible for the construction of an oven at "Los Cabitos," as well as the incineration of more than 300 bodies that had been buried in the barracks' clandestine cemetery since 1983. Two decades after these events, the Fiscalía Especializada en Derechos Humanos of Ayacucho determined that there was sufficient evidence establishing the criminal responsibility of senior Army commanders during the years 1983 and 1985. It also noted that hundreds of people were illegally detained, tortured, and disappeared at this military facility from 1983 onward.