Hello again! In today’s post, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about one of the most prominent events in Peruvian politics; the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.

This event took place on the 17 of December 1996, when a high-profile celebration was taking place in the Japanese embassy. The Japanese ambassador to Peru at the time, Morihisa Aoki, was hosting a party in honor of Emperor Akihito’s 63rd birthday, and most (if not all) of Peru’s relevant political, military, and ecclesiastical figures were in attendance. There were around 600 guests.

The Japanese embassy was (They’ve since changed locations) one of the best-fortified buildings in Lima. There is a 12-foot wall surrounding the perimeter, the doors are made to sustain the impact of a grenade, and each window inside has grates while some even have bulletproof glass.

At 8 pm an ambulance passed through the security checkpoints and into the street behind the embassy. From it emerged fourteen members of the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement who hid for twenty minutes until they broke a hole into the wall surrounding the ambassador’s home and opened fire. Guests tried desperately to flee but were quickly overpowered by the shooters. All 600 were then ordered to enter one of the main salons and lay on the floor (Except ambassador Aoki who reportedly refused to lie on the ground).

For some important context, Peru had been deep within a terrorism crisis since the 80s with fear and violence reigning over the country. But after most major terrorist leaders had been captured life was returning back to normal. This hostage crisis plunged the country right back to the fear caused by twenty years under terrorist control.

The Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA; Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru) was a terrorist militant group under a Marxist-Leninist ideology. It aimed to change the government through a ‘radical revolution’. The group was first formed between 1980 and 1982. They named themselves after Túpac Amaru II, an indigenous rebel leader from the 18th century who in turn had named himself after Túpac Amaru the first, the last Inca. They were led by Víctor Polay Campos and Néstor Cerpa Cartolini. Néstor Cerpa Cartolini was the leader of the embassy assault.

Red Cross director, Michel Minnig, was the first mediator to be allowed within. After his intervention, most women and disabled people were released from the embassy; among the women were President Fujimori’s mother and sister, unbeknownst to the MRTA.

Quickly afterward, the Peruvian military and police surrounded the embassy while the Council of Ministers held an emergency meeting as the MRTA stated their demands; all emerretistas (MRTA members) under arrest had to be released and provided with financial compensation (Among them was Lori Berenson), revision of the country’s free-market reforms and Japan’s foreign assistance program, and better prison conditions.

The government offered a counteroffer of providing the fourteen members with passages in either Cuba or the Dominican Republic and a large sum of money, an offer which was immediately rejected.

Negotiations continued. The government sent Canadian Ambassador Anthony Vincent and Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani, Fujimori was even in communication with Fidel Castro (Supposedly to negotiate sending the MRTA members to Cuba as political exiles).

The MRTA continued to release hostages, mostly people who lacked political importance. 126 days later, by the 22nd of April 1997, only 72 hostages remained.

By this point, Luis Giampetri, an intelligence specialist from the navy, had established secret communication with the hostages through hidden microphones and secret signals to be informed of the MRTA movements. Furthermore, the military had established operations in the residences surrounding the embassy.

This is when Operation Chavín de Huántar took place. Promptly named after an archeological site famous for its underground passages, tunnels were secretly built connecting to the building where the MRTA hid with hostages. Explosions were set off the military broke from the ground (Quite literally). They separated and entered the residence from all sides.

Reportedly, six out of the fourteen terrorists died in the original explosions. From then on, the military found and killed every emerretista on sight and attempt to remove every one of the hostages. During the rescue three non-MRTA members died; Colonel Juan Alfonso Valer Sandoval, Captain Raúl Jimenez Chávez, and Supreme Court Justice Dr. Carlos Giusti Acuna.

After the initial celebration of the successful rescue, reports came out that the deaths within the embassy rescue were planned. The Chief of Military Intelligence, Vladimiro Montesinos, is set to have ordered the assassination of Supreme Court Justice Dr. Carlos Giusti Acuna (The only hostage who died) as he was a political rival of President Fujimori. Moreover, in later interviews with the hostages, it was revealed that many of the MRTA members surrendered and were killed anyways.

