The Unknown Basement: Based on a Real-Life Story

By Salomon H. Soria

“With great courage and sure of his convictions, Salomon Soria offers in this autobiographical account the most important and painful episode of his life: that of his kidnapping and torture in the basement of the National Intelligence Service of Peru, where he was conducted against his will after leading, following higher orders, the police strike of May 1987 in the city of Huancayo, Perú. In this stark history we will know aspects of the harsh police reality the time in which the police participated in the fight against the terrorism war in the 80s and 90s, as well as the multiple needs of this police institution in those years and the reasons for its protest struggle; However, the most important thing is the traumatic and painful personal experience of an unjust kidnapping, Salomón Soria details step by step the arbitrary and illegal way in which he was treated physically and psychologically injuring him by putting him at the edge of mental alienation during the confinement that clearly constitutes a violation of human rights and state terrorism within the framework of the first government of former president Alan Garcia. The corollary of this traumatic experience was exile. For more than 30 years the author lives in the United States of America where he had to rebuild his life with his family without forgetting the iniquity of the dark characters that caused that serious incision in the normal course of its existence. This book is somehow a clamor for the right claim of a person who has tried to be disgraced and see their rights restored despite the distance and the years. Is it that the dignity of the human being remains firm when it is known that one acts with rectitude and integrity.

You are invited to read this life story and know the reasonable demand of a man who will not rest until he finds justice from the Peruvian State”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abbott Press
• Release date: Sep 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781458222831

Salomon H. Soria

Salomon Soria, professional bilingual, was born in Chincha, Ica, Peru; graduated in Administration and Police Science, as a Second Lieutenant, at the Peruvian National Police School. He was specialized in the fight against terrorism. He also studied Public Relations at the Superior Institute of Communications Science “Alejandro Deustua” of Huancayo, Peru; The author studied the special course of Social Communication Science at the Superior Institute “Jaime Bausate Meza” of Huancayo, Peru, in the same manner studied CIS at Dover Business College in Paramus, NJ. He worked as a correspondent accredited for the United Nations Headquarter, Vida Diplomatica Magazine (1989-1996) and is the author for the book in Spanish “El Sótano del Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional”. Currently he works for a prestigious limousine company and lives with his wife and two children, in the state of New Jersey.

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Copyright © 2020 Salomon H. Soria.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

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without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-4582-2285-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-2284-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-2283-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020909505

Abbott Press rev. date: 09/14/2020

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1     Fighting Against Terrorism In Peru

Chapter 2     Deployed To Terrorist Or Emergency Zone

Chapter 3     Baptism In The Andes

Chapter 4     Municipal Elections

Chapter 5     Unsolved Murder

Chapter 6     The Police Strike

Chapter 7     The Police Strike In Wankayoc (Red Zone)

Chapter 8     Lieutenant Soria, Assistant Of General Chief In Wankayoc

Chapter 9     Before The Wankayoc Police Strike

Chapter 10   The Proposal And The Swindle

Chapter 11   Compliance With An Order

Chapter 12   Scapegoat

Chapter 13   Arrest Order And Transfer To Lima, Peru

Chapter 14   Transfer To The National Intelligence Service (SIN)

Chapter 15   The Basement And Torture By Solitary Confinement

Chapter 16   Transfer To The Hospital

Chapter 17   Lieutenant Police Officer Is Missing

Chapter 18   The Return

Chapter 19   Supreme Resolution

Chapter 20   Operation Plan: Subordination And Braveness

Chapter 21   The Transfer To Wankayoc

Chapter 22   Rodrigo Franco Command, Colina Group, And State Terrorism

Chapter 23   Narcotrafic: The Government And State Terrorism

Chapter 24   Leaving Peru

Chapter 25   Lieutenant Police Exiled And Wanted

Chapter 26   My Soulmate

Chapter 27   Administrative Contentious Court

Chapter 28   The Supreme Military Court Resolution

Chapter 29   Questions Without Reply

Chapter 30   Gratitude

Chapter 31   Surprise Reunion With The Former PNP General Director Octavio Carrera

About The Author

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE

PEOPLE OF THE WORLD APART FROM MY

PARENTS, CRISTIAN AND LUPE SORIA AND

FAMILY WHO HAVE ENDURED BETRAYAL,

TORTURE AND PERSECUTION.

INTRODUCTION

M y name is Salomon H. Soria. I was born a Peruvian and am originally from a town called Chincha, a province that belongs to the Ica Department. Ica is a region south of Lima on the coast of Peru. I spent fourteen years as a Peruvian National Police lieutenant. I graduated on the first of September in 1977 as a junior officer with the rank of second lieutenant from the police academy in Lima, Peru. I have lived with my family in the US for the last thirty years in the state of New Jersey. The story that I will narrate now is full of events in which injustice, torture, corruption, and disloyalty prevail.

I was able to endure torture, abuse, the threat of death, and many others human right violations, all carried out on behalf of the corrupt government of the former president of Peru, Alan Garcia. Despite the fact that many years have passed, my experiences still bring much pain for my family and myself. I have to tried to overcome all these experiences through counseling. Nowadays, I dare to make my story public because, somehow, those memories only represent pain.

The National Intelligence Service in Peru, in the 1980s and the 1990s, was a government agency dedicated to processing information by the Ministry of Defense. The agency worked closely with the president of the republic. The agency was responsible for producing, integrating, managing, coordinating, monitoring, and carrying out intelligence and counter-intelligence activities required for security and the national defense. Its function was very controversial because it involved various criminal and corrupt activities during the governmental terms of presidents Alan Garcia (1985–1990) and Alberto Fujimori (1990–2000).

