Uchuraccay: the unpublished photo of uniformed men and community members with FAL weapons in their hands

 

Uchuraccay: the unpublished photo of uniformed men and community members with FAL weapons in their hands

Source: Diario La Crónica Viva Lima Perú

The photo was taken days before the murder of the 8 journalists and a guide. Community members of Uchuraccay with machine guns in their hands, accompanied by uniformed men.

 

Alejandrina de la Cruz, a teacher at the Uchuraccay school, who was on vacation when the murder happened and knew the entire community, saw the photo and recognized Dionisio Morales as one of the community members holding a FAL in his hands.

 

In the book that is the basis of all investigations into the case: «25 years. Uchuraccay. The tragedy of February 26, 1983», by Dr. Roberto Mejía Alarcón, the author tells us: «What substances are bubbling in the spirit of the journalist? What epics and ethics shape his conscience? What urgencies accelerate his steps? What nutrients consolidate their eagerness that takes them beyond the limits of the everyday, of mediocrity, of grey, of commonplaces and of redundancy?».

 

Dr. Roberto Mejía Alarcón adds in the work: «A first answer leads us to consider the presence of a phylogeny deciding their early vocation. Thus the future journalist, the next citizen (who is barely showing the first shoots of a beard), shows grit, determination and curiosity to know the causes of events. As Máiler would say, the journalist is one long before the event. In this imminent journalist, there are no erratic vocations: therefore he is capable of not confusing mere enthusiasm with vocation; the display of the senses, with the serene reflection of conscience».

 

“Maybe they mistook the telephoto lenses for firearms,” said General Clemente Moral Noel to reporters in the dining room of the Los Cabitos barracks, at noon on Sunday, January 30, 1983, trying to explain the crime. Totally ridiculous. “Don’t you think, General, that this information is a gross lie?” replied César Hildebrandt.

 

The investigation carried out by Víctor and Jaime Tipe Sánchez in their book “Uchuraccay, the town where those who arrived on foot died” renders the Vargas Llosa Commission’s description of the villagers as absurd, grotesque, monstrous, bizarre: illiterate, semi-savage, ignorant.

 

The image shows that they could differentiate a rifle from a photographic lens.

 

When the judiciary requested the identity of the members of the police and military patrols in the area in order to question them, the military chiefs responded that this information was secret and classified, and could not be made public because it would affect national security.

 

The roll containing this photo was delivered by prosecutor Oscar Guerrero to the court presided over by Judge Hermenegildo Ventura Huayhua.

 

Why did the major media outlets not publish this photo? Perhaps so as not to embarrass the president or his government. Belaunde had returned the media to their owners, he was his friend, and perhaps they did not want to embarrass him.

 

I hope more photos of this roll appear… The truth hurts, but sooner or later it always comes out. (Walter Sosa Vivanco)

With affection,

Ruben