Latest / NO FILTER / Special Forces Hostage Rescue_ Operation Chavín de Huántar

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Special Forces Hostage Rescue_ Operation Chavín de Huántar · NO FILTER

0:01
Speaker 1: A group of heavily armed terrorists storm and embassy compound.
0:06
Speaker 1: It quickly becomes a siege.
0:09
Speaker 2: These were many they were used to killing.
0:15
Speaker 1: The attackers have captured senior politicians, generals and a host
0:20
Speaker 1: of VIPs. They will hold them for over one hundred days.
0:25
Speaker 1: For the special forces, a frontal assault is impossible. Instead,
0:31
Speaker 1: they must do something radical. Attack from underground was.
0:36
Speaker 3: Never going to be anything but a military solution.
0:41
Speaker 1: At stake are the lives of seventy two hostages. This
0:46
Speaker 1: is the extraordinary story of how Peruvian commandos ended one
0:50
Speaker 1: of the longest terrorist sieges in history. In the capital
1:24
Speaker 1: of Peru's upmarket diplomatic quarter, there's only one place to
1:28
Speaker 1: be seen, the Japanese ambassador's residents. Four hundred and fifty
1:37
Speaker 1: guests are sipping champagne and making small talk.
1:41
Speaker 3: It was a big diplomatic bash.
1:44
Speaker 1: All are prominent people from Peru's political landscape.
1:49
Speaker 4: Lots of guests.
1:50
Speaker 1: Among them are diplomats, businessmen, and members of the Peruvian
1:54
Speaker 1: president's family, as well as this man abro Luis Giampietri,
2:00
Speaker 1: a senior figure in Peru's intelligence services.
2:04
Speaker 3: There were a lot of army and police, so there
2:07
Speaker 3: were a lot of fancy uniforms and there's a lot
2:10
Speaker 3: of gold braid.
2:13
Speaker 1: British journalist Sally Bowen is also there.
2:17
Speaker 3: A great deal of whiskey being grabbed of trays from
2:22
Speaker 3: waiters as they went around.
2:25
Speaker 1: The most senior person is Francisco Tudela.
2:30
Speaker 5: When I was Foreign Minister, I had to go and
2:34
Speaker 5: pay my respect because it was the birthday of the Emperor,
2:38
Speaker 5: Japan's national day.
2:42
Speaker 1: The building is a fortress, well protected with glastproof doors
2:49
Speaker 1: and windows. A twelve foot high wall surrounds the complex.
2:55
Speaker 1: A ring of policemen and sentries protect entrances and exits.
3:02
Speaker 1: Security is the last thing in their minds, but a
3:12
Speaker 1: small team of terrorists are preparing a bold mission. They
3:17
Speaker 1: plan to sneak through the security cordon, hidden in the
3:20
Speaker 1: back of an ambulance. As the guests tuck into their
3:27
Speaker 1: wine and canopies, little do they know what's in store.
3:37
Speaker 1: At eight thirty pm, the heavily armed terrorists place a
3:41
Speaker 1: charge on the outer wall.
3:47
Speaker 2: Suddenly there was an explosion.
3:50
Speaker 3: It sounded a little like a car bomb kind materialized
3:56
Speaker 3: in our midst We couldn't really understand what was going on.
4:00
Speaker 2: They were very well equipped.
4:02
Speaker 5: Four of them had woozy machine guns, browning pistols, had grenades.
4:10
Speaker 1: The terrorists opened fire on the guards outside the building.
4:19
Speaker 1: Guests died a couple.
4:21
Speaker 2: It was just firing all around.
4:29
Speaker 3: It was gunfire both from outside the residents and some
4:33
Speaker 3: of the gunmen arrived in our mids.
4:36
Speaker 5: Of course, I was trying to protect my wife and
4:40
Speaker 5: why not say the truth protect myself.
4:46
Speaker 3: I hit the ground. The shooting intensified. Various people had
4:56
Speaker 3: run underneath the tables.
5:00
Speaker 4: It was very scary.
5:06
Speaker 1: As soon as the gunfire subsides, the terrorists turn on
5:10
Speaker 1: their captives.
5:13
Speaker 2: They were very hard on us.
5:16
Speaker 6: They kicked us, They had their gun set us, and
5:20
Speaker 6: they pistol whipped us.
5:28
Speaker 1: In Lima, news reaches the most powerful man in the land,
5:33
Speaker 1: Peru's President, Alberto Fujimori. Four hundred and fifty people are
5:39
Speaker 1: under the control of fourteen terrorists. Fujimori has based his
5:47
Speaker 1: whole career on defeating terrorism.
5:52
Speaker 3: This was nineteen ninety six, and in theory, Peru was pacified.
