Barrios Altos massacre

Barrios Altos massacre
Location of the events
LocationBarrios Altos, Lima, Peru
Date3 November 1991; 33 years ago (1991-11-03)
TargetShining Path militants (intended)
Attack type
Mass shooting
Deaths15
Injured4
VictimsCivilians
PerpetratorsGrupo Colina
No. of participants
6

The Barrios Altos massacre occurred on 3 November 1991 in the Barrios Altos neighborhood of Lima, Peru. Members of Grupo Colina, a death squad comprising Peruvian Armed Forces personnel, were later identified as the assailants who killed fifteen individuals, including an eight-year-old child, and injured four others. The victims were reportedly partygoers associated with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). Nevertheless, judicial authorities found that they were not terrorists.[1]

The massacre came to symbolize the widespread human rights abuses that occurred during the presidency of Alberto Fujimori. In August 2001, following a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Peruvian government agreed to pay $3.3 million in compensation to the victims and their families.[2] The case was also among those examined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after Fujimori's government fell in 2000.

The Barrios Altos massacre was one of the crimes cited in the request for Fujimori's extradition from Japan to Peru in 2003. On 20 September 2007, he was eventually extradited from Chile to Peru to stand trial for the massacre, among other charges.

  1. ^ "Victims were not terrorists" source: El Comercio
  2. ^ "Peru to Pay Relatives for Massacre", Associated Press, 23 August 2001, accessed 10 Nov 2010