A Miami federal judge has ordered a retired Peruvian army major to pay $37 million for his role in the 1985 massacre of 72 peasants in a remote Andean village during Peru’s internal conflict with Shining Path and MRTA guerrillas, daily Correo reported.
Maj. Telmo Hurtado was the defendant in a civil trial in the United States which was brought against him by the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability, CAJ, in early February.
According to the Associated Press, the judge had previously found Hurtado guilty of committing torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The damages were awarded to two women, who were both 12 years old when soldiers executed their mothers and siblings in the town of Accomarca, located 240 miles southeast of Lima in Ayacucho Department.
The massacre was part of a military counter-insurgency strategy that repeatedly violated human rights.