5:57
Speaker 3: This is what Fujimori had been telling of Buddy for
6:00
Speaker 3: a long time. For some three years.
6:05
Speaker 1: Between nineteen eighty and nineteen ninety, an estimated thirty five
6:08
Speaker 1: thousand people had been killed in Peru's bloody anti terror wars,
6:13
Speaker 1: particularly against the notorious Shining Path.
6:19
Speaker 4: See initial.
6:22
Speaker 6: The terrorism initiated by the Shining Path in the nineteen
6:25
Speaker 6: eighties and nineteen nineties was a threat to our country.
6:30
Speaker 6: It endangered our very existence. They were on the verge
6:35
Speaker 6: of taking power.
6:42
Speaker 1: For a man elected because he could defeat terrorism, this
6:45
Speaker 1: incident spells political disaster. The attack on a Japanese target
6:51
Speaker 1: also has a special resonance. Fuji Mori is of Japanese descent.
7:00
Speaker 3: Vanese were targeted because they were seen to have been
7:03
Speaker 3: giving help and support and a lot of financial assistance
7:08
Speaker 3: to Fujimori and the regime.
7:11
Speaker 1: But at this stage Alberto Fujimori doesn't know how to respond.
7:17
Speaker 1: He desperately needs more information. For a start, who are
7:22
Speaker 1: the terrorists and what do they want? At the Japanese
7:38
Speaker 1: Ambassador's residence, military hostages rip off their insignia and rank
7:43
Speaker 1: and desperately attempt to hide their identity outside. The authorities
7:51
Speaker 1: try to shoot their way in again.
7:56
Speaker 4: Dunfar went on for minutes.
8:04
Speaker 1: They lob in tear gas, but the rebels have come prepared.
8:14
Speaker 3: So they took out their gas masks and put them.
8:17
Speaker 4: On, and they were fine.
8:20
Speaker 1: The tear gas subsides.
8:23
Speaker 3: The rebel with the megaphone started shouting that he wanted
8:27
Speaker 3: the Japanese ambassador to stand up and identify himself. And
8:32
Speaker 3: I think I and certainly some people around me were
8:35
Speaker 3: quite nervous at that point because we had a horrible
8:39
Speaker 3: feeling that the ambassador was going to be executed in
8:43
Speaker 3: front of our eyes.
8:49
Speaker 1: The Japanese ambassador, Morahisa Aoki, is forced to get on
8:53
Speaker 1: a megaphone. He pleads with the police to fall back,
8:57
Speaker 1: and a tense calm follows. In Alberto Fujimori's operations room,
9:09
Speaker 1: the president begins to appraise the situation. He calls for
9:15
Speaker 1: a trusted aid, Vladimiro Montesinos, head of Peru's National Intelligence
9:22
Speaker 1: Service or NIS. A trained lawyer, he once defended Fujimori
9:29
Speaker 1: in court against charges of corruption. Now he's his right
9:35
Speaker 1: hand man, the President's mister fix it.
9:39
Speaker 3: We all were very much aware of the existence of
9:42
Speaker 3: Vladimiro Montesinos, but he was never ever seen. He wielded
9:47
Speaker 3: extraordinary power. He was Fujimori's eyes and ears.
9:56
Speaker 1: Montesinos calls upon an elite counter terrorist unit the Peruvian Commanders.
10:07
Speaker 2: Los Commandos.
10:08
Speaker 6: The Peruvian Commandos are always training for any threat to
10:14
Speaker 6: the nation.
10:17
Speaker 1: We present close quart of battle, intelligence gathering and hell
10:25
Speaker 1: borne assault u as.
10:27
Speaker 6: Some of their skills is more parachuting, amphibious warfare, mountain warfare,
10:32
Speaker 6: hostage rescue, storming buildings as well as Max Michio.
10:43
Speaker 1: General Jose Williams Thabata and Luis Alatrista Rodriguez soon receive
10:47
Speaker 1: a call from Montecino's Joystaat.
10:54
Speaker 6: I was working in the first Special Forces Brigades. The
10:59
Speaker 6: television show us what was happening at the Japanese Ambassador's residence.
11:04
Speaker 6: We could see that there was a considerable program. My
11:07
Speaker 6: reaction was to order my officers and men to get
11:10
Speaker 6: ready for action.
11:15
Speaker 1: Montesinos and the Commandos begin to discuss the options.
11:20
Speaker 6: We rejected the possibility of an air attack using parachuts,
11:23
Speaker 6: hang gliders or other forms of approach because we would
11:27
Speaker 6: lose the element of surprise the secrecy.
11:30
Speaker 2: That wasn't possible.
