Authors: Mario Vargas Llosa
The Conspiracy of Requena
As the investigation into the events at Nauta moves forward, facts are being uncovered that revise the first versions published in the printed and electronic media. Each passing minute undermines the theory according to which the assault at Nauta and the crucifixion and the death of Olga Arellano Rosaura (a.k.a. the “Brazilian”) were a rite of “sacrifice and purification by blood” ordered by the Brotherhood of the Ark, a sect of which the seven suspects could have been mere instruments. As a result, the vehement campaign of our colleague Germán Láudano Rosales, on his program
The Voice of Sinchi
, defending the Brotherhood of the Ark and rejecting as false the criminals’ confession to having obeyed the orders of Brother Francisco, is taking on the appearance of the truth. Sinchi’s conjecture that the said confession is a tactic of the jailed men to lessen their guilt seems to be backed up by the facts. At the same time, the first interrogations that the accused have undergone in Iquitos—they arrived in this city yesterday by water from Nauta, where they had been detained since January 2—have also allowed the police and the PBI authorities to discard the other rumor that was circulating, according to which the assault at Nauta was a product of a moment’s inspiration, the result of the evil influence of alcohol, and to confirm, without any room for doubt, that it was planned with great premeditation, down to its smallest and most macabre details.
Apparently it all began some two weeks before the fateful date, at a social gathering—and not a religious one, as has been said—held in the most innocent way by a group of friends from the lively town of Requena. The party must have taken place last December 14, at the home of the former mayor of the town, Teófilo Morey, on the occasion of the latter’s fifty-fourth birthday. During the party, which was attended by all the accused (Artidoro Soma, 23; Nepumuceno Quilca, 31; Caifás Sancho, 28; Fabio Tapayuri, 26; Fabriciano Pizango, 32; and Renán Márquez Curichimba, 22), much liquor was consumed and all the persons named above reached a state of intoxication. It was during said party that former mayor Teófilo Morey, a person very well known in Requena for his sensual appetites, his taste for good food and spirits, as well as for similar things, threw out—according to the statements of several of the codefendants—the idea of ambushing a convoy of specialists en route to some military post in order to forcibly enjoy the charms of these misguided women. (As our readers will recall, the assailants first asserted that the idea of the assault had arisen during a nighttime mass at the Requena Ark, during which seven “brothers” were chosen by lot to execute the mission determined by all those attending the ceremony—more than one hundred, according to them.) The idea was received with approval and enthusiasm by the other accused. All of them have acknowledged that the topic of the specialists arose frequently in their lives and gatherings; that they had sent written protests on several occasions to the high command of the Army, requesting authorization for said loose women to receive civilian clientele in the Amazon towns through which they passed; and that once they even formed a committee, along with other young men from Requena, to the chief of the naval base at Santa Isabel, a neighboring town, to protest the monopoly, unfair in their opinion, that the armed forces had over those expeditions of strumpets. With this background, one can understand how former mayor Teófilo Morey’s suggestion, offering them the opportunity to give way to their pent-up desires, was received with rejoicing and genuine frenzy by the accused. It still has been impossible to determine whether the seven conspirators were followers of Brother Francisco and whether they frequently attended the clandestine rites of the Requena Ark, as has been said, or if this is completely false, as has been asserted by several apostles of the sect in communiqués released to the press from their hiding places and even countersigned by Brother Francisco himself (see p. 3, cols. 3 & 4). It is said that at that same party the seven friends got around to drawing up the preliminary plans and agreed to perpetrate their twisted plot far from Requena, so as not to compromise the town’s good name and to throw the authorities off their trail if there was an investigation. At the same time, they decided to make a clandestine check of the arrival dates for the next convoys of specialists to Nauta or Bagazán, whose outskirts they considered the most favorable for making their strike. Former mayor Morey offered to obtain the pertinent facts himself, thanks to the close association he had maintained, owing to his municipal post, with the officers of the Santa Isabel Base.
And setting to work without further ado, the accused perfected their plan in the course of two or three later meetings. Teófilo Morey, in fact, craftily managed to elicit from Navy First Lt. Germán Urioste the information that a river convoy of six specialists, proceeding from Iquitos, would pass through the posts of Nauta, Bagazán and Requena during the early days of January, with an arrival at the first of these points fixed for the day of the 2nd, around noon. Assembled again at the home of the former mayor, the seven individuals perfected their criminal plan, deciding to ambush the convoy on the outskirts of Nauta in order to make the victims and the police think that the perpetrators of the sexual assault were residents of that historic locality.
