Why Soldiers Rape:
Wartime Sexual Violence in Peru
Michele Leiby
PhD Candidate
University of New Mexico
www.MicheleLeiby.com
Study Background
• Case selection
• SV in Peru is systematic, not opportunistic
– SV is gender-based violence
– SV is one component of repressive counterinsurgency strategy
• How is SV used to advance military & political
goals
Data
• Based on >2,000 testimonies from the CVR
• Demographic data on victims and perpetrators
of violence, and contextual details on when,
where and how the violence was perpetrated
• 20,089 violations (victim-violationperpetrator)
• 14,662 unique victims
Human Rights Violations
battle
death
1%
forced recruitment
injury
1%
2%
massacre
26%
SV
4%
battle massacre
4%
disappearance
5%
detention
13%
kidnapping
16%
extrajudicial execution
14%
torture
14%
Sexual Violations
unspecified
4%
sexual humiliation
33%
mutilation
4%
attempt/threat of SV
5%
sexual torture
11%
gang rape
12%
rape
31%
Location and Context
~ Sexual Violence
Sexual violence
• Public spaces
• Private spaces
•
•
•
•
•
Comm. Plaza
Street
Market
School
Church
• Not in detention
• Not during
interrogation
• Private residence
• Woods/Mtns.
• Abandoned Bldgs.
• Often in detention
• Sometimes during
interrogation
Victims and Survivors
~ SV Victim Profile
SV Victim Profile
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Male
Young adult – middle age
Elementary education, literate
Spoke Spanish and Quechua
Peasant
Peasant orgs, co-ops
• “traitor” and “terrorist”
Female
Single
University education
Spoke only Spanish
Housewife
Labor unions, assistance orgs,
religious/cultural orgs
• “terrorist”
• More likely to be prev. victimized,
know someone who was, or witness
prev. crime
Content Analysis
• How did the victim come to be targeted for SV
• What was s/he doing at the time of the initial
capture
• What, if any, events preceded the attack
• What language did the perpetrators use
during the attack
Generalized Terror
Campaigns*
Individual Punishment
4%
30%
Victor’s
Story
Fortuna
and Percy’s
Story
Group Punishment
Interrogation/Confession
20%
11%
Ciprian’s
Story
Arturo and
Irene’s
Story
Victor
• Before the community was peaceful until the SL
arrived. They forced people to support them and said
they would be killed if they refused. Victor was on black
list for refusing the help. One night, SL entered Victor’s
house, tied him up and took him away. They beat him
and threatened to kill him, but later let him go. A few
months later, the military and CAD captured Victor and
took him to the plaza. They stripped him in front of
everyone and gave his clothes away to other
community members. They brutally tortured him. They
then put a bag over his head and took him away and
killed him. (CVR Testimony 500173)
Fortuna and Percy
• SL arrived and Fortuna invited him in for breakfast. He ate fast and
said he was going to the mountains. Three minutes later he
returned and said ‘Escape! They’re coming!’ The military surrounded
the house and saw the SL leave out the back door. The soldiers
entered the house and asked Fortuna where the terrorist went and
where they were hiding their weapons. …They stripped her and beat
her, broke her arm. The soldiers separated Fortuna and Percy. They
threw her on the table in the living room. She was tortured by 4 or 5
members of the military force who put a hot iron inside her vagina
and rectum while they asked her about her son, the ‘terruco.’ After
they were done with her, they poured fuel all over her body and
torched her…The soldiers turned their attention to Percy, they took
turns torturing him. One of them was called ‘negro,’ a tall black
man, who burned Percy’s body with a cigarette and cut off his
penis….They were tortured from 7:30am to midday. The soldiers
then set the house of fire and fled.
Ciprian
• During this time there was constant threat of SL
actions. Many people were displaced from the
community; those that didn’t obey their orders were
killed. There were about 100-200 SL in the area; they
totally dominated the area. The army had bases in
Machente and San Francisco and patrolled the zone.
Under the pretext of looking for SL, they detained and
killed a lot of people. On July 7, 1984, the SL captured
and killed a soldier who was out on patrol. Afterwards,
the military entered the community and gathered
everyone by force. They took 43 people who were
thought to be in favor of the SL and took them to the
community plaza, where they were stripped and
beaten. Five women were raped. Later the bodies of 31
of those captured were found in a neighboring village.
Arturo and Irene
• Arturo and his wife were detained December 1,
1991. They were captured in their home by
DINCOTE, who accused them of being members of
the MRTA. They were taken to the beach, where
they were stripped and tortured. The police told
Arturo that if he didn’t cooperate with them and
tell them what they wanted to know, they would
rape Irene. But Arturo didn’t know what to say, so
the police raped Irene. They kept asking him
questions about the names of his comrades and
where they kept their weapons, while forcing him
to watch the abuse of his wife. When Arturo tried
to stop them, the police beat him until he was
unconscious.
• We used bad language to humiliate and break our targets.
We would call her ‘chola fea,’ ‘chola apestosa,’ ‘la chola no
sirve’. (CVR Testimony 200145)
• They said horrible things to me. They said, ‘Hey, prostitute!
How many men do you throw down with every day? How
many men take you, prostitute?’ (CVR Testimony 700020)
• Oye machorra! (CVR Testimony 200314)
• The DINCOTE officers brought in two policewomen. They
came up to me; I was hung by my wrists naked. The female
officers approached and began to make fun of me. They
pulled on my penis and laughed, saying ‘Look at this poor
fool; it’s so tiny. How can you call yourself a man; you are not
a man.’ I was humiliated. (CVR Testimony 720038)
Conclusions
• Wartime SV is complex and may serve
multiple, simultaneous functions in different
conflict zones and at different stages of the
war
• Viability of content analysis for imputing
motives