"It's Unbelievable What Happened..."
(The following is an interview with the mother of Nestor Cerpa
Cartolini, the commander of the MRTA commando which took over the
Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima on December 17, 1996.)
Hello, Felicitas, would you like to introduce yourself?
My name is Felicitas Cerpa Cartolini. I live in Nantes,
France.
Could you please tell us once again, what happened during the
action by the Peruvian military, and what happened afterwards?
We saw everything happen on TV in Nantes. It was very
painful for us to watch, and it was very painful not to be there.
We knew that there were negotiations taking place during the
occupation, and we thought things were going to end peacefully.
During the four month occupation, we were able to contact my son
every 14 days via the Red Cross. He believed in the negotiations,
but as the time dragged on, we began to feel that things weren't
going to end well. 15 days before the massacre, my son wrote a
very optimistic letter to his sons, that things were going to be
over very soon and that they could all be together again, even
with their mother [N. Cerpa Cartolini's wife, Nancy Gilbonio, a
political prisoner in Cajamarca Prison in Yanamayo]. It's
unbelievable what happened. Fujimori was just passing the time in
order to plan what happened. On the TV news here they said that
sleeping pills had been put into the mineral water brought in to
the commando. The hours went by, then we saw what seemed to be a
bomb exploding. And then there was Fujimori celebrating with the
military on the streets. So initially we thought that they had
all died in their sleep, but afterwards it became clear that they
had been killed during the action. Then we saw TV images of the
hostages, some of whom were telling that some of the guerrillas
had tried to surrender but were killed anyway. The Peruvian
government had the support of the USA and Israel in carrying out
its action, and the soldiers were carrying German weapons.
What happened to the people who were murdered, and how did the
government treat the family members of those who had been
murdered?
We know that the family members of those who had been
murdered went to the embassy compound, but the military had
already sealed off the area. That night the bodies were taken to
a military hospital, as the family members were told by some
journalists. I know that my sisters, who still live in Peru, went
to the hospital, but they were not allowed in. The military
wouldn't let the people in, in fact they beat them and wanted to
arrest them. That evening two relatives were arrested and held
for 15 days because they tried to enter a "military zone". Due to
the pressure we applied from abroad, they were released. I was in
contact with the Red Cross and wanted to travel to Peru in order
to cremate my son's body and have him buried back in France. A
few hours later, the Red Cross told me that Fujimori did not want
to see me in Peru. At the same time I saw Fujimori on the TV
saying how the bodies of all the commando members would be handed
over to their families, and that I was supposedly on my way to
Peru to receive my son's body. My sister was the only one let
into the military hospital. She wanted to identify my son's body.
Only my son's body and that of Roli Rojas were in one piece, and
the others were in pieces packed in bags. My son's body was in a
coffin and my sister identified him, and as she put new clothes
on his body she counted the bullet holes in his head. There were
30, one of which was point blank to the temple. My sister wanted
to know where Nestor was going to be taken, but the soldiers told
her either to get on the truck with the body herself or to go
away. After a long argument, her husband was able to go along as
well, along with 30 soldiers and a motorcycle escort. It was dark
by the time they arrived in the Nueva Esperanza neighborhood, but
they didn't know they were there until they asked some passersby
later on. A hole had already been dug for my son's coffin to be
placed in. My family was only allowed to place a small cross by
his grave, with the initials "N.C." on it. Other relatives were
told that they should go to the cemetery in Chorrillos to receive
their bodies. But these people never did receive the bodies of
their loved ones, and we have since learned from people in
different neighborhoods that the bodies were buried in various
cemeteries.
You yourself are a political refugee living in France. Can you
tell us something about your life there?
I have lived in France for the past nine years, because I
could not stand the pressure from the Peruvian military after my
son went underground in 1984. They continually surrounded and
raided my house. They asked me if I knew where my son was, if I
had any contact with him, if he was in the house, because
they had heard from the neighbors he was there, and so on.
Because of these threats and the fear for my life and the lives
of Nestor's children, we fled to France, because one of my other
sons already was living there. In 1989, Rosa Polay, the wife of
Victor Polay, came as well.
What is the situation of other relatives back in Peru?
At the moment, my sister is being watched 24 hours a day,
and she is continually threatened. The family members of the
other murdered MRTA comrades are prohibited from meeting with one
another, and they are afraid to meet, so that's why it hasn't
been possible to establish some sort of committee to get
information about where their children were buried.
In what ways do you try to assist the other relatives back in
Peru?
Our goal is to establish a committee abroad to increase
political pressure. That might make it possible for the relatives
in Peru to come together and try and find out what happened to
their murdered children. That's why I have been in Spain, Italy,
and here [Germany]. We also want the relatives of other political
prisoners in Peru to join this committee in order to care more
effectively for the political prisoners. This is difficult,
though, because the prisoners are spread out in various prisons
across the country. Also, we want the Peruvian government to give
an official explanation as to why the comrades were murdered when
there could have been a peaceful solution.
How have the conditions facing political prisoners in Peru
changed since the embassy occupation?
Since the beginning of the occupation, the prisoners were
denied any contact with their relatives. Not even the Red Cross,
doctors, or church groups were able to go into the prisons after
December 17, 1996. Medical visits are especially important,
because we know many prisoners are ill, suffering from stomach
problems and hunger. In the prison at the Callao navy base, where
Polay, Peter, and Lucero are held, the prisoners are kept in tiny
cells 8 meters underground. The prisoners are going blind from
the darkness. They have not had any visitors for the past six
months. Other prisons are also just as gruesome, for example
Cajamarca Prison in Yanamayo, where prisoners serving life terms
are kept. My son's wife, Nancy Gilbonio, is at Yanamayo. We know
that they'll all eventually be taken to a new prison which is
being built at an altitude of 5,200 meters above sea level. All
new MRTA prisoners are to be taken there, and the only way to get
there is by helicopter. That means relatives will never be able
to visit. We don't know if any prisoners have been taken there
yet or not, but a doctor's commission visited there, and they
said to us that the conditions are inhuman. Not even the guards
want to work there. If that's true, the prisoners could easily be
killed there. Many things could happen there. For example, the
military could say there was a prison rebellion, thereby giving
them a justification to murder all the prisoners...
(Originally published in 'Einsatz!', August 1997, the publication
of Autonome Antifa (M); Translated by Arm The Spirit from
Angehoerigen Info #199 - October 3, 1997)
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Con las Masas y las Armas, Patria o Muerte ... VENCEREMOS!
MRTA Solidarity Page - http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm
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