On December 17, 1996, the world was shocked by the news that there had been a hostage-taking incident inside the Japanese Embassy in Peru, and more than 540 people had been abducted by terrorists!
Hostage abductions are not new all over the world and occur from time to time, but they are carried out in embassies and hundreds of hostages are kidnapped at once, lasting more than 4 months, which is unique in the history of the world.
The "success" of this case has attracted widespread attention around the world.
Why are there so many people in the Japanese Embassy in Peru? Who are these terrorists? What are their demands? How can the Peruvian government rescue the hostages?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > a reception like no other</h1>
Japan is a constitutional monarchy, and the emperor's birthday is a day of national celebration.
Emperor Akihito, who ascended the throne in 1989, celebrates december 23, so every year on this day, celebrations are held throughout Japan.
However, at the Japanese Embassy in Peru, people held celebrations a week in advance, because the 23rd was too close to Christmas in the West, and embassies of various countries had to prepare in advance to celebrate Christmas.
Therefore, the 1996 Emperor's birthday reception at the Japanese Embassy in Peru was scheduled for December 17.
Although 1,000 invitations were sent in advance, only more than 800 guests came, because the banquet was held at 7 p.m. and some people were inconvenient to come and go, so they did not attend.
The size of 800 people is not small, in addition to the Japanese political and business people in Peru, diplomats from various countries are All Peruvian political tycoons, celebrities and business elites.
Peru and Japan have a very good relationship, although fujimori, who was the president of Peru at the time, was born here, but his parents were Japanese immigrants to Peru, Fujimori himself has dual citizenship of Peru and Japan, Japan is Fujimori's second motherland, and the relationship between Japan and Peru is naturally very close.
Without looking at the monk's face and looking at the Buddha's face, the ministers of the Peruvian government, the military leaders, and the celebrities will naturally not let go of this opportunity to hold the scene after receiving the invitation.
For a time, the outside of the Japanese Embassy was bustling with traffic, the official residence was full of laughter and laughter, and guests gathered.
At 8 p.m. that night, the reception officially began, and the Japanese ambassador to Peru, Aoki Morihisa, was full of red light and toasted to the guests, and everyone pushed the cups and changed the cups, and the atmosphere was warm.
None of them realized that a great crisis was creeping in.
At about 8 p.m., an ambulance sped up and stopped at the door of a house outside the back wall of the ambassador's residence, and a dozen masked men dressed in black rushed out of the ambulance, and they quickly occupied the house.
The militants, each of whom were 14 men dressed in black, wore a long scarves of red and white over their faces.
In addition to this, they have other identical outfits and equipment.
They were armed with an automatic rifle, a pair of black military boots, a bag of high explosives in the pockets of their jackets, a grenade in their trouser pockets, a shining knife around their waists, and a backpack behind them filled with bullets and a gas mask.
They arrived here on such occasions, definitely not to go to the Japanese Embassy to "hold the scene", but to "smash the field", with the purpose of kidnapping the hostages inside.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > a clean kidnapping</h1>
The house occupied by the terrorists, which was close to the japanese ambassador's residence, was so heavily guarded at the front of the embassy that the walls were too high, they placed miniature explosive packages on the outer walls of the embassy and detonated them.
Only a loud bang could be heard, and a large hole in the wall was blown through by explosives, and terrorists fished in.
Inside the embassy, the reception reached its climax, and the guests were in full swing.
After a loud sound of shaking the mountain, the wine glasses in the hands of many people fell to the ground in unison.
However, most people do not have time to think about it, some people think that it is a gas explosion nearby, and some people speculate that it is a car with a flat tire.
Just as they were speculating about the cause of the explosion, a dozen masked men suddenly appeared in front of them, frightening all the guests.
One of the terrorists, after firing a gun at the ceiling for a while, roared viciously:
"Those who want to live, honestly lie on the ground and don't move, whoever moves and kills whom, we are the Tupac Amaru revolutionary movement organization, we are here to negotiate terms with the government, most of you are unrelated, you will not be in trouble, but the premise is that you are obedient." 」
In this way, more than 540 people, including government ministers, parliamentarians, military leaders, business elites and diplomats, and even United Nations officials (more than 200 have left), were all kidnapped by terrorists.
From blowing up the outer wall to storming the embassy to taking hostages, the whole process took only five minutes, which can be described as clean and clean, and it can be seen that the training is well-trained.
However, the terrorists were a little frustrated after registering the hostages, because the main target of their kidnapping, President Fujimori of Peru, the protagonist of the reception, was not among the 540 people.
Due to Fujimori's special relationship with Japan, Fujimori has been presenting at the Birthday Reception of the Emperor of Japan every year since he was elected president in 1990.