These governments were involved in crimes related to state terrorism, including cases involving killing, torture, kidnapping, and acts of repression against opponents. Alan Garcia, who killed himself in April 2019, and Alberto Fujimori, who is currently in jail serving a twenty-five-year sentence, were convicted of many charges related to corruption and human rights violations.

Currently, corrupt activities of former president Alan Garcia are subject to a pending investigation, and former presidents Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala, Pedro Pablo Kuczinsky, as consequence of investigations carried out by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation against the Brazilian businessman Marcello Odebrecht and the case of Lava Jato and Panama Papers for illicit financial flows and others who were involved in many corruption activities in liaison with south American governments officials.

Today, the Peruvian political system is considered corrupt by countries all over the world as well as by other Latin American countries. The governments that administer these countries carried out an enrichment of policy based on fraudulent contracts for mega construction works. Restoring trust in the government has to be the center of Latin America’s political agenda; no longer can the old ways of politics and business be tolerated. Only then will there be an end to violations of human rights.

Human values in Peru have been declining little by little since the first government of former president of Peru Alan Garcia (1985–1990). Today, this country suffers a crisis of insecurity as well as distrust. The Peruvian government has contributed totally to raise these values and recover the image of the Peruvian population, processing in the judicial system politicians and members of the judicial system involved in corruption.

However, day by day, through a series of investigations that are channeled through the judicial system, many acts of corruption are being revealed that were committed by the former presidents of Peru and many political authorities, including members of the Supreme Court of Peru, superior courts, armed forces, and the National Police.

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Graduation as Second Lieutenant of the National

Police of Peru (August 30th 1977)

1

CHAPTER

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FIGHTING AGAINST

TERRORISM IN PERU

I was deployed in the Central Andes of Peru in January 1980; I held the rank of second lieutenant in the National Police of Peru (Policía Nacional del Perú—PNP). The strength of the National Police of Peru at that time was approximately 120,000 officers; it was one of the largest forces in South America, covering land, sea, and air territories. It included the Civil Guard, the Investigation Police, and the Republican Guard. I came to northern Peru through the cities of Chiclayo and Cajamarca in the provinces of Jaen and Cutervo. I was notified that I was going to work in a Red Zone where terrorism was spreading rapidly. I was not accustomed to working in this area of the Central Andes, the Peruvian Sierra.

Terrorism in Peru reemerged in 1980 and continued until the end of the 1990s with the capture of Abimael Guzman, the leader of a terrorist group known as the Shining Path. Guzman is currently incarcerated for life in a maximum-security prison. Terrorism in Peru was an armed conflict between the government and the terrorist members of the Communist Party of Peru, who formed groups known as the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.

More than 70,000 people died during this Peruvian conflict. Most of these victims were civilians. Terrorism in Peru also represented a major expense for the state, which lost billions of dollars as a result of terrorist attacks to public and private property. This social conflict sparked a mass exodus of millions of Peruvians to other countries between the years 1985 and 2000; this can be compared to the migration phenomenon affecting the country of Venezuela as I write.

This conflict was bloodier than all other wars in Peru’s history following the European colonization of the country. Unfortunately, this wonderful culture was affected enormously by the influence of terrorism, which caused many changes to the lives of the indigenous people. Terrorism began in the city of Ayachuco, located in the Central Andes, and it spread throughout the Peruvian territory causing instability, deaths, and desolation. The chaos is still remembered today.

Peru has a wealth of mineral resources. Gold, silver, lithium, copper, iron, lead, zinc, bismuth, phosphates, and manganese exist in great quantities of high-yield ores. Gold and silver are found extensively, as are other rare metals, and petroleum fields are located along the far north coast and the northeastern part of Amazonia. In addition to the collection marine fauna, which is considered one of the richest in the world, agriculture and livestock flourish. Peru has many natural and cultural treasures that have fascinated people for hundreds of years and still fascinate today, such as ancient ruins, high mountains, and a rain forest rich with an enormous variety of flora and fauna.

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Lieutenant Salomon Soria, fighting against terrorism

in Red Zone, Peru - October 1983

2

CHAPTER

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DEPLOYED TO TERRORIST

OR EMERGENCY ZONE

I n 1980, I was twenty-four years old and already married with two children. Leaving my family to fight terrorism was heartbreaking for me. One would think that I would be used to this scenario after watching my older brother leave his family time and time again. My brother also served as a lieutenant of the National Police in the rain forest and the highland areas of the Peruvian Andes three years prior to my own appointment in this region. I still remember how we all cried deeply on the day I said good-bye to my mother and my family at the Lima bus terminal.

After arriving at the subregional police command of Wankayoc, a large town in the Central Andes, I was assigned as chief of police of the district of Chonkos Altos in the Junín region. There were ten police officers under my command. At 11,300 feet above sea level, it is a laborious place to live, and home to the descendants of the ethnic Wanka people. Devoted to agriculture, raising cattle, and mining, this culture possesses an exceptional artistic ability for pottery making and folk music.

Sudden terrorist attacks against the police premises were the most dangerous risks in working in a remote area. The terrorists’ goals were to capture and execute officers, take possession of police weapons and ammunition, and weaken the morale of the personnel of the officers. The security measures that I had to take to prevent attacks had to be strict and sophisticated. I had the secret support of certain town civilians, and we met frequently to develop citizen-involved security plans and to practice shooting.

We kept close communication with civilians, taking part in civic activities and career counseling programs in schools through conferences and classes. It was very important to identify ourselves to