In April 1997, a small woman who could not walk on her own reported from a hospital bed that she had been the victim of kidnapping and torture by a group of soldiers in the basement of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), led by Vladimiro Montesinos, the presidential adviser the then President Alberto Fujimori. She was Leonor La Rosa Bustamante, an agent accused of leaking information to the press about operations aimed at attacking the government's opponents. His eleven-day kidnapping in these dungeons was both a retaliation and an extreme measure to force him to confess to being a spy.
This Friday, 26 years later, the judiciary ruled in favor of Montesinos: it acquitted him of the crime of serious injury, as well as other high-ranking officials of the time, such as Nicolás de Bari Hermoza Ríos, the former head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces; and Julio Salazar Monroe, former head of the deactivated SIN. The court found that “there is no medico-legal evidence proving the qualitative and quantitative serious injuries” suffered by La Rosa. A matter that raises dust because the agent – who lives as a refugee in Sweden under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – claimed to have been beaten, given electric shocks and suffered burns on her hands and legs and arms. In addition to a spinal cord injury that left her confined to a wheelchair. Years later, in 2002, she said she was raped by her captors.
However, the judiciary did not resolve it that way. These high-ranking police officers were acquitted of crimes against sexual freedom, but not of complicity in the crime of aggravated kidnapping. The justice system sentenced Carlos Edmundo Sánchez Noriega to 16 years in prison, José Rafael Domingo Salinas Zuzunaga to 14 years and Manuel Percy Salcedo Sandoval to 10 years in prison. They must also pay civil compensation of 120,000 soles ($32,000).
“They were repeated, lengthy and unnecessary interrogations that only showed that they were trying to demean her as a person so that she would accept the accusations made against her, by prolonging and duplicating an investigation at the administrative and military headquarters for more than 11 days, and that was it.” interrupted due to force majeure of the injured party “It affected her state of health, created a post-traumatic stress state in her anxiety states, showed vaginal bleeding, performed uterine curettage, which led to cardiovascular arrest, which gave her hypoxic encephalopathy “The court concluded that Leonor La Rosa's emotions were affected. In other words, they claim that the torture he reported was not torture and that it was more likely the result of a stress crisis.
In 2002, Leonor La Rosa received $120,000 in financial compensation from President Alejandro Toledo, in addition to a promise to permanently secure her health. “With pride and disgrace to the nation, I apologize on behalf of the state. We will not restore your health, we will not take away all your suffering, but this democracy wants to recognize you. I swear to you that the state will never again, never again be your enemy,” Toledo told him on that occasion.
Vladimiro Montesinos, who was virtually present at the reading of the verdict since he is serving a prison sentence for various crimes, comes to the fore again in 2023 for the resolution of his cases: in June he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for the murder of corporal Mariela Barreto Riofano , when their direct responsibility was established. However, in November he was acquitted of the crime of union leader Pedro Huilca. Leonor La Rosa's acquittal is her second this year. However, both Huilca and La Rosa's cases are still pending as defense attorneys have filed legal challenges. The only thing that is certain for now is that Vladimiro Montesinos will serve his sentence in the Barrios Altos case until June 24, 2026.