Guerrillas Take Over Ambassador’s Party Hundreds, Including Top Diplomats, Held At Home Of Japan’s Envoy To Peru

Dressed as waiters bearing champagne and hors d’oeuvres, about 30 guerrillas slipped into a party at the Japanese ambassador’s house Tuesday night, then set off explosions and took hostage hundreds of diplomats and government officials.

Police with assault rifles surrounded the residential compound in the upscale San Isidro district of Lima, and crouched behind their cars as gunfire was heard coming from inside. Witnesses saw smoke and tracer bullets.

From inside the compound, Japanese Ambassador Morihisa Aoki called a local radio station. “There are no injured, nothing, and we are safe,” he said. But he added: “For the moment, I cannot speak freely.”

The Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo estimated that at least 600 people were attending the party, in honor of Japanese Emperor Akihito’s birthday on Monday. A local television station, citing the Japanese ambassador, reported that 800 people were inside.

The attackers drove into the compound dressed as waiters and unloaded food and champagne, police said. They then apparently set off at least one large explosion and two minor ones as they took control of the embassy compound just after 8 p.m.

The rebels, who according to police numbered about 30, identified themselves as members of the Tupac Amaru guerrilla movement and demanded the release of imprisoned comrades.

“What we are asking is the liberation of all of our comrades, who are being mistreated and tortured in the dungeons of the various prisons,” said a guerrilla who identified himself as Comandante Mejia Huerta.

Many leaders of the Tupac Amaru are in jail. Its chief, Victor Polay, was captured in June 1992 and is serving a life sentence, as is his lieutenant, Peter Cardenas. Other top commanders conceded defeat and surrendered in July 1993.

Government officials and members of the Red Cross reportedly were negotiating with the rebels, and President Alberto Fujimori convened an emergency meeting of his Cabinet.

In a telephone call to Japanese broadcaster NHK, the ambassador said the rebels were “completely armed” and wanted to talk with President Alberto Fujimori.

“It seems that after releasing the women and elderly, they are going to negotiate with President Fujimori about the conditions to release us,” Aoki said.

In the hours after the attack, the rebels released more than 50 women, including Fujimori’s sister Juana.

Among the guests were Peruvian Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela and the ambassadors from Brazil, Bolivia, Cuba, according to Peruvian congressman Henry Pease, who left the party shortly before the attack. Jose Munoz, a security guard with the Venezuelan Embassy, said that country’s ambassador was also inside.

Fujimori, who is of Japanese ancestry, was not at the party. U.S. Ambassador Dennis Jett was not inside, the U.S. Embassy said.

The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which draws its ideology from Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolutionaries, took up arms in 1984. It always has been second in importance in to the Maoist Shining Path, and even at its height had fewer than 1,000 fighters.