Alan Garcia never told us “Forgive me, I made a mistake”.
That what all of us who were affected were waiting for.
In his first time in government Alan Garcia was young
and in his second government he had an interview in the Santa Rosa Hotel, with (ANFASEP´s) President
Angelica (who has now passed on). He rubbed her shoulder and told her
“Mamacita I made a mistake that time because I was young and now,
I am older and more mature, I know how to think
I know how to think and now I have returned to give you all a good compensation.
This was the conversation he had with the Mother President Angelica Mendoza.
Throughout history tea was primarily prepared for the noble class even in fields of battle.
Later the idea of setting aside arms and differences to leave room for tea emerged.
There, we were all equals.
But he never asked for our forgiveness, he called us ‘Terrucas’
the sons of Terrucas, and families of Terrucas.
I lost a family member in the military battle at the hands of the terrorists.
If I was a Terruca, the terrorists would not have killed my family.
On 2 July 1983 they Mama Angelica’s son out of her house.
That’s when she started to look for him. She knew that they took him to the barracks out here in
“Los Cabitos”.
She would even bring a lunch and they would take it from her at the barracks.
After one week though they had him disappeared.
In the exhumation it was found that he was tied with cables around his arms,
neck, and groin.
In these exhumations there are also young people and pregnant women
with their husbands found. The military cruelly tortured and buried him here.
20,329 missing persons, only the remains of 865 of them have been located and returned
to their families for burial. These statistics make Peru second only after Guatemala for countries with the most missing persons in Latin America.
We call this place Sanctuary of Memory in La Hoyada
because in 1980 until year 2,000 we suffered violence in Ayacucho, mainly in Ayacucho.
Our relatives were detained by the law enforcement authorities.
Tea Ceremony is about a rapport host and guests, building a space of harmony,
offering the sincerity of their hearts
We came with the idea of sharing something with the “mamitas”,
we believe our gathering help us
heal our memories and the place
Detained people were brought to these military facilities.
Here they (the military) tortured and killed them.
Then they hid the bodies in this place that was a burial site, they called it as cemetery.
When they killed people they ordered bring them to the cemetery.
It was known that there was an oven (incinerator). They buried, and after a while
they exhumated then they incinerated those buried bodies.
After only 109 have found,
only 9 or 14 corpses have been identified from the ANFASEP members.
That is why we as association ANFASEP demand that a Sanctuary for Memory is built
Really, he was there detained and then they made him disappear.
And, so it happened to other people
That is why mama Mendoza since 1983 started looking for their son.
I said:
“Poor woman, there are other mothers looking for their children”. In 1983, it happened to me also.
On 1 December they took my husband from home and took him to the barracks.
to the group of mama Angelica I joined to look for them.
Most people knew they were detained there.
Then in 1984, around 1985, Mama Angelica said ‘It is said that in the barracks they are killing
people and in the adjacent lot, they are burning, it is said there is an oven,
but no one gave us any information.
We came from far. In those times there was nothing in these grounds, they were barren.
We couldn’t approach because the military had up there a surveillance tower
guarding all these lands. And that’s why nobody approached (they could be shot down).
But we knew.
In 1987 we have adopted a strategy, to know if it they were lying us or if it was true
what people said, but from this place there was always coming smoke. But when we asked,
they told us “no, they are making bread for the army men, they burn the bones of the animals they use for food”.
So they said to us. In 1987 we made a strategy, three women: myself,
Mrs. Felicita and Mrs. Maura. We said “if they are really burning animal bones and making bread”
This was an unanswered question. One day we came here when we knew that
the military men were raising the flag. All members of battalion attended this in the square.
When we were looking from the distance, there was no one in the tower, no one was there,
no one.
We got down here and found ashes, a skull.
Then we took that… various NGOs supported us to find out if these ashes were
from humans or really from animals. But that didn’t happen
Then they denied it, always denied it.
How many people have died in this place. We cannot say. Maybe there are none.
I knew people were detained here. Mama Angelica knew that in these barracks
her son was detained. Because her son, in the lid of the lunchbox sent a note:
“Mum, I am OK. Don’t worry but get a lawyer for getting me out of here”
So was this little note sent to her.
What have they done in the barracks, I think they have burned all those people here,
I may not find my (people). Not only me. Maybe twenty,
twenty-one thousand people missing in those times.
Part of them may have been burned and disappeared in the barracks, others,
where should they be?
This is what this space is for us. It is a sacred space because here is that our relatives
have cried, they suffered here, how they’ve been killed?
How they died in so much torture and pain?
That’s why we ask for a Memorial Sanctuary to be built here,
not only for the relatives but for the youth.
To educate them, for this never to happen again,
this situation we have been telling for 20 years.
For this reason, ANFASEP works for it not to repeat again.
Young people coming here will see all that happened will reflect
and will not believe in negative ideologies and ideas.