2 Soldiers Who Died Honored Commando Who Had 2 Children Carried Note Of Pride, ‘Peace’
On a day of eulogies and tributes from Peru’s political luminaries hailing the liberation of 71 hostages in a daring military assault, it was the posthumous words of Lt. Col. Juan Valer Sandoval that proved the most moving.
“If tomorrow you read this letter it is because I have died,” the 38-year-old soldier had scribbled on a sheet of paper found stuffed into his shirt pocket, apparently written while he and other commandos crouched in secret tunnels before bursting into the occupied Japanese ambassador’s residence here. “If I am no longer with you, I want you to remember that I left gladly, fighting together in a mission we planned together, a mission that unites us more than ever. … Think of me as being at peace.”
A key figure in the attack Tuesday that ended a 126-day standoff, Valer was responsible for locating the hostages and protecting two of the most sensitive in the group, Japanese Ambassador Morihisa Aoki and Peruvian Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela. According to an account from President Alberto Fujimori, Valer died while shielding Tudela from a volley of shots fired by a Tupac Amaru rebel, who was killed along with the 13 other rebels at the residence. Tudela is recovering from a gunshot wound.
Valer and Lt. Raul Jimenez Chavez, who also was buried with honors Thursday, were the only fatalities among the 140 special forces commandos who took part in the attack. Both were promoted posthumously - Valer to colonel and Chavez to captain - in a ceremony attended by Fujimori, hundreds of mourners and the military high command.
The images broadcast from the funeral - Valer’s young wife, sitting next to the couple’s two children, sobbed often - were a counterpoint to the open euphoria displayed by soldiers and Fujimori himself on Tuesday afternoon when it was clear that an improbable victory had been achieved over the Marxist-inspired guerrillas, who held the residence for more than four months.
“When a soldier dies in defense of his country, a hero is born,” Fujimori told mourners.
Valer once headed the security detail for Fujimori’s son, Kenyi, and the president was visibly moved by what he called a “personal” loss.
While the three heroes were buried with honors, family members of the dead Tupac Amaru members spent a frustrating day waiting for the bodies to be released. The International Committee of the Red Cross and a local human rights group were trying to help the families, and there were reports that several bodies - rebel leader Nestor Cerpa Cartolini’s among them - were to be released.