On March 2, 1982, Shining Path militants assaulted the Ayacucho jail and liberated dozens of their comrades. Peruvian police retaliated hours later by storming the regional hospital and executing three alleged Shining Path prisoners. This presentation examines how these events prompted the Peruvian government to build modern penitentiaries and to send in the military to fight Shining Path. Meanwhile, the search for justice for the victims of the hospital killings accelerated the creation of a national human rights movement. This microhistory forms part of a larger project about youth and violence during Peru’s Armed Internal Conflict.
Charles Walker is professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and will soon hold the Nielson Visiting Professor at Smith College in 2026. He held the MacArthur Foundation Endowed Chair in Global Human Rights from 2015–2020. He has authored, edited, and translated numerous books, including Witness to the Age of Revolution: The Odyssey of Juan Bautista Túpac Amaru (2020); The Tupac Amaru Rebellion (2014); Shaky Colonialism: The 1746 Earthquake-Tsunami in Lima, Peru and Its Long Aftermath (2008); and Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Transition from Colony to Republic, 1780–1840 (1999), all translated into Spanish.
Part of the Latin American Studies Presents lecture series.