11:33
Speaker 1: General's Williams Thabata and Alatrista Rodriguez will have to find
11:37
Speaker 1: another way. Meanwhile, at the Ambassador's residence, the rebels are
11:45
Speaker 1: digging in They placed booby traps in doorways and around
11:50
Speaker 1: the grounds. They turned the building into a fortress. Only
11:56
Speaker 1: now do they reveal their identities.
12:00
Speaker 3: One of the rebels, who was quite close to me,
12:04
Speaker 3: picked up a loud tailor and shouted, keep your heads
12:07
Speaker 3: down or they'll be blown off.
12:09
Speaker 4: This is the MRTA.
12:14
Speaker 1: The MRTA the tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement a hardline communist
12:19
Speaker 1: rebels infamous in Peru.
12:25
Speaker 5: The MRTA was specialized in kidnapping.
12:31
Speaker 2: They were rootless and had guilted a lot of people.
12:36
Speaker 6: They kidnapped several businessmen to extort money from their families.
12:40
Speaker 6: They also carried out assassination.
12:46
Speaker 1: The terrorist commanding the raid is also the group's leader.
12:50
Speaker 1: Nestor Serpa Catalini born in Lima in the nineteen fifties.
12:56
Speaker 1: Serpa is a former political radical who has taken up arms.
13:02
Speaker 6: He was a psychopath. He was a very bloodthirsty guys.
13:13
Speaker 1: Hope is that seizing the hostages will bring the movement
13:16
Speaker 1: to publicity. He identifies the English journalist Sally Bowen as
13:22
Speaker 1: someone who could be useful to him.
13:26
Speaker 3: He was very calm and collected. He was in a
13:30
Speaker 3: small study off the hallway of the of the residents.
13:35
Speaker 3: We asked him what he was, what he was about,
13:38
Speaker 3: what he was doing this for, and he immediately came
13:44
Speaker 3: out with the demand that Emmrtier political prisoners had to
13:49
Speaker 3: be freed.
13:54
Speaker 1: Surper demands the release of four hundred political prisoners, including
13:58
Speaker 1: his own lover, and he demands a great deal of money.
14:06
Speaker 6: They asked for a ransom of six million dollars and
14:09
Speaker 6: the wholesale change of the country's economic model. It can
14:12
Speaker 6: be they were blackmailing the government.
14:18
Speaker 1: Surpa also wants to meet the president. If his demands
14:21
Speaker 1: aren't met, he'll kill hostages. The first person in his
14:30
Speaker 1: sights is Foreign Minister Francisco. To Della, the.
14:35
Speaker 5: Reader told me that they were going to kill me
14:40
Speaker 5: the next day at twelve o'clock.
14:45
Speaker 1: To Della has just fourteen hours to live.
14:50
Speaker 5: I told my wife I'm a dead man, and she said,
14:56
Speaker 5: Tom Doc nonsense, but I said, yes, it's the odds
15:02
Speaker 5: are against me.
15:05
Speaker 2: I was a major target for the terrorists.
15:15
Speaker 1: Luckily, one of the hostages steps in. Michelle Minnig is
15:20
Speaker 1: a negotiator from the Red Cross with experience of various
15:23
Speaker 1: war zones.
15:25
Speaker 3: I think he probably felt that the ambassador might need
15:29
Speaker 3: some support I was very relieved to see Michelle Minnigue
15:35
Speaker 3: get up very quickly.
15:38
Speaker 1: Minnick persuades the captors to release some hostages.
15:42
Speaker 4: And I think he did an amazing job.
15:44
Speaker 3: That night. Michelle made it clear to Serpah, the rebel commander,
15:50
Speaker 3: that he would do his cause a lot of good
15:54
Speaker 3: if he broadly respected the rules of warfare.
16:02
Speaker 1: Mini secures the release of the waiters, and then the
16:05
Speaker 1: women and children, in all one hundred and seventy people,
16:11
Speaker 1: among them the wife of Foreign Minister Francisco Tudella.
16:17
Speaker 5: She didn't want to leave me, and I said, you
16:20
Speaker 5: have to call think of the children as small children
16:23
Speaker 5: to die, and so she reluctantly left room.
16:28
Speaker 2: But it was very emotional, it was very difficult.
16:32
Speaker 1: Sally Bowen is also one of those released.
16:36
Speaker 3: We shook hands and then he said good evening. So
16:40
Speaker 3: we went and we left the residence. When the door opened,
16:44
Speaker 3: suddenly there was this battery of cameras and people shouting
16:48
Speaker 3: and asking questions.
16:52
Speaker 1: Sally Bowen is given the task of announcing to the
16:54
Speaker 1: world's press. The MRTA leaders demands. Other hostages make it
17:00
Speaker 1: clear that any attempt to storm the building would be insane.
