The former head of the Army’s Intelligence Service, SIE, was arrested last Thursday for the 1996 murder of a SIE agent who was suspected of providing information to the press. Col. Carlos Edmundo Sánchez Noriega led the SIE from 1996 to 1997 and is accused of authorizing the murder of 28-year-old Mariela Barreto as part of Operation Tiger-96, daily La República reported.
According to the daily, the operation had the objective of “detecting, identifying, neutralizing and capturing military personnel that could be providing information to the press.”
Members of the Peruvian Navy who worked for SIE kidnapped Barreto in March 1996 under the orders of Vladimiro Montesinos, ex-President Alberto Fujimori’s former advisor. “After capturing her, Montesinos ordered her to be handed over to the SIE chief, Colonel Sánchez Noriega,” La República quoted General Juan Rivero Lazo saying in March 2001. Barreto’s dismembered body was later found on a road outside of Lima.
Along with Montesinos, the former chief of the Colina group death squad, Maj. Santiago Martin Rivas, was also tried for Barreto’s murder. Martin reportedly met Barreto in 1989 and had a daughter together shortly after. In 1994, Barreto separated from Martin.
