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The Troubled History behind
Bel Canto
Although both the novel and the opera are works of
fiction,
composer Jimmy López, a native of Peru, felt it was important for
the opera to allude to some of the actual events that inspired
Bel Canto
.
On December 17, 1996, the home of Japanese ambassador Morihisha Aoki in
Lima, Peru, overflowed with illustrious guests—government ministers, Supreme
Court justices, and Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori’s mother, sister, and
brother. They were assembled to celebrate the 63
rd
birthday of Emperor
Akihito. In the midst of the festivities, fourteen masked members of Marxist
rebel group MRTA blasted a hole in the garden wall and took everyone
present hostage. “This is the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement,” a voice
announced. “Obey and nothing will happen to you.”
Ambassador Aoki pleaded with the guerrillas to free his guests. “I, alone,” he
said, “am important enough for you to bargain with.” But although the rebels
would release many hostages in the weeks to come, for 72 people it was the
start of an ordeal that would last four months. The rebels demanded, among
other things, the release of several hundred of their MRTA comrades from
prison, including rebel leader Nèstor Cerpa’s wife. Cerpa said they would
start killing captives if President Fujimori did not appear for face-to-face talks.
But when their deadline came and went, Cerpa backed down. “We’re not
killers,” he told one of the hostages.
Fujimori did assemble a negotiation team, which included the Peruvian
archbishop and Red Cross, as well as the Canadian ambassador, Anthony
Vincent, who had briefly been a hostage himself. Nevertheless, the
government repeatedly rejected the militants’ demand to release imprisoned
MRTA members and secretly laid plans to storm the residence.
As portrayed in
Bel Canto
, most of the rebels occupying the residence were
young and unseasoned—many only in their teens. As the weeks dragged
on, one of the hostages remembers seeing one of the teenage soldiers
crying. When he asked her what was wrong, she said she was homesick.
Other hostages requested a guitar for some of the rebels who wanted to
learn how to play; it was brought in by the Red Cross. Later, a Peruvian
newspaper would report that a microphone placed inside the instrument
had helped government officials
monitor the rebels’ activities inside
the mansion. Former hostage
Rodolfo Munante Sanguinetti,
Peru’s minister of agriculture,
said that while in captivity he’d
spoken often to the rebels about
government projects he’d worked
to accomplish in the country’s
impoverished farming regions. At
one point he observed that one of
the rebels liked to draw. Munante
offered advice to the teen on his
artwork. Also, as in the opera, the
rebels did play soccer in the house
and were doing so when the raid
began.
On April 22, 1997, four months
into the siege, military commandos
raided the residence. In the event of a government attack, the rebels had
orders to kill their captives immediately. Munante remembers lying on the
floor, plaster raining down from explosives detonated by the military and the
young man he’d helped with his drawing aiming his gun at him. “He was
going to shoot me,” said Munante. “But he didn’t.” The rebel lowered his gun
and left the room. He and the rest of the MRTA rebels were killed. One of the
hostages and two commandos also lost their lives.
Photographs of the president walking among the headless bodies of the rebels
were broadcast on television. Following the mission, Fujimori’s popularity ratings
doubled to nearly 70 percent. But rumors began to circulate that surrendered
MRTA members had been summarily executed. According to a Defense
Intelligence Agency report, Fujimori had ordered the commandos to “take
no MRTA alive.” Twelve years later, in 2009, Fujimori was convicted of murder,
aggravated kidnapping, and battery, as well as crimes against humanity for
human rights violations committed during his time in office.
MRTA guerrillas in the Japanese Embassy, Lima,
Peru, 1996.