41 Seconds to Freedom An Insider's Account of the Lima Hostage Crisis, 1996-97

Chapter 1 The Takedown The explosion was loud and close, as if the charge had gone high-order just outside the ambassador's residence. But we heard only the explosion; no shattering glass or even rattling windows. Much of the shock wave seemed to have bounced off the high stucco wall surrounding the residence. As with an ambushing enemy's first volley, the precise location of the blast was a mystery. I saw my wife, Marcella, flinch and suspected most in the crowd of nearly six hundred guests had flinched as well. But no one panicked. Such explosions had been part of our lives during the past sixteen years of vicious warfare with terrorists determined to force a Marxist regime on Peru. We'd come to expect and endure the car bomb, the dynamited electrical pylon, the assassin's grenade. A man nearby said, "Well, at least they didn't hit a power station. We still have lights, gracias a Dios." Marcella and I resumed our conversation with General Carlos Dominguez, former director of Peru's Counter-Terrorism Department, and Oscar Mavila, president of the Institute for Human Developmenta public polling business. A photographer from El Comerciothe New York Times of Peruhad taken a photo of us talking just before the explosion. I would later see that photo published many times. Oscar had called to us as we passed him in the grand ballroom on our way to the front door. We'd arrived some thirty minutes earlier to celebrate the emperor's birthday at a party the Japanese ambassador, Morihisa Aoki, hosted each year. This was my first invitation to the event, and I was a reluctant guest. Since my retirement from the Peruvian navy, I'd been happily at work with my deep-sea diving company until the government convinced me I should head the Peruvian Institute of Oceanography. My love of the sea more than money or prestige prompted me to accept the position. But while the job provided marvelous opportunitiessuch as working closely with Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Californiait also brought with it social obligations I could have done without. Invitations to attend diplomatic receptions arrived endlessly in a blizzard of little white envelopes. After nearly a year I'd had enough of the blizzard and was declining most invitations. I decided to decline the most recent invitation I'd found in the middle of my desk as I arrived to begin the day's work at the institute less than two weeks before Christmas. The invitation, addressed to my predecessor, invited the institute's president to attend the emperor's birthday party at the Japanese ambassador's residence. I called to my secretary in the next room: "Maritzatell the Japanese, por favor, that I won't be attending their celebration on the seventeenth." "Right away, mi almirante, right away." Then the ever-efficient Maritza paused, and I knew what was coming. "But perhaps you should attend. Remember, the Japanese are giving us an ocean research vessel." She paused again. "And you might have a chance to talk with President Fujimori about your plans for the ship." That did it. I sighed and said, "You're rightas usual. It's just that I've also been invited that night to a party for Eric Giovannini." Eric had been my aide during the anti-terrorist campaign in the jungle. Maritza's reminder about the research vessel doomed me, though. Like all third-world countries, Peru often had to depend on the charity of others. "But the Japanese don't even know my name." "I've already taken care of that, mi almirante. A messenger is on his way from the embaGiampietri, Luis is the author of '41 Seconds to Freedom An Insider's Account of the Lima Hostage Crisis, 1996-97', published 2007 under ISBN 9780891419075 and ISBN 0891419071.