17:13
Speaker 1: The next day, Fujimori begins a series of meetings with
17:16
Speaker 1: his cabinet. He is adamant that no Mrtier prisoners will
17:22
Speaker 1: be released.
17:25
Speaker 6: Makin imagine for one second that the government had ceded
17:30
Speaker 6: to their demands the next day, we would have had
17:33
Speaker 6: another group like Shining Path that would have done a
17:36
Speaker 6: similar thing.
17:37
Speaker 1: That would have been unthinkable, was it. Fujimori makes it
17:48
Speaker 1: clear he will never negotiate with a gun to his head.
18:01
Speaker 1: For Francisco to Dela for j Maury's stance is a
18:06
Speaker 1: death sentence. He is due to be executed at noon.
18:15
Speaker 1: His life hangs in the balance. The deadline comes, super
18:33
Speaker 1: does nothing, but he warns to Dellah that he is
18:39
Speaker 1: living on borrow time.
18:44
Speaker 5: He said to me, you know, foreign Minister, I admire
18:49
Speaker 5: your work, but I.
18:51
Speaker 2: Have to kill you.
18:58
Speaker 1: In fact, a few hours later, four more hostages are
19:02
Speaker 1: released by Surper, all of them diplomats. Meanwhile, preparations to
19:09
Speaker 1: retake the ambassador's residents are continuing. Thanks to the released hostages,
19:15
Speaker 1: the commandos are getting valuable intelligence. They learn of the
19:19
Speaker 1: enemy's strength and positions.
19:23
Speaker 6: We knew there were fourteen terrasts that they had all
19:28
Speaker 6: come in with heavy weapons, they had rocket propelled grenades,
19:35
Speaker 6: They had prepared for this operation, and they knew exactly
19:38
Speaker 6: what to bring.
19:42
Speaker 1: They study a scale model of the complex. Looking for
19:46
Speaker 1: a way in. A frontal attack is out of the question.
19:50
Speaker 1: The only way forward is to do something truly radical.
19:57
Speaker 6: Approaching from above ground was immensely challe because of the explosives.
20:01
Speaker 6: So that's how it came to the idea of approaching
20:04
Speaker 6: from below by tunnels from below ground.
20:13
Speaker 1: Operation Chabbingdawanta is born. The name refers to a Peruvian
20:20
Speaker 1: archaeological site known for its network of tunnels. Perhaps the
20:29
Speaker 1: plan is to dig into the compound at a depth
20:32
Speaker 1: of three meters. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before.
20:42
Speaker 1: The main tunnel will be twenty meters long, with other
20:45
Speaker 1: tunnels feeding outwards. It will take at least a month
20:48
Speaker 1: to dig from the nearby buildings to reach the objective.
20:53
Speaker 1: They can't use heavy machinery as the sound could tip
20:56
Speaker 1: off the terrorists. The largest tools will be electric pickaxe.
21:02
Speaker 1: Over the coming days, the operation begins for now, though
21:14
Speaker 1: Sir Perctalini seems to be enjoying himself. In late December,
21:24
Speaker 1: as a gesture of seasonal goodwill, he releases more people
21:29
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty five in all, in the hope
21:32
Speaker 1: of grabbing the headlines.
21:35
Speaker 3: For a long time, one felt that the gorillas were
21:39
Speaker 3: winning the propaganda war. They seemed to be more open
21:43
Speaker 3: and ready to talk than the Peruvian government. There was
21:50
Speaker 3: absolute hermetic silence from the Peruvian government.
21:56
Speaker 1: Whilst the authorities keep their cards close to their chest,
22:00
Speaker 1: the terrorists revel in all their newfound fame.
22:06
Speaker 3: They had a very good sense for publicity. They knew
22:10
Speaker 3: that photographers and camera people needed images. The MRTA would
22:16
Speaker 3: hang banners out of the window periodically, was all part
22:20
Speaker 3: of the propaganda war.
22:25
Speaker 1: Fifteen days into the siege, on New Year's Day nineteen
22:27
Speaker 1: ninety seven, the MRTA pull off an astonishing propaganda coup.
22:33
Speaker 3: There was the famous incident when we finally managed to
22:37
Speaker 3: get permissioned for some of the photographers and camera people
22:43
Speaker 3: to file past the residents so at least they could
22:46
Speaker 3: get some images of the exterior. The front door opened
22:50
Speaker 3: and a serpa invited everybody in, so they all went
22:56
Speaker 3: in and had their photo opportunities with the grin.
23:03
Speaker 5: I spoke to the foreign press when they came into
23:07
Speaker 5: the embassy on New Year's Day, he tried to send
23:13
Speaker 5: this idea that they were fair combatants, that they were
23:20
Speaker 5: guerrillas that respected the Geneva Conventions.