Apparently at this point they had conceived the idea of leaving a cross with a crucified animal as a red herring in the area near the ambush site in order to create the impression that the operation was the work of the “brothers” of the Nauta Ark. For this purpose, they equipped themselves with the necessary nails and hammers, never suspecting—so they assert—that chance was going to favor their plans horribly, offering them not an animal to crucify, but the body of a young and beautiful prostitute. The seven suspects decided to split up into two groups, each giving a different explanation to family and friends for his absence from Requena. Thus, a group composed of Teófilo Morey, Artidoro Soma, Nepumuceno Quilca and Renán Márquez Curichimba left the town on December 29, in an outboard motorboat belonging to the first of those above-named, causing everyone to believe that they were headed for Lake Carahuite, where they were thinking of spending the end-of-year holidays devoting themselves to the healthy sport of fishing for shad and
gamitana
. The other group—Caifás Sancho, Fabio Tapayuri and Fabriciano Pizango—only left at dawn on January 1, in a glider belonging to the third man, assuring acquaintances that they were going hunting in the vicinity of Bagazán, where a pack of marauding jaguars had recently been discovered not far from the town.
Just as they had planned, the two groups headed downstream toward Nauta, passing that town without stopping, exactly as they had done at Bagazán, since their objective was to reach, without being seen, a point situated some three kilometers below the source of the Amazon, our great river-sea, that is, the Cacique Cocama Bend, named for the legend which tells how on days of heavy downpour there can be seen floating near the shore in this area the ghost of the famous Cocama chieftain Manuel Pacaya—the same man who at the juncture of the Marañón and Ucayali rivers pioneered in founding the progressive town of Nauta on April 30, 1840. The seven accused had selected this site in spite of the fear the above-mentioned superstition inspired in some of them, because the abundant vegetation that covers part of the riverbed was very useful to their purpose of passing unperceived. The two groups met at the Cacique Cocama Bend at dusk on January 1, camping there on low-lying ground and enjoying themselves that night in a makeshift party. Cleverly, they had set out provisioned not only with revolvers, carbines, nails and blankets for sleeping, but also with bottles of anisette and beer for each one, which enabled them to get drunk, and meanwhile, doubtlessly very excited and garrulous, they grew ecstatic while thinking of the new day that would see their sick machinations and desires transformed into reality.
Piracy at Cacique Cocama Bend
From very early in the morning, the seven suspects were up in the trees, watching the waters of the Amazon. To keep a sharper eye on the river, they had provided themselves with binoculars, which were passed from hand to hand. They spent a good part of the day that way, because only at 4
P.M.
did Fabio Tapayuri glimpse in the distance the red and green colors of the boat
Eve
navigating the yellow waters of the river-sea with its coveted cargo. The individuals immediately proceeded to execute their crafty plan. While four of them—Teófilo Morey, Fabio Tapayuri, Fabriciano Pizango and Renán Márquez Curichimba—hid the motorboat in the undergrowth along the shore and remained hidden there themselves, Artidoro Soma, Nepumuceno Quilca and Caifás Sancho climbed into the glider and went out to the center of the current in order to play their shrewd scene. Moving at a very slow speed, they approached the
Eve
, while Soma and Quilca began to wave and shout loudly, asking for help for Caifás Sancho, who they said needed urgent medical attention for a snakebite. On hearing the suspects’ outcry, First Subofficer Carlos Rodríguez Saravia ordered the boat to a full stop and had them lift the sick man aboard the
Eve
(since it is provided with a small pharmacy), with the laudable purpose of giving help to the faker Caifás Sancho.
Scarcely had the three suspects managed by means of said ruse to get aboard, when they dropped their peaceful masks, took out the revolvers they had hidden on them and ordered Subofficer Rodríguez Saravia and his four men to obey their commands. While Artidoro Soma forced the group of six specialists (Luisa Cánepa, “Knockers” Juana Barbichi Lu, “Sandra” Eduviges Lauri, “Eduviges” Ernesta Sipote, “Loreta” María Carrasco Lunchu, “Flor” and the unfortunate Olga Arellano Rosaura, the “Brazilian”) and Juan Chupito Rivera, “Freckle,” who commanded the group, to remain locked in a cabin, Nepumuceno Quilca and Caifás Sancho, with gross insults and death threats, forced the crew of the
Eve
to start up the boat and head it into the bend, where the rest of the band were lying in wait. It was in these circumstances, while the maneuver ordered by the assailants was being executed, that the quick-witted helmsman, Isidoro Ahuanari Leiva, managed to leave the deck for a moment by means of an ingenious lie (a natural bodily function) and to enter the radio post and fire out a desperate S.O.S. to the Nauta Base, which, although it did not fully understand the message, decided to send a glider with a pilot and two soldiers downstream immediately to see what was happening to the
Eve
. The boat, meanwhile, had stopped at the Cacique Cocama Bend, a strategically selected site, since owing to the abundant underbrush, the
Eve
remained half hidden and was not easily recognizable from the center of the current by the fishermen’s launches and motorboats traveling our river-sea.