These accusations were taken to court in two instances. First, public prosecutors formally accused the military in the Peruvian Supreme Court of their crimes; the court ruled that the jurisdiction fell to the military tribunals which absolved them completely. Secondly, family members of the MRTA members killed sued the government in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) for denying the rebels the “right to life, the right to judicial guarantees and the right to judicial protection”. No further progress of convictions has been made by the CIDH.

Hello again! In today’s post, we’ll talk about a man who I would probably call Peru’s most loved politician in the last couple of decades; Francisco Sagasti. (Fun fact, he is my neighbor).

Francisco Rafael Sagasti Hochhausler was born on October 10th, 1944, in the city of Lima. His parents are Francisco Sagasti Miller and Elsa Hochhausler Reinisch, and his grandfather is, Francisco Sagasti Saldaña, a veteran of the War of the Pacific.

Sagasti finished his secondary education at La Salle School in Lima and attended the (Peruvian) National University of Engineering where he earned a degree in Industrial Engineering. Two years later, he enrolled at Penn State University and attained a master’s degree also in Industrial Engineering. Furthermore, he also completed a Ph.D. program in Operations Research and Social Systems Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1972, Francisco served as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Technological, Industrial Research and Technical Standards of Peru and as an advisor to the Minister of Industry. During this time, Peru was governed by the revolutionary government of the Armed Forces, a military dictatorship.

In 1976, he married a Chilean woman named Leonor Giusti and adopted her four daughters but they divorced in 1992. In 1993, he remarried Costa Rican politician Silvia Charpentier Brenes and had a daughter with her. The couple divorced in 2005. It is said that he married a third time and divorced but not much is known about this.

From 1978 until 1992, he was involved in a variety of advisory positions internationally. Sagasti was the advisor to the Vice President of the International Development Research Center in Bogotá;  a guest lecturer to multiple Ivy League universities for the Fulbright Program; president of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development; and later working in the World Bank as Chief of the Strategic Planning Division and Senior Advisor to the Policy Evaluation and External Relations Departments.

Sagasti returned to Peru during the 1992 Constitutional Crisis (Ex-president Alberto Fujimori’s self-coup d’etat) and became a strong advocate against Fujimori. Four years later, he was taken hostage by the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (A guerrilla terrorist group) during the Japanese Embassy hostage crisis.

Here, he became a very controversial figure as he was quickly released due to his minor political relevance at the time but brought back with him a diary with the signatures of the kidnappers. Many considered the signatures to be ‘autographs’ and Sagasti was publicly shamed for ‘supporting’ terrorists and attention-seeking behavior.

Nevertheless, he continued serving in government positions such as President of the Board of Directors of the Science and Technology Program until 2013. In 2016, he helped found and operated as the ideological leader of Peru’s Purple Party (A center-left political party). In March 2020, he was elected to Congress and was a very vocal advocate against the impeachment of Martín Vizcarra. In November of the same year, he was selected as President of Congress.

Due to the lack of a 1st or 2nd vice president, after Manuel Merino’s resignation, Francisco Sagasti was elected as (acting) President of the Republic in November 2020.

One of his most recognizable actions as president was the reformation of the National Police due to their use of violence against protestors (And their responsibility for the deaths of protestors). He removed the Commander General and eighteen more generals. Two ministers resigned in protest and former heads of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces and former general commanders of the Army, Navy, and Air Force denounced his decision and supported the claim that the protestors had initiated the violence. Nevertheless, this reform was very well received by the public.

Furthermore, he is attributed with probably the best management of the Covid-19 pandemic as he secured 48 million vaccines and did not face any corruption accusation afterward (Unlike Vizcarra).

Other characteristics that promoted his support in the country were his political stances; he openly supported the removal of parliamentary immunity, same-sex marriage equality (Which is still illegal), and abortion rights for rape.

Due to his support and likeability with Peruvians, he was given a variety of affectionate nicknames.

Don Quij(x)ote, due to his resemblance to the fictional character, and ‘the old KFC man’ (Many thought he also resembled the old man in the fast food chain logo), Bolognesi (Due to his resemblance to the Peruvian war hero), Dr. Strange, etc.

On the 28th of July 2021, Francisco Sagasti completed the 2016-2021 presidential term (Which began with the election of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and had four different presidents) and was succeeded by Pedro Castillo.