23:27
Speaker 1: Despite appearing to be reasonable, the siege drags on. For
23:35
Speaker 1: those unlucky enough to remain inside, life settles into a
23:39
Speaker 1: strange routine. Mostly boredom is the biggest enemy. Hostages take
23:48
Speaker 1: turns to give talks on different subjects. Some run the
23:53
Speaker 1: corridors to keep fit, Others do chores like cleaning.
24:02
Speaker 2: Prime.
24:03
Speaker 6: First comes surprise, fear, anguish, and anger. But then there
24:10
Speaker 6: comes a moment when you start to assimilate it all
24:14
Speaker 6: and you learn to live with it, and all you
24:16
Speaker 6: want is for to end one way or the other.
24:20
Speaker 1: See at night, the hostages have to sleep on the floor.
24:26
Speaker 1: It is cold, craft airless.
24:32
Speaker 6: It's hard to sleep in this way. We found it
24:35
Speaker 6: hard to get used to it.
24:39
Speaker 1: For Admiral jam Pietr, nighttime is a chance to reflect.
24:44
Speaker 2: In the momentum.
24:46
Speaker 6: It was a chance to be alone with your thoughts.
24:49
Speaker 6: There was silence, you could reconstruct the events of the day.
25:09
Speaker 1: Occasionally the terrorists show their true colors. Something Francisco Together experiences.
25:23
Speaker 5: You had two terrorists by your side pointing the guns
25:30
Speaker 5: at your head.
25:32
Speaker 2: They pulled the trigger. You hear clack, empty chain.
25:44
Speaker 5: And that's a moment in which you have a mixture
25:48
Speaker 5: of fear and relief.
26:00
Speaker 1: Four weeks in seventy two hostages remain inside that with
26:05
Speaker 1: none of Serpa's demands met. The seat is stuck in stalemate.
26:14
Speaker 1: For the terrorist leader, the lack of progress is unsettling.
26:20
Speaker 1: The stress starts to get to him.
26:28
Speaker 5: He had sharp changes in his moud. He became over
26:35
Speaker 5: excited and violent, and then after a few hours he
26:42
Speaker 5: would lie down and sleep. Then he would wake up
26:49
Speaker 5: and feel anguish, put his hands in his face, to
26:54
Speaker 5: go to a window to breathe, and then the second
26:59
Speaker 5: would begin again and he would become again violent.
27:09
Speaker 1: It is also a troubling time for President Alberta Fujimori. Outwardly,
27:14
Speaker 1: he too seems to be making little progress, so he
27:19
Speaker 1: tried something new. Troop carriers and heavy guns are brought
27:25
Speaker 1: in and loud music is played around the embassy. It's
27:33
Speaker 1: a well known trick of psychological warfare designed to shred
27:36
Speaker 1: the nerves of those inside.
27:40
Speaker 6: This was one of the greatest tortures for us. The
27:44
Speaker 6: noise was extraordinary. We couldn't talk amongst ourselves because the
27:49
Speaker 6: noise was so loud.
27:53
Speaker 1: But all this has a reason to conceal the digging.
27:58
Speaker 6: See, loud music was played with the aim of distracting
28:03
Speaker 6: the terrorists when we were nearby. We made noise, put
28:11
Speaker 6: music on so they couldn't hear the work that was
28:14
Speaker 6: going on under ground.
28:23
Speaker 1: As a further distraction. Fujimori seems to be stepping up
28:25
Speaker 1: the action on the diplomatic front.
28:29
Speaker 3: There was Fujimori dashing off on missions to negotiate possible asylum.
28:36
Speaker 1: His team of negotiators liaises daily with the hostage takers.
28:43
Speaker 6: Without doubt, none of us wanted a military operation. We
28:47
Speaker 6: preferred a solution that would allow us to get out alive.
28:52
Speaker 1: Fujimuri travels to London to see if Britain will give
28:55
Speaker 1: the m R T a asylum.
28:58
Speaker 3: The whole situation was very confused. There seemed to be
29:01
Speaker 3: activity on a different range of levels.
29:11
Speaker 1: But this diplomatic front is a ploy to hide what's
29:15
Speaker 1: really going on. The digging is nearing the target, and
29:22
Speaker 1: anyone who knows Fujimori is in no doubt as to
29:25
Speaker 1: his real intentions.
29:29
Speaker 5: I knew my government, I knew President Fujivari It was
29:33
Speaker 5: not all your decision of President Fujibari. It was a
29:36
Speaker 5: decision of a country that had suffered in more than
29:41
Speaker 5: a decade of horndous terrorist attacks.
29:49
Speaker 1: All the while, underground, the miners are moving ever closer
29:53
Speaker 1: to their objective. It is just a matter of time.
