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Peru Opens Homicide Probe Into Colcabamba Raid After Survivor Accounts

Prosecutors report no crossfire, putting the operation under human-rights scrutiny.

Overview

  • Congress has summoned Prime Minister Luis Arroyo, Defense Minister Amadeo Flores, and Foreign Minister Carlos Pareja to explain the Huancavelica incident.
  • The Public Prosecutor’s Office and National Police say they found no signs of crossfire, and investigators are treating the case as presumed qualified homicide and a possible human-rights violation.
  • Survivor Jonathan Águila says soldiers realized there was no cargo in the vehicle and said “hay que meterle bala” before opening fire as the group returned from a football match around 4 a.m.
  • Witnesses allege troops kept shooting at wounded occupants and later planted ammunition at the scene; eight soldiers were detained at first and now continue the case out of custody.
  • Televised interviews on Punto Final undercut the Army’s initial claim of a clash with “narcoterrorists,” intensifying calls for accountability in a zone long fraught with counterinsurgency and anti-drug operations.