CHRONICLE: The Uchuraccay Massacre Told from the Inside

Breathless, senseless: the Uchuraccay massacre and its subsequent politicization have been the worst tragedies in national journalism, without mercy. Every year, Javier Ascue, a representative journalist at El Comercio to this day and who could have been the ninth martyr, recalls December 29, 1982, for two conflicting reasons. First, that day he arrived in Ayacucho as a correspondent to cover an imminent invasion: Sendero announced it was going to take Huamanga and General Clemente Noel was appointed political-military chief of the emergency zone in the criminally known Los Cabitos barracks. And second, that day was his birthday. From that date until the dreadful 26th, Ascue witnessed social and psychological collapse, with daily massacres.