Grupo Colina

In 1980, Peruvian Maoist Abimael Guzman launched a Guerrilla War with his group Shining Path . This war, as well as a war launched by the leftist group the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Named after a historical revolutionary hero from Peru's colonial past) continued into the 1990's, when Alberto Fujimori was elected president. His advisor, Montesinos, was charged with being Peru's spymaster, and was responsible for hunting out rebel fighters. Along the way, various acts of injustice were committed against innocent Peruvians, such as the Barrios Altos Massacre or the La Cantuta Massacre . During these, along with other atrocities, innocent peple were tortured and executed, all in the name of fighting the Maoist insurgency. When those responsible for the massacare were put on trial by the Peruvian Congress, Fujimori passed an unconstitutional law stating that those responsible were to be given a military trial. They were subsequently given amnesty.

When the press found mass graves, the Fujimori administartion allegedly intimidated witnesses and made them disappear. Some sources allege that Fujimori had full knowledge of these actions and gave Montesinos and General Nicolas de Bari Hermoza Rios his full consent for the creation and operations of Grupo Colina.

Currently, a number of agents of the death squad, including its leader Santiago Martin Rivas, are under arrest and on trial.

Vladimiro Montesinos is currently in Callao Military Prison outside of Lima . Ironically, he gave the order to create the prison and he is there with some of the rebel fighters he helped to capture.

SOURCES

Washington Post,

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Grupo Colina