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The National Court releases a Peruvian soldier investigated for genocide

2022-08-09T17:08:23.998Z


Augusto Gabilondo García del Barco, 67, was arrested last Friday in Fuengirola and is wanted for his alleged involvement in the death of 60 people in the 1980s in his country


The National Police has arrested in Fuengirola (Málaga, 82,585 inhabitants) the Peruvian soldier Augusto Gabilondo García del Barco, 67 years old.

An international arrest and surrender order had been opened on him by the authorities of his country for an alleged crime of genocide, as confirmed by police sources.

The man had escaped from justice in Peru, where he has various open cases.

The National Court, through the magistrate of the Central Court of Instruction number 5, Santiago Pedraz, has agreed to release him provisionally without bail, although he must appear every 15 days in the court closest to his home.

García del Barco had fled his country.

The Peruvian justice had tried to communicate with him on several occasions but had not been successful, so last April he issued an arrest warrant for his arrest and remand for nine months.

His whereabouts were unknown until last Friday he was found by agents of the National Police, belonging to the Malaga Provincial Police Station, in Fuengirola, where he was arrested.

According to

El Confidencial

, was located while looking for accommodation on the Costa del Sol. A regular refuge for fugitives, they take advantage of the anonymity of the area, full of scattered urbanizations and residents of all nationalities.

He was wanted for alleged crimes against humanity due to his alleged involvement in the

Huanta

case , where the disappearance and murder of 60 people is being investigated.

After his arrest, the Peruvian was placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Instruction number 5, where he refused to accept the delivery in simplified extradition, a possibility that includes the agreement signed by Spain and Peru.

Judge Santiago Pedraz then set his release without bail on the same Friday "in view of the concurrent personal, family and work circumstances of the requested person", in addition to the "circumstances and relative seriousness of the conduct for which he is claimed”, according to the car collected by Europa Press.

As precautionary measures, the judge - whose decision is endorsed by the Prosecutor's Office - has withdrawn his passport and has prohibited him from leaving the country without prior judicial authorization.

García del Barco must also be reachable, as well as go every 15 days to the court closest to his residence while the extradition file is resolved.

It will be the Peruvian justice that must now take charge of the proceedings to carry out the extradition process.

Peru claims García del Barco for a trial that began last March for the forced disappearance of 69 people in 1984, when he was head of a military headquarters in Ayacucho, the region that concentrated the greatest violence of the Shining Path terrorist group and the actions of the armed forces.

One of those victims was Jaime Ayala Sulca, a correspondent for the newspaper

La República

and a radio journalist in the province of Huanta (Ayacucho).

In December, the soldier was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for another case of forced disappearance.

Of the 20 years of violence in Peru, 1983 and 1984 were the most ferocious in the response of the Armed Forces in Ayacucho, when the Government ceded control of internal order in that region to the military.

The December sentence against Gabilondo indicates that in 1984 the cases of forced disappearance increased 30% with respect to the previous year, and about 85% of these episodes were reported in Huanta, the province where the uniformed man served as lieutenant of the Marine.

Gabilondo was head of the Marine infantry detachment at the counter-subversive base in the provinces of Huanta and La Mar and was sentenced in December to 20 years in prison as the direct perpetrator of the forced disappearance in 1984 of Benito Baldeón Ninahuanca, an office worker Army recruiting.

Shining Path began its armed actions against the Peruvian State in May 1980 in Ayacucho.

In 20 years of violence there were 69,000 deaths, of which 79% were Quechua-speakers, according to the final report of the Truth Commission.

29% of fatalities were the responsibility of the armed forces and 54% of the guerrillas.

“It is a joy that he has been captured.

At trial (in online hearings) the defendants' faces are not seen and they do not seem real.

Now to wait for the extradition," Rosa Luz Pallqui, widow of the journalist Ayala, told this newspaper.

In one of the sessions, a lawyer for Gabilondo said he did not know the whereabouts of his client.

The Ayala family's lawyer, Juan José Quispe, reported that in the ongoing trial the Prosecutor's Office accuses Gabilondo of murder and forced disappearance and has requested a 25-year prison sentence for the absent inmate.

Ayala's widow had to go to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to bring to justice those responsible for the disappearance of dozens of civilians in 1984 in three towns in the province of Huanta, including her husband, because the case was filed in the common law.

"The trial is for 69 disappeared persons who could be identified up to that moment, but there are more," she informed by telephone.

The journalist entered the Huanta Stadium, which was the Navy barracks, on August 2, 1984, to investigate the torture and disappearance of citizens, and was never heard from again.

For next week the Prosecutor's Office plans a second diligence to exhume remains in a grave to search for him.

According to the human rights defense attorney Gloria Cano, who defended the relatives of Benito Baldeón, to date there have been some 20 trials for cases of human rights violations perpetrated by a larger number of soldiers during the period of violence 1980-2000. .

The case of Jaime Ayala and the disappeared in Huanta is one of them.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-08-09

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