File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1998/marxism-international.9804, message 150


From: "Siddharth Chatterjee" <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 03:07:29 +0000
Subject: M-I: Peru: Ex-Agent Accuses Army Of Espionage, Murder (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 16:50:49 -0700
From: Arm The Spirit <ats-AT-locust.etext.org>
Subject: Peru: Ex-Agent Accuses Army Of Espionage, Murder

Peru: Ex-Agent Accuses Army Of Espionage, Murder

     On March 27, Peru's Congress rejected an opposition bloc
demand that government officials appear before Congress to answer
charges made by a former agent of Peru's Army Intelligence
Service (SIE), Luisa Margarita Zanatta Muedas. Zanatta fled Peru
last December 15 and has been living in exile in Miami, where she
is seeking political asylum. Zanatta charged that as part of her
job at the SIE's Department of Special Operations (known as
SIE-4) she participated in telephone espionage of opposition
politicians. [El Diario-La Prensa (NY) 3/27/98 from AP; Notimex
3/17/98]
     In testimony taped in Miami and aired on Peruvian television
channels 9 and 13 on March 16, Zanatta also charged that the SIE
murdered opposition leaders and alleged rebels from the Peruvian
Communist Party (PCP, better known as Sendero Luminoso or Shining
Path) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). "Even if
the detainees are terrorists they should not be tortured, or
massacred", said Zanatta. Zanatta also verified that the
paramilitary "Colina" group tortured and murdered political
enemies of the government, intelligence agents suspected of being
"traitors", and alleged "terrorists" in the basement of the
army's general headquarters in Lima. "Even in our offices where
we were carrying out recording of conversations, you could hear
the cries of the people being tortured", said Zanatta. The former
agent said that she regretted having joined the army and felt
ashamed about what happened.
     Zanatta entered the Intelligence School in 1990 at age 18,
and started active duty in 1993. After spending a year as an
operative agent, she was reclassified as a specialist in
"communications interception", monitoring the wiretapping of
phone calls of opposition congresspeople, top military leaders,
politicians and journalists. At the end of 1994, the wiretapping
systems were upgraded with sophisticated Israeli computer
equipment. Zanatta and 30 of her co-workers were trained by an
Israeli specialist in how to use the new equipment, which allowed
the conversations to be easily recorded and transferred.
     Zanatta said she left the SIE shortly after her co-worker,
Mariella Lucy Barreto Riofano, confessed to having leaked
information to the Peruvian magazine Si that led to the discovery
of the remains of a professor and nine students abducted from La
Cantuta university in July 1992 [see Updates #180, 181, 188,
202]. Barreto told Zanatta that she was part of the Colina group,
which was responsible for the execution of the 10 victims, and
that she had been an infiltrator at the university and had
participated in the intelligence operation that culminated in the
abductions, although she did not participate directly in the
murders.
     After Barreto was tortured, murdered and dismembered by
other SIE agents last year [see Update #376], Zanatta said she
began to be persecuted by Peruvian intelligence agents under the
command of Maj. Martin Rivas, head of the Colina group and
Barreto's former companion. "I began to be psychologically
harrassed when I was pregnant", explained Zanatta, "and after my
son was born they kept me locked up for a day in a basement of
the Number One General Barracks, known as the Pentagonito",
(located in the residential Lima neighborhood of San Borja).
     Zanatta then fled to Miami with her husband and young son;
soon afterwards SIE director Col. Enrique Oliveros ordered her
passport cancelled and accused her of having leaked information
about telephone espionage. Zanatta admitted to having given
information to a Peruvian journalist from television Channel 2
about telephone interceptions. Zanatta also said she had alerted
prominent opposition journalist Cesar Hildebrandt about an SIE
plan for his assassination, called the Bermuda Plan. [Notimex
3/17/98; El Pais (Spain) 3/18/98; La Republica (Lima) 3/18/98;
Caretas (Lima) #1508, 3/19/98]
     According to the opposition daily La Republica, Zanatta was
