Torture Victim Haunts Peru Leaders Former Agent’s Tale Of Abuse Has Officials Looking Like Liars

She knew all too well what went on in the basement of Peru’s “Little Pentagon.” But as an government intelligence agent, Leonor La Rosa had no reason to fear the beatings, burnings and other tortures that took place there.

No reason, that is, until the day fellow agents detained her and led her down those stairs herself.

Unlike another detained agent who was dismembered, La Rosa survived days of imprisonment and torture by the government, and now she is talking. Her tale, confirmed by a military court, has put President Alberto Fujimori’s administration on the defensive and given new weight to charges of human rights abuses by his soldiers and intelligence services.

La Rosa, 36, remains in a hospital bed two months after her release, her spine damaged by beatings that make standing, sitting or even touching her head difficult.

In all, La Rosa spent 12 years as an agent with Peru’s intelligence services, the army’s partner in a successful crackdown against vicious leftist guerrilla groups in the 1980s and early 1990s.

La Rosa says she used to infiltrate student marches and union meetings.

Her troubles began in mid-January, when her superiors started to suspect her of telling a newspaper about military plans to assassinate opposition activists and journalists.

“One day I arrived at work and everybody was silent and staring at me,” she said.

Intelligence officers took her into custody Jan. 15, and led her down to the basement of army headquarters - known as the “Little Pentagon” for its hexagonal shape. She heard a scream from the dank cells, and grew deeply afraid.

Her colleagues accused her of leaking secrets, which she denied.

They jolted her with electricity, leaving her hands and feet burned and scarred. Grabbing her by the hair, they bashed her head into walls and a table, injuring her spinal cord.

“They beat me with their fists, covering me with cushions so as not to leave bruises,” she said.

On Feb. 17, she was taken to a military hospital, bleeding from her nose and vagina from the beatings.

She stayed silent about the torture until a fellow agent told La Rosa about another female co-worker who had been detained on suspicion of leaking secrets.

Mariela Barreto - what was left of her - was found dead near a highway outside Lima in late March. Her head and hands had been hacked off, her spine snapped in half. Barreto’s killers have not been identified.

La Rosa told her account to a television station on April 6, then to opposition congressmen.

In addition to her allegations of torture, La Rosa has publicly disputed military claims that military death squads have been disbanded.

La Rosa says she regularly saw the death squad’s members at army intelligence headquarters.

Under public pressure, the government allowed her transfer to a private clinic on June 5. Peru’s television stations have repeatedly broadcast images of a frail La Rosa trembling as she tried to stand, doing much to turn public opinion against Fujimori.

The administration insists La Rosa is mentally unstable, and is being used by the opposition to discredit the government and armed forces.

In May, however, a court sentenced four army intelligence officers to eight years in prison for torturing La Rosa, confirming her charges.