30:08
Speaker 1: In April, almost four months into the siege, Surper makes
30:13
Speaker 1: a concession to break the deadlock. He drops the number
30:17
Speaker 1: of MRTA prisoners he once released from four hundred to
30:22
Speaker 1: just twenty. By now it's nearing summer. The temperature outside
30:28
Speaker 1: it's twenty six degrees for the captors and their hostages inside,
30:34
Speaker 1: the long siege starts to take its toll. The Peruvian
30:39
Speaker 1: authorities have turned off the water and electricity. Conditions are
30:45
Speaker 1: getting rank off.
30:49
Speaker 2: No running water, no electricity, no hygiene.
30:56
Speaker 1: With the water turned off, the toilets back up.
31:00
Speaker 6: The bathrooms soon broke down. Many people had loose bowels.
31:07
Speaker 6: The smell was overpowering.
31:11
Speaker 1: But the awful conditions are part of the army plan.
31:14
Speaker 1: It forces the terrorists to rely on supplies from the outside.
31:21
Speaker 6: This was deliberate to control the flow of supplies into
31:25
Speaker 6: the building.
31:28
Speaker 1: The only source of provisions and fresh water is the
31:31
Speaker 1: Red Cross which makes regular deliveries to those inside.
31:35
Speaker 3: So the members of the International Red Cross would ferry
31:38
Speaker 3: food in and out every day, so they went in
31:42
Speaker 3: and out of the residents on a daily basis.
31:51
Speaker 1: What nobody knows, not even the Red Cross, is that
31:55
Speaker 1: the aid packages contained something else. Theuthorities have hidden high
32:01
Speaker 1: tech gadgetry in the deliveries, and they are intended for
32:08
Speaker 1: one man, Admiral Luis d'ampietri. Amongst the board games, religious artifacts,
32:16
Speaker 1: books and even musical instruments are tiny microphones and cameras.
32:26
Speaker 1: Specialist technicians from Peru's intelligence services have custom built tiny
32:31
Speaker 1: eavesdropping devices.
32:38
Speaker 6: The Intelligence Service provided microphones that were being smuggled in
32:43
Speaker 6: concealed in different objects, in a guitar in some books
32:46
Speaker 6: the provisions. In this way they could listen to information,
32:50
Speaker 6: get it down on paper, and impass it to us
32:52
Speaker 6: so that we could put it to use.
32:57
Speaker 1: Some of the listening devices are no bigger than a match.
33:03
Speaker 1: The cameras are also minute and contain tiny transmitters. Over
33:18
Speaker 1: the weeks of the siege and amazing eight hundred microphones
33:21
Speaker 1: are smuggled in April, Luis Giampietree secretly places them around
33:27
Speaker 1: the residence with the help of others. The microphones aren't
33:32
Speaker 1: just for eavesdropping. They also allow him to communicate with
33:37
Speaker 1: the commandos.
33:41
Speaker 6: Talking into the microphones was not easy. Secrecy from all
33:46
Speaker 6: the other hostages was also very difficult, But I had
33:50
Speaker 6: to keep it secarette because I didn't know if they
33:53
Speaker 6: agreed with what I was doing.
33:59
Speaker 1: To conceal what he's doing, he is sent a Bible
34:02
Speaker 1: with a hidden microphone. He starts to read aloud from
34:07
Speaker 1: the pages. The MRTA soon dismiss it as the prayers
34:11
Speaker 1: of a madman. But within each prayer, Giampietri drops in
34:17
Speaker 1: key pieces of intelligence.
34:23
Speaker 6: We knew that he was ex Naval Special Forces. He
34:27
Speaker 6: spoke our language, he knew commando terminology, and he was
34:31
Speaker 6: our best contact amongst the Hostagesto Lorraines.
34:44
Speaker 1: In their situation room, the commando's listening as key intelligence
34:48
Speaker 1: is gathered from all the different microphones. Gradually they start
34:56
Speaker 1: to build up a detailed picture of what is going
34:59
Speaker 1: on Los Cua.
35:03
Speaker 6: We listen to the terrorists as well, so we gained
35:05
Speaker 6: more information which would allow us to improve our operation
35:08
Speaker 6: to rescue the hostages.
35:14
Speaker 1: They learn that at night, the rebels are especially vigilant.
35:18
Speaker 1: This is when they most fear an attack. Some sleep
35:22
Speaker 1: amongst the hostages, whilst others rotate guard duties. Jam Pietrie's
35:30
Speaker 1: intelligence also reveals one crucial piece of information. Every afternoon,
35:40
Speaker 1: four members of the group play a game of football.
35:45
Speaker 1: The large dining room on the ground floor becomes their pitch.
