POLICE DEATHS SPARK CALLS FOR INTERIOR MINISTER'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 000115

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2019
TAGS: PGOV SOCI PHUM ASEC PE
SUBJECT: POLICE DEATHS SPARK CALLS FOR INTERIOR MINISTER'S
OUSTER

Classified By: Ambassador P. Michael McKinley for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: The deaths of two policemen, killed while
evicting squatters in the northern region of Lambayeque, has
sparked controversy over the way the government handles
social disturbances. Citing incompetence in a botched
operation, some high-profile political figures have called
for Interior Minister Hernani's dismissal. If the incident
illustrates the tactical challenges that under-equipped GOP
security forces face in restoring public order, it also
underscores the deeper strategic dynamic underlying weak
state authority facing off sometimes dangerous actors. End
Summary.


2. (SBU) On January 20, two officers from the Pruvian
National Police's (PNP) National Directorate for Special
Operations (DINOES) were killed and a third remained in
critical condition after they were shot during an eviction
operation that took place in the 5,800 hectare Pomac
archeological/ecological preserve located in the district of
Ferranafe, Lambayeque Region. The operation was aimed at
removing some 300 impoverished squatter families who had
originally emigrated from Cajamarca during the last five
years. The squatters caused significant ecological damage in
the park by cutting down trees to make charcoal and clear
land for food crops.


3. (SBU) Although the court-sanctioned eviction had been
previously coordinated by security forces, after-action
accounts suggest that it was poorly planned and executed.
Most of the 1,350 PNP officers involved in the operation were
protected by riot gear, but few of them carried firearms.
Other logistics were apparently lacking, including food,
transportation and communications. Around noon, the officers
unexpectedly met with a barrage of hostile small arms fire,
rocks and Molotov cocktails in a sector of the park known as
Paleria. Eyewitnesses claimed that the fatalities were
caused by nine masked assailants who fired Russian-made AKM
assault rifles at the police from a concealed positions among
a grove of carob trees. After the assailants fled, the
casualties were evacuated amid some confusion. Over the next
two days, the eviction was completed and order finally
restored. A number of arrests followed and a preliminary
investigation revealed that organized land traffickers were
behind the violence, with a presumption that they had hired
gunmen known as "Rambos" to protect their phony land sales
and illegal charcoal business.


4. (C) Citing inadequate intelligence work, logistical
support or force protection, some high-profile political
figures have blamed Interior Minister Remegio Hernani for the
botched operation and the deaths, and called for his
dismissal. The incident also resulted in the public airing of
underlying dissatisfaction over Hernani's brief tenure as
Minister of Interior to date. (A retired police general,
Hernani has in the eyes of many acted more as a police chief
than Minister, causing turmoil in the organization
particularly at the time of year-end promotions and
transfers.) The press noted that sixteen policemen have been
killed in social protests since Hernani took office some
three months ago. In a recent meeting with us, Congressmen
Edgar Nunez (protect),President of the Defense Committee,
recited a litany of problems relating to the Minister's
tenure and said he should be fired.


5. (C) Comment: The Pomac incident re-ignited polarized
debates about the causes of Peru's high levels of social
violence and what constitutes a reasonable use of force in
countering it. In general terms, the left blames the state
for its failure to address root causes (i.e., poverty) and
for not coming to terms with past human rights abuses. By
contrast, government officials and members of the political
establishment accuse human rights NGOs of "hypocrisy" for not
forcefully condemning incidents in which security forces
(vice civilians) are killed, maimed or injured. This
generates a complicated dynamic in which often under-equipped
or outnumbered security forces are reluctant to employ heavy
handed tactics for fear of human rights repercussions, That
these security forces are charged with facing down
"protesters" in potentially violent encounters underscores
the deeper challenges facing government authority where the

state's presence is already weak.
MCKINLEY