The history of death, abuse and massacres of El Frontón, the prison proposed to receive convicts of rape in Peru

On Tuesday, the congresswoman of the Cambio Democrático (formerly Together for Peru), Isabel Cortez, told the press and suggested that the prison known as El Pediment. He proposed that those convicted of rape and murder be sent and serve “life imprisonment without the enjoyment of having”, because the people who commit these acts should not go to a common prison and have all the benefits of the law.

“El Fronton has to be reopened and there sent to those who rape, murder, send them there to serve life imprisonment, without benefit. Except for the current one, those sentenced to life imprisonment have many benefits,” he said in conversation with PBO Digital. In addition, it was of the opinion that those convicted of these crimes serve their sentences without reducing their sentence.

However, many do not know about this prison called El Fronton. This place is remembered for the riot of June 18, 1986, during the administration of former President Alan García, which left 118 inmates dead.

ON THE FRONTON

It is located on a small island in the Pacific Ocean, near the Peruvian coast, in the city of Callao. After being uninhabited for centuries, at the beginning of the 20th century a prison was built to house prisoners, especially the most dangerous criminals of the time. Even politicians such as former President Fernando Belaúnde Terry were also arrested in that prison. In his case, it happened in July 1962 after leading a protest from Arequipa against the then government of Manuel Prado Ugarteche.

However, the Fronton is remembered for one of the bloodiest cases in Peru's recent history. And to date there are different versions of what really happened in those days, to the point of discrediting the government of that time.

EL MOTÍN DE 1986

80s. In the midst of terrorism in Peru and with the presence of the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, the first government of Alan García arrived, with the search for the Apra to be able to represent the legacy of Victor Raúl Haya de la Torre.

On June 18, 1986, a synchronized mutiny began in the El Fronton prison. It started in the Blue Pavilion of the penal island. Dozens of prisoners died there, who were executed under the pretext of a revolt of prisoners who were resisting a transfer to a high-security prison like Canto Grande.

The events occurred simultaneously to the point that it was believed that there was prior planning, since the prisoners, according to the magazine Caretas, had weapons created under the demand for better prison conditions, recognition of the status of political prisoners and the dissolution of INPE.

The magazine mentions that at 10am that day, President Alan García called for an emergency meeting with the Council of Ministers and the Armed Forces to, shortly after, reveal through his deputy interior minister, Agustín Mantilla, the forceful actions that would be taken if the prisoners did not surrender. After the dialogue, the Joint Command and members of the Republican Guard took control of the situation.

In El Fronton Prison, the Navy entered to take action as the prisoners held three members of the Republican Guard hostage. On the afternoon of June 18, Agustín Mantilla arrived at the prison, he said, by order of Alan García himself. The deputy minister ordered the suspension of dialogue with the inmates, despite the reproach of the judicial authorities. The prison director, the judge and the prosecutor protested the presence of the seafarers at the scene.

MASSACRE AT DAWN

According to the version of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the massacre occurred at 3 in the morning, and with traditional weapons, bazookas, mortars, dynamites and explosives, they demolished the Blue Pavilion. The inmates who surrendered were taken to “the baths”, an area where survivors declared that they killed prisoners with shots and bayonets. An estimated 113 prisoners died, most of them tortured and executed. But there were also missing people.

TESTIMONIES OF WHAT HAPPENED

Carlos Castillo Vega, a former marine, accused and an effective collaborator, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that the order issued was to execute the subversives, and that if there were any survivors it was because of the arrival of the president of the Senate at that time, Armando Villanueva, because on his arrival they “could no longer touch” the prisoners.

Members of the Republican Guard pointed out that the actions of annihilation were taken by President Alan Garcia himself. On the other hand, other testimonies told La República in 2003 that Agustín Mantilla was at the scene of the operation, and they gave a detail: they say that the Navy handed him a radio operator to communicate with a superior, who gave him orders.

“We don't know who Mantilla was reporting the facts to. He had a radio operator assigned to him. All the time I was with a radio transmitter in my hand, giving an account of what was happening,” one of them told La República.

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