35:50
Speaker 1: Whenever the rebels play, many of their comrades watch on.
35:55
Speaker 1: This is when they are their most distracted and vulnerable.
36:04
Speaker 6: So if they were all together playing football downstairs in
36:07
Speaker 6: the dining room, we could take them out in one go.
36:16
Speaker 1: The afternoon football game is clearly the moment to strike,
36:23
Speaker 1: so the commanders are just their plan. They dig a
36:26
Speaker 1: special tunnel straight under the dining room.
36:31
Speaker 6: We decided to make a branch from the main tunnel
36:34
Speaker 6: to under the residents where they played football.
36:36
Speaker 1: In this new tunnel, the commanders will play something special securely.
36:46
Speaker 6: From this arose the idea of placing explosives underneath the
36:50
Speaker 6: hall and the dining room, with the intention of taking
36:54
Speaker 6: the majority of the terrace out. This way, they would
36:58
Speaker 6: have less chance to kill the hostages.
37:02
Speaker 1: Even if the dining room bomb doesn't kill many terrorists,
37:05
Speaker 1: it will at least achieve something else.
37:08
Speaker 6: He was a secondary objective. Obviously, an explosion of this
37:11
Speaker 6: nature under a house would create such confusion that they
37:15
Speaker 6: would be disorientated and incapable of reacting.
37:26
Speaker 1: As zero hour approaches, the commandos now finalize their plan.
37:32
Speaker 6: There were to be two assault squads for the ground
37:34
Speaker 6: floor Team Alpha for the first floor Delta squad.
37:39
Speaker 1: The group that would do the raid includes Miguel La
37:42
Speaker 1: Moras Rojas.
37:47
Speaker 6: I was part of Group Delta. My section leader was
37:50
Speaker 6: Commando Renand and I was the fifth man in that team.
37:54
Speaker 1: Team to a one hundred and fifty orders rehearse over
38:01
Speaker 1: and over using a life size replica of the complex.
38:11
Speaker 1: They practiced different room clearing tactics and test different types
38:15
Speaker 1: of explosives.
38:19
Speaker 6: We tested the exact amount needed, not too much that
38:22
Speaker 6: it blew up the residents had the hostages, not too
38:25
Speaker 6: little that it had no effect.
38:29
Speaker 1: They're nearly ready. Then there's a complication.
38:35
Speaker 3: The journalists who were virtually living on the rooftops around
38:39
Speaker 3: the embassy became aware that there was a lot of
38:42
Speaker 3: noise from underneath the ground, so we all learned that
38:48
Speaker 3: tunnels were being dug.
38:53
Speaker 1: Surper flies into a rage. He threatens the hostages and
38:58
Speaker 1: gathers them all upstairs they can be killed more quickly
39:02
Speaker 1: in the event of a raid. He breaks off negotiations entirely.
39:11
Speaker 1: What he doesn't realize is that he has just played
39:14
Speaker 1: into Fuji Moor's hands. By refusing to negotiate and refusing
39:19
Speaker 1: to guarantee the health of the hostages, Surpa has given
39:22
Speaker 1: Fuji Mouri the excuse to act.
39:26
Speaker 6: Due all decision was made to carry out the raid
39:28
Speaker 6: and rescue the hostages.
39:35
Speaker 1: The commandos are finally ready. The tunnels have been dug.
39:41
Speaker 1: Late in April one hundred and twenty six days since
39:44
Speaker 1: the siege began, the commandos are given the green light.
39:48
Speaker 3: It was around three in the afternoon, a still warm
39:52
Speaker 3: lima summer afternoon.
39:54
Speaker 1: A message is sent to Luis Gianpietri to make sure
39:57
Speaker 1: the hostages are wearing light colored This will differentiate them
40:03
Speaker 1: from the terrorists and their dark combat fatigues. Giampietry instructs
40:10
Speaker 1: them to lie on the floor and keep their heads down.
40:16
Speaker 1: Francisco to Della is one of the few who knows
40:19
Speaker 1: what is about to unfold.
40:22
Speaker 5: I was one of the five people who knew of
40:26
Speaker 5: the communications between Admirge and Pietry and the military and
40:33
Speaker 5: so I knew as the attack was coming.
40:38
Speaker 1: As the rebels start their afternoon game of football, Admiral G. M.
40:41
Speaker 1: Pietr whispers into his Bible as if praying. He tells
40:45
Speaker 1: the commandos that the guards are distracted. He also transmits
40:50
Speaker 1: the confirmation that he has got all the hostages to
40:53
Speaker 1: wear light clothing. A team is sent to set the
41:02
Speaker 1: charge under the dining room.
41:07
Speaker 6: Just after three pm, we made our way in via
41:17
Speaker 6: they made.
