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