PERUVIAN GUERRILLAS HOLD HUNDREDS HOSTAGE

Terrorists holding 490 hostages, including businessmen, government officials and at least 15 foreign ambassadors, threatened to kill them if their demands were not met, turning a daring attack by Marxist guerrillas on the Japanese ambassador's residence into a tense and harrowing standoff.

The drama began on the night of December 17, 1996, when some two dozen members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, also known as MRTA, broke into a lavish celebration of the Japanese emperor's birthday that the Japanese ambassador organizes each year. The party was attended by at least 600 people when the attack began, and possibly more.

According to conflicting accounts from the freed hostages, it is said that the guerrillas arrived between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. when most of the guests were heading for the buffet table set up in a nearby tent, and that the assault began with an explosion and a burst of gunfire. Others say that most of the guerrillas rushed over the high concrete walls surrounding the ambassador's compound. Others reportedly entered the compound posing as servants, according to unconfirmed reports. According to a special edition of the newspaper La Republica, MRTA members rented a neighboring house three months earlier and then dug a tunnel to the property.

As a result of the prominence of the hostages and the fact that the siege was taking place in what was technically Japanese territory, the event, attended by a dazzling array of Lima's rich, famous and powerful, turned what would otherwise have been a serious drama for Peru into an international crisis.

The rebels released four ambassadors, the Greek, German and Canadian ambassadors, as well as the French cultural attaché, around 6 p.m. Dec. 19 after they brought medicine to the embassy. After 22 hours as hostages, the men read in a statement that they had been sent to "seek a negotiated solution" to stop the killings. The men were dressed in business suits and looked good. Canada's ambassador, Anthony Vincent, told reporters early Thursday that he and the other freed diplomats had delivered a message to the home of the government mediator, Education Minister Domingo Palermo Cabrejos, in order to start a negotiating channel between the government and the guerrillas. Vincent said simply: "The process will continue in the morning".

The State Department strongly opposed any attempt by Peru to make concessions to the guerrillas on Wednesday and said that "terrorists cannot be rewarded". According to spokesman Nicholas Burns in Washington, "The United States does not make concessions to terrorists and we encourage others to follow that practice as well." On the subject, President Clinton chose not to comment. According to White House spokesman Michael McCurry, he wrote to Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori to express U.S. concern.

According to reports, the ambassadors were being held in one of the rooms on the second floor of the residence, guarded by rebels carrying hand grenades. A large number of hostages were separated into groups and taken there. The mayor of the Lima neighborhood of Miraflores, Fernando Andrade, escaped by entering a bathroom without being seen and then climbing out of a window.

Because of Fujimori's heritage and the important aid that Tokyo provides to Peru, a guerrilla claimed that the Japanese ambassador's residence was the target of the attack.

Reference: Escobar, G. (1996, 19 diciembre). PERUVIAN GUERRILLAS HOLD HUNDREDS HOSTAGE. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/12/19/peruvian-guerrillas-hold-hundreds-hostage/12e5467a-6e2e-4baa-9e07-3f4dff3f6d9a/