Assassination of Juan Carlos Vega Llona

Background

Juan Carlos Vega Llona was born on February 20, 1942, in Lima, Peru. He entered the Peruvian Naval Academy in 1959 and graduated in 1964. In 1984 he was posted to Ayacucho, then designated an "Emergency Zone" amid the internal armed conflict, where he commanded the Peruvian Navy's infantry post in Huanta.

In 1986, during the first presidency of Alan García, prisoners accused of terrorism held at the El Frontón prison rioted in coordination with prisoners at San Juan de Lurigancho and Santa Bárbara. After negotiations failed, Peruvian authorities planned an operation to retake the prisons. Vega Llona was placed in charge of the operation at El Frontón alongside Luis Giampietri Rojas. The operation to regain control of the prisons resulted in hundreds of deaths, an event now known as the Peruvian prison massacres.

Assassination

In 1987, Vega Llona, by then a captain, was assigned as naval attaché to the Peruvian embassy in La Paz, Bolivia. In apparent retaliation for the El Frontón operation, the Central Committee of Shining Path assigned an annihilation group to kill him, commanded by a cell leader known as "Comrade Rosa", with members Teófilo Ayma Sayco ("Comrade Tomás") and Cipriano Quilla Carcausto ("Comrade Saúl").

On December 2, 1988, Mario Serafín Cuentas Alvarado ("Comrade Adrián") met "Comrade Rosa" and supplied revolvers, dynamite, and leaflets bearing the name of a fictitious group, the "Revolutionary Workers' Movement" (Movimiento Obrero Revolucionario, MOR), created to mislead investigators. The group traveled to Bolivia the next day and conducted reconnaissance of the target area on December 4 and 5, during which they also committed thefts. They made contact with the Support Committee for the Peruvian Revolution (CARP-Bolivia), led by a Bolivian Shining Path sympathizer known as "Comrade Rufo," who arranged lodging for the group in El Alto.

On December 6, 1988, as Vega Llona walked down 6 de Agosto Avenue toward the embassy, a group of passersby — the attackers and an accomplice — blocked his path near a microbus stop about 10 meters from the intersection with Aspiazu Avenue. One assailant shot him in the back while another controlled bystanders. Vega Llona, though on the ground, attempted to draw his weapon but was killed by a shot to the head. The attackers dropped MOR leaflets at the scene before fleeing through La Paz.

Aftermath

In 1989, "Comrade Rosa" was arrested by Peru's Directorate Against Terrorism (DIRCOTE). In her testimony she did not disclose the involvement of CARP-Bolivia in the killing, though this involvement was later revealed. Vega Llona was posthumously promoted to the rank of Counter admiral.