a frequent target for sexual harassment from Maj. Ricardo
Anderson Kohatsu - her boss - and others. La Republica also
reports that Zanatta's work as an infiltrator involved having an
affair with a member of a rebel group - probably the MRTA - who
the SIE ended up murdering. [LR 3/18/98]
     After Zanatta's accusations of espionage first surfaced last
July, Congress moved on August 21 to create a special commission
headed by ruling party legislator Martha Chavez to investigate
the case; in the eight months since, the commission has made
little or no progress in its investigation. Chavez has tried to
downplay the espionage charges by arguing that espionage was also
carried out under the government of Alan Garcia Perez
(1985-1990). [ED-LP 3/27/98 from AP; Notimex 3/17/98]
     Zanatta told the TV channels that she personally intercepted
the conversations of prominent individuals, including former
United Nations (UN) secretary general and presidential candidate
Javier Perez de Cuellar. Zanatta said that every morning the
transcripts of these intercepted calls were sent to presidential
security adviser Vladimiro Montesinos. The legislative commission
investigating the espionage reacted to Zanetta's charges by
claiming that the TV station that aired them had invented them.
[Notimex 3/17/98; El Pais 3/18/98; LR 3/18/98; Caretas #1508,
3/19/98]
     On March 20, Congress president Carlos Torres y Torres Lara
said that the Congress would carry out an in-depth investigation
into Zanatta's charges, and that the case would be pursued until
those responsible for the violations have been found and
punished. Torres y Torres Lara said that congressional
investigations will be carried out by the Human Rights
Commission, the Commission Against Abuse of Authority, and the
commissions of Monitoring and Defense. On March 20 Daniel
Espichan Tumay, President of the Commission Against Abuse of
Authority, tried to dismiss Zanatta's charges, saying "we don't
even know whether she exists or not." Espichan said that if
Zanatta has something to say, she should come to Peru to say it.
[LR 3/21/98]
     On March 17, 10 minutes before Hildebrandt's controversial
TV show was to resume broadcast after several months off the air,
the area where the station is located was hit with an electricity
blackout. Hildebrandt charged that individuals tried
unsucessfully to force entry into the home of cameraperson Mario
Vizcarra, who videotaped the interview with Zanatta in the U.S.
"Apparently they are looking for the video", said Nora de Azcue,
producer of the program "Hildebrandt en Vivo." [El Pais 3/18/98]
     Zanatta's charges are being supported by Leonor La Rosa
Bustamante, a former SIE agent who is receiving medical treatment
in Mexico for injuries from torture inflicted on her by other SIE
agents last year [see Updates #376, 383, 386, 396]. According to
La Rosa's lawyer, Heriberto Benitez, La Rosa confirmed Zanatta's
charges about the Colina group and about the murder of Barreto.
[Benitez is the same lawyer who represented the families of the
La Cantuta victims - see Update #202.] Speaking from Mexico,
Benitez said that La Rosa told him she knew Zanatta, and knew
that Zanatta had been intimately involved with Anderson Kohatsu
and had been physically abused by him. Anderson Kohatsu is one of
the officers who was charged with torturing La Rosa; he was
subsequently acquitted of the charges and has since returned to
active duty. [LR 3/22/98]
     La Rosa's health is deteriorating, according to Benitez. La
Rosa arrived in Mexico on February 9 for medical treatment at the
Mexican government's National Orthopedics Institute; she left the
hospital 16 days later because medical authorities refused to
tell her anything about her diagnosis or treatment, on orders of
the Peruvian government. Benitez said La Rosa hopes that Mexican
authorities will soon resolve the question of her readmittance
into the Orthopedics Institute. According to Mexican specialists,
cited recently by the Peruvian press, the physical damage to La
Rosa is worse than described in the official documents sent to
the Mexican government by the Peruvian government. La Rosa
suffers from problems with her spinal cord and neck as a result
of the torture. [ED-LP 3/21/98 from AFP]

(Source: Weekly News Update On The Americas #426 - March 29,
1998)

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