Only this time, Fujimori went to a certain city to inspect, there was a traffic jam in the middle of the road, delayed for tens of minutes, and it was these dozens of minutes that made Fujimori coincidentally not appear among the hostages.
In addition to Fujimori, there was another dignitary who did not attend, and he was pandolfi, the prime minister of the Peruvian government.
When Fujimori was stuck in traffic in the middle of the road, he called for 20 minutes to talk to Prime Minister Pandolfi about work, and Pandorfi also escaped the disaster.
The U.S. and Israeli ambassadors and diplomats from the Chinese Embassy in Peru, who attended the reception, also left the embassy early because of the incident and were not frightened by this.
With such a high-profile, large-scale reception, the Peruvian side must have been very strict, and there were heavily armed military and police guards on duty outside the Japanese ambassador's residence, fixed sentries, and mobile patrols. And there were all kinds of guests present, many of whom also had bodyguards and guards.
But everyone was not mentally prepared for the sudden change, and after hearing the explosions and gunshots, they were overwhelmed, and the monk was confused, did not know what was happening, and did not know where the enemy was and how many people there were.
The bodyguards and the guards and security personnel were not subordinate to each other, and after the reaction, some began to fight separately, drawing guns and fighting. For a moment, the gunfire was loud and the bullets flew wildly.
More than ten minutes later, a SWAT team arrived, surrounded the embassy reception hall, and fired tear gas from the car into it, trying to confuse the terrorists and wait for the opportunity to act.
But the terrorists were prepared and wore gas masks in advance, and it was the hostages who suffered.
By this time, President Fujimori had received the news, and he issued an order to the head of security and SWAT present:
With the first goal of protecting the safety of the hostages, it is not allowed to shoot casually, otherwise, it will be punished as a crime!
As soon as the order was given, the gunfire inside and outside the mansion stopped, and a temporary calm fell into it.
Seeing this, people can't help but ask, what are the demands of terrorists who are so excited and desperate to take risks?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" > a whimsical transaction</h1>
We have explained that the kidnapping was carried out by the Tupac Amaru organization, an anti-government guerrilla group in Peru founded in the early 1980s (commanded by its leader, Serpa).
The organization is named after Tupaq Amaru, a famous national hero in Peruvian history who rebelled against Spanish colonialism, and their program is to wage an armed struggle to overthrow the existing Peruvian system.
The main purpose of their hostage-taking this time was threefold: first, to "resist Japan," to demand that the government change its current policies such as "pro-Japanese," to demand that the government reject Japan's aid programs in Peru (a large part of the reason for the "anti-Japanese" was due to Fujimori's Japanese background), to demand the release of hundreds of their accomplices who were imprisoned, and to pay a considerable ransom.
Why the kidnapping inside the Japanese Embassy?
Because Fujimori is of Japanese descent and has Japanese nationality, Japan and Peru have a special relationship.
Hitting a snake seven inches and kidnapping hostages here will arouse more international attention, and will make the Peruvian government throw a rat trap, dare not act rashly, and it is easier to obey and agree to their conditions.
For this operation, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement was carefully planned and prepared for half a year. They stole a van and converted it into an ambulance, which was reinforced with welded steel plates.
Even before the operation, they rehearsed in a building and made a battle plan.
The fact that the operation was so smooth and the number of kidnappers was so high that terrorists soon began to feel headaches.
540 people, a day to ensure the supply of food at least half a ton, in the long run, is not a small number, once the hostages starve to death, the business is at risk of screwing up.
Tupak Amaru decided to release all the women in the hostages and the waiters on the spot in order to show the benevolence of their "Righteous Teacher".
What they did not expect was that the released hostages contained three "big fish", one was Fujimori's mother, and the other was Fujimori's sister.
There was also a big fish, the young official in charge of security, who, at a critical moment, took off his uniform, put on the clothes of a waiter, and passed the customs in disguise.
It was his escape that gave President Fujimori a grasp of the situation inside the embassy and laid the groundwork for the rescue of the hostages.
In the eyes of terrorists, the requirements for kidnapping so many people with weight are not high, and the international pressure is so great that the government will definitely choose to agree.
But in fact, their efforts were futile and a difficult deal to complete.
First, Fujimori is an iron-fisted politician who shows no mercy to terrorists and advocates a zero-tolerance policy toward them.
During his tenure, Fujimori used powerful means to combat the rebels, imposed a state of emergency in most parts of the country, and repeatedly used the army and intelligence agencies to "kill all" terrorists.
For the captured terrorists, he even bypassed the judicial process and set up a military court to conduct secret trials and strike hard. How could such an iron-fisted president compromise with terrorists?
Moreover, this matter has caused a sensation in the whole world, and if it compromises with terrorists at this time, it is bound to affect Peru's international image and appear to be very "instigated".