Cowardly Assault: Rapes and Wounds
One after the other, the steps of the criminals’ Machiavellian plot were carried out with mathematical precision. Once the boat was at the Cacique Cocama Bend, the four men who had remained on land hastened to climb aboard. Along with their companions in crime, they roughly bound and gagged Subofficer Rodríguez Saravia as well as the four crewmen, who they then locked, pushing and shoving, in the ship’s hold, saying hurriedly that they were there on orders from the Ark to teach a lesson on account of the sinful activities of the Special Service. Immediately, the seven pirates—who, according to the testimony of their victims, showed evidence of an advanced state of drunkenness and trembling nervousness—headed toward the cabin where they had locked up the specialists in order to satisfy their wild desires.
At that instant, the first bloody act occurred. Upon discovering the men’s criminal intentions, the adventuresses offered strong resistance, following the example of the brave Juan Chupito Rivera (“Freckle”), who, without becoming frightened and without holding back because of his short stature or physical weakness, rushed the pirates, butting and kicking while rebuking their bad conduct; but, unfortunately, his quixotic action did not last very long, since they quickly knocked him unconscious, hitting him with their revolver butts and kicking him to the floor until they mangled his face. A similar fate was suffered by Specialist Luisa Cánepa (“Knockers”), who also showed a great deal of strength, confronting the kidnappers like a man, scratching and biting them until they hit her with such force that she lost her senses. Once the resistance of the erring women was brought under control, the pirates forced them, at the point of their revolvers and carbines, to gratify their perverted desires, for which each assailant chose a victim, a fight almost breaking out among them when they all aspired to possess the unfortunate Olga Arellano Rosaura, who, finally, was given to Teófilo Morey in consideration of his greater age.
Shooting and Rescue: Specialist Beauty Dies
Meanwhile, during the space of time that the seven individuals were conducting their violent orgy, the glider sent from the naval base at Nauta had traveled a good stretch of the river without finding signs of the
Eve
. Its crew was preparing to return when the red glow of sunset miraculously permitted recognition of the boat’s red and green colors among the trees of the Cacique Cocama Bend in the distance. The glider headed immediately for a rendezvous and to the group’s stupefaction was greeted with a shower of bullets, one of which wounded Pvt. Felicio Tanchiva in the thigh and lower left buttock. Having barely recovered from the shock, the soldiers returned fire. An exchange of shooting then broke out that lasted for several minutes, during which time Olga Arellano Rosaura (the “Brazilian”) fell mortally wounded—from shots fired by the soldiers, according to the findings of the autopsy. Seeing that they were in the weaker position, the soldiers decided to return to Nauta in search of reinforcements.
When they observed that the patrol was departing, the criminals were seized by panic over the death that had occurred and showed great confusion. The first to react, apparently, was Teófilo Morey, who exhorted his buddies to stay calm, pointing out to them that while the patrol headed for Nauta, they had time not only to flee but even to carry out their plan. It was then that someone—it has not become clear who: Morey himself, according to some, Fabio Tapayuri, according to others—suggested that they crucify the “Brazilian” instead of an animal. The criminals proceeded to execute their bloody scheme, throwing the corpse of Olga Arellano Rosaura ashore and deciding not to construct a cross but to use any tree in order to save time. They were in the midst of their macabre work when four gliders full of soldiers became visible on the horizon. The criminals fled immediately, hiding in the undergrowth. Only two of them—Nepumuceno Quilca and Renán Márquez Curichimba—were captured at that time. Climbing aboard the
Eve
, the soldiers met with a spine-tingling spectacle: terrorized and semi-naked women running around in a state of hysteria, some with signs on their faces and bodies (“Knockers”) of having suffered extreme cruelty, and, a little farther on, a few steps from the shore, the beautiful body of Olga Arellano Rosaura nailed to the trunk of a tree. The shots had hit the hapless woman at the start of the skirmish, penetrating vital organs, such as the heart and brain, and instantaneously cutting short her days. The unlucky woman was taken down, covered with blankets and lifted onto the boat, in the midst of the other victims’ terror and frantic weeping.