41:18
Speaker 1: The busy bow. The commandos suddenly emerge after.
41:23
Speaker 3: Months of inaction, bursts of gunfire and smoke appearing from
41:28
Speaker 3: the top of the residence Alls was being transmitted by
41:32
Speaker 3: TV cameras.
41:34
Speaker 4: It was live on television.
41:35
Speaker 1: Immediately as planned, one Force Alpha storms downstairs, while the
41:45
Speaker 1: other Delta hits the upper floor and seeks out the hostages.
41:51
Speaker 6: Del The Delta group was in charge of the second
41:54
Speaker 6: floor and they entered around the whole perimeter as well.
41:58
Speaker 6: We entered the residence in six places at once a labis.
42:10
Speaker 1: A second wave of commandos attacks the front of the building,
42:15
Speaker 1: while another scales the walls on ladders. More blasts signal
42:31
Speaker 1: the arrival of more elite soldiers as Delta team assaults
42:34
Speaker 1: the upper floor from the terrace.
42:40
Speaker 6: They started to evacuate in an orderly fashion.
42:46
Speaker 3: Banging scumfire, hostages scurrying down flights of stairs on the outside,
42:54
Speaker 3: keeping their heads down.
42:59
Speaker 1: With many of the hostages safe, the commandos move in
43:02
Speaker 1: for the kill. Over the next fifteen minutes, they flush
43:12
Speaker 1: out the terrorists, but it's still not over for Francisco.
43:29
Speaker 1: To Della, who remains trapped in his hiding place, one
43:36
Speaker 1: of the terrorists comes looking for him.
43:41
Speaker 2: The terrorist that was by executor.
43:48
Speaker 5: He looked for me in the room and then saw
43:52
Speaker 5: me in the terrorist he threw a handred aid I
43:59
Speaker 5: received sixty pieces of shrapnery I still have a dean.
44:05
Speaker 2: Then he shot me.
44:09
Speaker 5: He failed the first two times, but the third time
44:12
Speaker 5: he got.
44:12
Speaker 1: Me in the leg. Despite his wounds, to Della manages
44:24
Speaker 1: to escape.
44:27
Speaker 3: I recall one stretcher being carried out. I think we
44:33
Speaker 3: almost immediately identify that Francisco to Della, who had been shot.
44:39
Speaker 5: I remember that Admiral Jan Pietri, when he reached that
44:43
Speaker 5: point in the garden saw me and said you are wounded,
44:48
Speaker 5: and say I said no, we are free.
44:52
Speaker 2: I was exhilarated.
45:00
Speaker 1: As the smoke clears all Fourteen terrorists are dead, including Surper.
45:07
Speaker 1: Only one hostage doesn't make it out alive. He is
45:10
Speaker 1: wounded and dies from a heart attack. Two commandos are killed.
45:20
Speaker 1: The whole raid lasts thirty two minutes from beginning to end.
45:29
Speaker 1: For President Alberto Fujimori, it is a triumph in the
45:36
Speaker 1: final act of showmanship. He visits the building, he supervises
45:42
Speaker 1: the removal of the MRTA flags and congratulates his commandos.
45:49
Speaker 3: This is Fujimori at his most ebulliant, having taken a
45:54
Speaker 3: huge gambol and having it come off.
45:58
Speaker 1: The raid is seen as a great victory. However, if
46:06
Speaker 1: Fujimori and Montesinos thought the raid would make them politically invincible,
46:10
Speaker 1: they were mistaken. Both are now in jail on corruption charges. Nevertheless,
46:23
Speaker 1: the raid remains a source of pride for those who
46:25
Speaker 1: took part.
46:29
Speaker 6: Every commando aspires to take part in this sort of event.
46:36
Speaker 6: For me, it is a matter of personal pride. We
46:39
Speaker 6: did it for Peru and I.
46:41
Speaker 7: Will always be proud to have led this group of men.
46:53
Speaker 6: All Peruvians feel proud of this operation because it was
46:57
Speaker 6: a success, the most successful rescue.
47:00
Speaker 1: In the world. The raid sends the message Peru won't
47:08
Speaker 1: tolerate terrorism.
47:12
Speaker 6: You should never negotiate with terrorists or give in to
47:15
Speaker 6: their demands.
47:21
Speaker 1: Well lexio it.
47:22
Speaker 6: Because of the success of the Chavinda Wanta operation, the
47:25
Speaker 6: Tupa Kamaru revolutionary movement was effectively defeated.
47:32
Speaker 1: Today, Peru is largely free of terrorism and is reaping
47:36
Speaker 1: the benefits, thanks in part to the work of the
47:41
Speaker 1: Commanders
48:04
Speaker 5: Be