U.S. Extradites Former Peruvian Military Officer to Stand Trial for 1985 Accomarca Massacre

On July 14th, 2011, the United States extradited a Peruvian former military officer on charges of crimes against humanity arising from the “Accomarca massacre” on August 14, 1985. Arriving in Lima, Peru, Telmo Hurtado joined 29 co-defendants in the Accomarca massacre trial, which began on November 18, 2010. Hurtado is accused of commanding a military patrol that raped and killed 69 villagers, including 30 children and 27 women, during a counter-insurgency campaign against Shining Path guerrillas in Peru’s Ayacucho highlands. The massacre was a bloody episode in Peru’s twenty-year internal conflict, in which both government and insurgent forces committed systematic human rights violations. According to Peru’s Commission for Truth and Reconciliation (CVR), a total of 26,259 civilians were killed or forcibly disappeared during the conflict in the region surrounding Accomarca...(more)...