Therefore, the purpose of the terrorists' abduction is doomed not to be achieved.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="59" > a set of solutions, and the road to peaceful settlement is blocked</h1>
Fujimori learned of the news of the hostage's abduction, and his heart was very heavy, and he knew deeply that "compromise" was absolutely impossible, but if he did not compromise, in case something went wrong on the scene, his political life would most likely end.
So he did not dare to be idle, and held a meeting in the intelligence bureau overnight to formulate a hostage rescue plan.
At this time, the security officials who had escaped disguised as waiters also rushed to the Intelligence Service to report to the President the details of the official residence they had.
After consultation, Fujimori decided to set up two teams to solve the hostage crisis.
The first set of teams, led by Prime Minister Pandolfi and with the participation of several government ministers, was naturally tasked with trying to resolve the hostage crisis through uncompromising and peaceful means.
In fact, Fujimori has a number in mind, his opponent is a terrorist organization, assassination and explosion is their daily routine, people are fierce, will not compromise with the government, and the probability of peaceful settlement is zero.
However, if we do not make peace efforts, the hearts and minds of the people at home will not be appeased, and it will be even more difficult to account for them internationally.
Despite knowing that there is no hope, the procedure is still to go .
Beginning on Feb. 11, Fujimori sent a government delegation led by Education Minister Palermo to begin negotiations with the terrorist leader Selpa and his representatives.
As of March 12, the two sides had held a total of 10 rounds of negotiations in a month, but none of them were successful.
The reason is simple, Fujimori made only limited concessions, agreeing to give ransom but refusing to release the terrorists.
Later, Bishop Cipriani, Representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross Minnig and Canadian Ambassador to Peru Vincent also participated in the mediation and tried to reach an agreement, similarly without progress.
At the same time, the international community has also begun to make efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully, and many political dignitaries such as US President Clinton, the Prime Minister of Japan, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the leaders of Cuba have joined the ranks of mediation.
Cuban leader Castro said that in order to resolve the crisis peacefully, Cuba is willing to resettle these people to Cuba after the settlement of the incident.
But the leader of the terrorist organization, Selpa, sternly refused, no, we have created such a big battle, is it for ourselves to take refuge abroad? He insisted that his comrades must be released, otherwise there would be no talks and the road to a peaceful settlement would be blocked.
Of course, the four-month confrontation and negotiation process did not come to fruition, and the terrorists released a large number of hostages on several occasions, and only 72 people were detained in their hands.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > two sets of plans, "tunnel warfare" to rescue hostages</h1>
With a peaceful solution to the road, a team of men from the Intelligence Service, Montesinos, and 3 army colonels, formed a forced solution to the hostage crisis, began work.
Beginning jan. 8, 28 miners were secretly recruited a few hundred meters outside the embassy on their mission to dig tunnels.
The tunnel is about 3 to 4 meters above the ground, and the roadway is 1. 3 meters, width 1. 5 meters, the direction of the tunnel Needless to say, naturally it is the Japanese Embassy.
Two months later, a network of 140-meter-long tunnels appeared under the Japanese ambassador's residence, consisting of a main roadway and six sub-laneways.
There are 5 exits in the tunnel, one of which is directly below the lobby of the Japanese Embassy.
The terrorists in the mansion, completely unaware of this, are still dreaming of doing business with Fujimori.
However, the intelligence and vigilance of the terrorist leader in the official residence, Selpa, was not in vain, and one day he vaguely heard movement underground, and he first thought of the tunnel.
Serpa himself was a veteran of digging tunnels, and he wanted to organize a prison escape with his boss Porley and dozens of comrades-in-arms.
However, when he raised this suspicion with the government officials during the negotiations and threatened to terminate the negotiations, the government negotiators swore an oath: Don't make trouble, I guarantee with my personality, the government has absolutely not dug tunnels, please rest assured.
Government officials repeatedly denied it, but Selpa really believed it and stopped mentioning authentic things.
The idea of "tunnel warfare" is still fujimori's idea, tunnels are the national essence of Peru, and Peruvians have dug tunnels for three thousand years.
250 kilometers from the Peruvian capital of Lima, there is an underground castle built in tunnels, a masterpiece of the Indians three thousand years ago, called "Chavin de Vantar".
President Fujimori was impressed by the fact that he had taken his wife with him on vacation.
When the peaceful rescue efforts to rescue the hostages did not progress, Fujimori pondered the armed rescue plan, racked his brains, suddenly thought of the castle, came to the inspiration, decided to solve the problem in real terms, and named the operation "Operation Chavin de Vental".
Digging the tunnel well does not mean that everything is fine, and a little carelessness will lead to the failure of the action and the abandonment of the previous achievements. In order to successfully rescue the hostages, it is necessary to accurately grasp the situation inside and form a tacit understanding with the hostages.
