[News] Peruvian army officer ordered to pay $37 million in damages to massacre survivors

Sat Mar 8 02:23:23 EST 2008

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Dear Friends of CJA,

We are very pleased to report, that earlier this 
week, a federal judge in Miami ordered former 
Peruvian Major Telmo Hurtado Hurtado to pay $37 
million in damages to plaintiffs Teófila Ochoa 
Lizarbe and Cirila Pulido Baldeón and the estates 
of their family members who were killed in the 
Accomarca Massacre of 1985 in Peru. This is the 
first time that anyone has been held to account 
for atrocities committed in connection with the Accomarca Massacre.

A trial on damages was held in Miami in February 
where Judge Adalberto Jordan heard emotional and 
courageous testimony from our clients. Our 
clients were both twelve at the time of the 
massacre and survived by hiding. They testified 
about their harrowing experiences when Major 
Hurtado and his troops murdered 69 civilians in 
the remote mountain village of Accomarca, 
including Ms. Ochoa Lizarbe's mother, four 
brothers and a sister, and Ms. Pulido Baldeón's mother and infant brother.

In awarding punitive damages, the judge said, 
"Mr. Hurtado said he was following orders to 
capture and destroy the enemy, and justified the 
killing of children and infants by explaining 
that the young would be indoctrinated by the 
Sendero Luminoso [the Shining Path]." The judge 
also found it significant that "Mr. Hurtado 
expressed no remorse for his actions."

This decision is a very significant victory for 
survivors of the massacre and in the movement for 
justice and accountability for abuses committed 
by the military against the civilian population in Peru during the 1980's.

Once again, please join me in congratulating our 
courageous clients, expert witnesses former 
Peruvian Senator Javier Diez Canseco and Eduardo 
Gonzalez of the International Center for 
Transitional Justice, Ana Deutsch of the Program 
for Victims of Torture, and all the others who 
came together to make this case a success.

The $37 million damages award has received 
widespread coverage in the U.S. and Spanish 
language print media and on the internet. Below 
please find a copy of the South Florida 
Sun-Sentinel article that appeared in yesterday's 
paper. For more information on the case, please 
see the 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001JFpP_rulK4O2052gnLOaqvnR3uIldfogY1AfcIny1WVLFEYWdSwAea8lOyOFDRniXziXvcyCFLiq4P91bJaKSvjGlzkwK6JXQHY47_6XatdgnY1ZLhD2V4ltCCP1Tmb5t8RSfWncqe3aAA_Iaevc8sMqajp-B_bbQlC2ZhTQYy51dyBklYoFHQ==>press 
release in English and Spanish or visit our 
website, 
<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001JFpP_rulK4PYDxnrYB79uZsptRaqL7KQCfkBbMqxUj9voMYRHTqw0eYyfCpem1dBvHkZlOrFBi91K7rjq-qv8UgF-7n92uBMQ7EwkqvNyGI=>www.cja.org. 

All the best,

Pamela Merchant
Executive Director

P.S.: CJA relies on contributions from 
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to the generosity of the JEHT Foundation, each 
new dollar donated to CJA will be matched. Please 
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Peruvian army officer ordered to pay $37 million 
in damages to massacre survivors

By Vanessa Blum | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 6, 2008

A former Peruvian army officer in U.S. custody 
should pay $37 million in damages to two 
survivors of Peru's infamous Accomarca massacre 
of 1985, a federal judge in Miami ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan ordered 
former Peruvian Major Telmo Ricardo Hurtado 
Hurtado to pay $26 million to Teófila Ochoa 
Lizarbe and $11 million to Cirila Pulido Baldeón 
for their suffering and the loss of family 
members who were killed during in the massacre.

A 2007 lawsuit filed on behalf of the women 
accuses Hurtado of leading a group of soldiers 
who slaughtered 69 unarmed civilians living near 
the village of Accomarca in the Andean highlands 
of Peru. The suit invokes a little-known law that 
allows non-citizens to sue human rights abusers in U.S. courts.

Ochoa lost her mother and five younger siblings. 
Pulido lost her mother and brother. Both women, 
who were 12 years old at the time of the 
massacre, testified Feb. 11 at a trial to determine damages.

Their attorney Almudena Bernabeu called the 
judgment "an important success in the struggle 
against impunity being waged by the Peruvian people."

Hurtado, 46, did not contest the suit, leading to 
an automatic judgment against him. Immigration 
officials arrested Hurtado last year on Miami 
Beach where he was living and are seeking his deportation to Peru.

In his order, Jordan acknowledged the difficultly 
of assigning a monetary value to human life.

"Any arbitrary value placed on a life threatens 
to demean it or cheapen it because of its obvious 
inadequacy. The same goes for human suffering," 
Jordan wrote. "But placing values, for purposes 
of assessing damages, is all that a court can do."

Pulido and Ochoa are represented by the Center 
for Justice and Accountability, a San 
Francisco-based human rights group. Now in their 
30s, the women both work as housekeepers in Lima.

It is unclear whether Hurtado, who moved to Miami 
Beach in 2002, has assets in the United States 
that could be used to pay damages.

Ochoa and Pulido accuse Hurtado of leading a 
group of soldiers into their village Aug. 14, 
1985 in a military operation against a Maoist 
rebel group known as the Sendero Luminoso, or Shining Path.

Both said they witnessed soldiers brutally 
assaulting the villagers, then forcing them into 
two adjacent buildings. Once the people were 
inside, the soldiers opened fire on the 
structures and set them on fire, the women testified.

Their claims echo the findings of investigations 
by Peru's Senate and a Commission for Truth and 
Reconciliation formed in 2002. The commission 
concluded more than 26,000 civilians died or 
disappeared in the area surrounding Accomarca during the civil war.

Hurtado was charged with homicide, negligence and 
disobedience in 1986 but later absolved of all 
charges and granted amnesty in 1995, along with 
other military officers accused of human rights 
abuses. Hurtado continued to serve in the 
military and receive promotions until his retirement as a major in 1999.

After the repeal of the amnesty law in 2002, 
Hurtado left Peru and sought sanctuary in Miami 
Beach. Last March, immigration authorities 
arrested Hurtado for lying on his visa application.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has 
initiated his deportation to Peru, where he faces 
charges of murder and crimes against humanity. 
Ochoa and Pulido have a similar suit pending in 
Maryland against another Peruvian military 
officer alleged to have taken part in the massacre.

Center for Justice and Accountability

email: <mailto:center4justice at cja.org>center4justice at cja.org
phone: 415-544-0444
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