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The year 2000 ushered in more than just a new millennium in Peru. It witnessed a return to democracy after years of internal armed conflict and authoritarian rule. It also signaled the beginning of the country's efforts to come to terms with a long legacy of widespread and systematic human rights abuses. Peru's political transition, triggered by the fall of President Alberto Fujimori in 2000, revolved in significant part around how to respond to the terrible crimes against humanity committed between 1980 and 2000 by Peruvian security forces and their principal nemesis, a guerrilla group known as Sendero Luminoso (the Shining Path). The ultimate success of Peru's return to peace, democracy, and the rule of law depends in no small measure on whether the perpetrators of the worst crimes can be held accountable.

Peru's civil conflict was a vicious struggle for power between rebel forces, primarily the Shining Path, and Peruvian security forces. According to the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was established in 2001 to investigate the widespread violations of human rights that had occurred, nearly seventy thousand people were unlawfully killed or forcibly disappeared during the war, virtually all of them civilians. The Truth Commission found that nearly 54 percent of these deaths or disappearances were attributable to the Shining Path guerrillas. Peru's state security apparatus composed of the armed forces, the police, and local "self-defense" committees organized and armed by the state was responsible for 37 percent of the violations. In addition, the victims of Peru's political violence were subjected to the systematic practice of torture by the Peruvian armed forces and national police; the Shining Path also resorted to torture on a regular basis, although not nearly to the same extent. Similarly, state agents were by far the most active perpetrators of sexual violence against women, especially rape, as a method of torture.

Caught between the warring parties, the civilian population bore the brunt of these abuses. It is estimated that of the approximately seventy thousand people killed or disappeared, over 80 percent lived in the most destitute regions of the country. The population most affected was primarily the poor, rural, and predominantly indigenous communities of Peru's Andes region. In fact, three out of every four victims were from this region. These marginalized communities have historically suffered from extreme political, economic, and social exclusion. Peruvian society's biases were clearly reflected in the war's disproportionate impact on its most vulnerable sectors: The Truth Commission found that the vast majority of all victims were lower-class campesinos (farm laborers), as well as Andean and Amazonian Indians whose Native language was either Quechua or Ashaninka, not Spanish.

Few dispute that responsibility for initiating the war rests squarely with the Shining Path guerrillas, one of the most savage insurgent movements ever. As part of its Maoist strategy to overthrow the established order, this group systematically targeted local authorities, as well as community leaders and activists, for extermination, often through massacres. Using these brutal tactics, the Shining Path was responsible for more than half of the estimated seventy thousand killings and disappearances tabulated by the Truth Commission, and nearly a quarter of all torture. Its leaders, especially the group's founder, Abimael Guzmán, a former university professor captured by police in 1992, undoubtedly bear the bulk of responsibility for the crimes against humanity committed by this insurgent organization. The only other guerrilla movement in the country, the comparatively small Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, was ultimately responsible for less than 2 percent of all human rights violations occurring during the conflict, primarily the kidnapping of civilians and taking of hostages.

Even so, it is arguable that the cure may have been worse than the disease: The increasingly authoritarian responses of successive civilian administrations caused the military conflict to deepen, leading to serious human rights violations on a massive scale. The Peruvian government under President Fernando Belaunde Terry (1980–1985) was unprepared to counter organized insurgency in the countryside. This led to the declaration of a state of emergency in those provinces most affected by the violence, principally in Ayacucho, and the militarization of counterinsurgency operations in 1982. Significant human rights violations ensued. Nearly a third of all deaths and disappearances during the twenty-year conflict occurred from 1983 to 1984. The Truth Commission determined that the inept government of President Belaunde failed to prevent, investigate, or punish the rampant abuses which transpired during his tenure, adding that this failure was a product of discrimination against Peru's indigenous population and other marginalized sectors.

Belaunde's elected successor as president, Alan García (1985–1990), attempted at first to regain civilian control over the security forces. Simultaneously he adopted policies aimed at undermining the guerrillas' social and political base, not least by preaching official respect for human rights. The worst excesses on both sides diminished. However, several events conspired to plunge Peru back into a spiral of escalating violence. In June 1986 an uprising by political prisoners at El Frontón prison was crushed by the armed forces, resulting in the death and disappearance of hundreds of inmates. This set off a new wave of guerrilla attacks and military successes, which for the first time began to reach beyond the rural regions of the country's interior to include targets in Lima, the capital city.

By bringing terror to urban Peru's doorstep and creating a climate of insecurity throughout the country, the guerrillas succeeded in undermining the civilian government's authority and reinforcing that of the Peruvian military. By the end of President Garcia's term in 1990, nearly half the national population and a third of its territory were under a state of emergency and subject to the direct control of the armed forces. Restrictions had been placed on civil liberties, institutional democracy, and the independence of the judiciary. These measures, in turn, had fueled a new surge in the number of killings, disappearances, and other grave human rights violations. The Truth Commission established that the government of President García had further contributed to the human rights crisis by attempting to cover up many of the rampant abuses carried out by state agents during this period.

Alberto Fujimori, a political upstart whose populist platform played well with Peru's marginalized masses (see sidebar), was the surprising victor in the landmark 1990 election. President Fujimori further extended military control over the government through a series of draconian legislative and executive initiatives that exacerbated an already dire human rights situation. One of the most controversial measures authorized military courts to try civilians accused of "terrorism," which led to the arbitrary detention and unjust conviction of hundreds of innocent people. Fujimori effectively placed the Peruvian state's security apparatus under the direction of the National Intelligence Service led by Vladimiro Montesinos, his closest advisor. This consolidation of authority allowed Fujimori to carry out in April 1992 the infamous autogolpe (selfcoup), whereby he directly seized power by suspending the constitution and suppressing all opposition.

Fujimori's autocratic control over the levers of power and the media, coupled with public successes such as capturing the guerrillas' main leaders, allowed him to remain in power until rampant corruption toppled his government in 2000. His decade in power was characterized by a progressive deterioration of the rule of law as the regime became more brazen in its abuse of power. A good example is the adoption in 1995 of amnesty laws that shielded all police and military agents from prosecution for any human rights violations committed since 1980 (the law was later annulled). It is no coincidence that the Fujimori government was at the time under intense scrutiny due to several high-profile scandals involving grave human rights violations attributed to government agents. In particular, the government was under national and international pressure to account for two cold-blooded massacres, La Cantuta and Barrios Altos, in which dozens of victims were either assassinated or disappeared by a death squad. It was later revealed that the death squad was a clandestine creation of the intelligence network run by Montesinos on Fujimori's behalf. The Truth Commission held both men individually responsible for these crimes against humanity.

The transition back to democracy after Fujimori's abrupt resignation was initiated by the interim government of Valentín Paniagua, a congressman selected to be the caretaker president. He began by dismantling much of his predecessor's corrupt and oppressive security apparatus. In one of his first official acts, Paniagua established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with a broad mandate to report on the abuses of the past and make recommendations on how to address them. The Truth Commission was subsequently ratified by President Alejandro Toledo, who was elected in April 2001. In August 2003 the Truth Commission issued its final report, which identified many of the groups and individuals responsible for the worst human rights violations. It was but the first step toward overcoming the impunity that has long benefited the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Peru.

SEE ALSO Amazon Region; Incas

Arturo Carrillo