To this end, the intelligence services placed surveillance and communication equipment in the food delivered by the Red Cross organization to the embassy. Through these devices, the hostages established a secret communication channel with the people outside, and the rescuers knew the situation in the mansion very well.
The security services learned that there were 14 Tupac Amaru elements living on the first floor and the hostages on the second floor, who did not live with each other.
Moreover, the hostage guards were divided into three shifts, with only 3 people in each shift.
Tupac Amaru is very calm, and will also exercise in the hall, cultivate emotions, bowling or play indoor football.
After familiarizing yourself with the internal situation, the rescue operation is on the arrow.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="88" > a cloned Japanese embassy</h1>
To ensure that the plan to rescue the hostages was foolproof, the authorities specially copied a Japanese embassy, where 140 commandos personally selected by President Fujimori from the Peruvian Army, Navy and Air Force conducted two-month exercises around the clock.
In order to simulate night operations, the commandos not only wore camouflage uniforms, helmets, bulletproof vests, and automatic rifles, but also specially designed with special light sources at the lower end of the muzzle to ensure that they could be used normally in smoke environments.
The commando team is divided into five groups, one group is responsible for rescuing the hostages and eliminating the terrorists guarding the guards; the second group is responsible for eliminating the terrorists entrenched on the first floor; the third group is responsible for organizing, assisting and covering the safe evacuation of the hostages; the fourth group is responsible for rescuing the wounded and extinguishing the fire; and the fifth group is composed of sharpshooters, sniping the terrorists on the periphery to prevent them from escaping.
The key to the rescue of the hostages lies in the speed of blowing up the tunnels and rushing into the scene, and its speed determines the life and death of the hostages and the success or failure of the operation.
To this end, they repeatedly rehearsed the step of blowing up the opening of the cave and rushing into the building in the simulated embassy, and every time they practiced, the house had to be renovated.
The amount of explosives used is too small to kill terrorists. The use of explosives in large quantities will damage the structure of the two-story building and injure the hostages there.
After many rehearsals, the commandos had mastered the appropriate amount of explosives needed to both blow up tunnel exits and kill terrorists on the first floor — 3.5 kilograms of explosives.
Everything is ready, just wait for Fujimori.
Before the action, Fujimori made an "effort" again, and then relaxed, expressing his willingness to release the 5 terrorists in prison, but Serpa refused, and if he wanted to release, he would release my hundreds of brothers, and the release of 4 was not sincere at all!
Serpa lost patience and appeared very grumpy, and began to prevent medical staff from entering the mansion to deliver medicine to sick hostages, accidents can occur at any time, and the situation is extremely critical.
In the early hours of April 19, Fujimori signed his name on the action document.
The next day, more than a hundred commandos entered the tunnels one by one.
On the afternoon of April 22, terrorists played soccer again in the lobby.
The intelligence personnel outside also informed the hostages through the secret communication channels established in advance that they were going to do so today, and the hostages inside the mansion were to cooperate with the commando team' actions, and after hearing the explosion, they immediately opened the tin door leading to the balcony on the second floor and ran out from there.
At 3:23 p.m., three tunnel explosives exploded at the same time, and six Tupac Amaru elements who were playing football were sent to the western sky.
Serpa and 3 other accomplices survived and struggled to rush to the second floor to kill the hostages, but the commandos had already blocked the stairwell on the second floor.
A rain of bullets struck, and Selpa and 3 of his accomplices screamed for their lives and were beaten into a sieve.
The hostages on the second floor had already learned of the operation in advance, and after hearing the explosion, they worked together to push open the door to the balcony, and with the help of the rescue team, through the balcony, they retreated methodically to the courtyard, and during the retreat, The Peruvian Foreign Minister Tudela was wounded by terrorists on the second floor.
After 15 minutes, the thrilling rescue operation was over.
All 14 Tupac Amaru elements were killed, 72 hostages, and all but one died of a heart attack caused by injuries.
The only regret is that the commando Major Balaire gave up his young life to cover for Peruvian Foreign Minister Tudela.
Just after the hostages were evacuated, the smoke over the Japanese ambassador's residence had not yet cleared, and the jubilant President Fujimori appeared in front of the commandos wearing a bulletproof vest to extend cordial condolences to everyone.
That night, Fujimori held a press conference at the presidential palace and announced to the media that the 126-day hostage crisis had finally ended in victory.
Of course, he had reason to raise his eyebrows, in such a large-scale rescue operation that was later written into the textbook of the special forces, the "enemy" was completely annihilated, the hostages were saved, the government did not lose its dignity and credibility, I did not have a little point reduction, and the image was even higher, which was naturally worthy of pride. Compared with many hostage rescue battles in other countries, the government army killed eight hundred enemies, lost a thousand self-inflicted wounds, and the hostages were often killed by mistake, and the operation was "perfect" as a result.