"Chavín de Huántar”
- Sandro Mairata
- Jan 6
- 7 min read
RATING: 3/5 | By Sandro Mairata @smairata / REFLEKTOR
“A film concerned with entertaining with military propaganda for easy applause in 90 minutes.”
“If the army gets involved, you have to take good care of it,” Diego de León, director of “Chavín de Huántar” and a Spanish national who has lived in Peru for thirteen years, told me when I asked him about the behind-the-scenes of his film. Does the Peruvian Army have the right to celebrate its achievements? Of course it does. And the vast majority of Peruvians are grateful for and recognize its victory over the handful of terrorists from the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) who, on Wednesday, December 17, 1996, at 8:20 p.m., stormed and took 600 people hostage at the residence of the Japanese ambassador to Peru, Morihisa Ahoki. Called the Hostage Crisis, the event lasted 126 days and ended on April 22, 1997, with the successful rescue of the 72 remaining captives thanks to an efficient military operation. In exchange for their ticket, viewers also deserve truths within the fiction surrounding such an important and specific historical event, not just propaganda.
Chavín de Huántar recounts the events leading up to and the outcome of the successful rescue from the official perspective of the Armed Forces and lends itself to being the mouthpiece for some false accounts that many will believe to be true. To this end, its producers argue that the film is “Inspired by Real Events,” a label that allows them to be more free—as they themselves explained to me—than the restrictive “Based on Real Events,” which would require greater verisimilitude.
Similarly, the names of the protagonists have been changed to circumvent legal issues—this is one of the shortcomings resulting from the lack of economic resources in Peru; with money to pay for rights and so on, we might have a somewhat more accurate account. In Richard Linklater's “Nouvelle Vague” (2025), we have François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Roberto Rosellini, and a wide range of real characters with their real names and surnames even written on the screen. How enviable.
I am not demanding a documentary either, but no: not all MRTA terrorists fell in combat in the style of “Saving Private Ryan” (1998; De León told me that this was the central reference point for his proposal). In fact, it was initially reported that eight of the fourteen terrorists were executed, after surrendering, with a shot to the back of the head, which was classified as aggravated homicide (1); testimonies indicate that two female MRTA members begged for mercy and were still killed (2). These events led to lengthy legal proceedings, but “Chavín de Huántar” predictably omits all of this, as if President Alberto Fujimori's decision was always to use force because it “hindered the work of the guarantors and the national and international organizations that were committed to a peaceful solution” and that the intervention was “designed from the Government Palace with the order to leave no survivors” (3).
Another example off the top of my head: false information is spread through a false context, the famous front page of the newspaper La República with the headline “The tunnel does exist” (although the name of the newspaper is altered on screens), reinforcing the repeated lie that it had “warned” the terrorists of the tunnel's existence. The front page is real, dated March 7, 1997, but two other newspapers, El Comercio (4) and Expreso (5), also ran the same story that day: that the MRTA already knew about the tunnel, which is why on March 6, Néstor Cerpa Cartolini, the leader of the commando, had announced the suspension of talks with the government (6).
That was the news, the end of the negotiations; no one had warned the MRTA about the construction of a tunnel that they already knew about. El Comercio even showed a “possible trajectory of the tunnel” with a map on the front page.
Verifying what is shown in “Chavín de Huántar” would be extensive (the MRTA member “Tito” almost escaped by mingling with the freed hostages, but was captured and then executed, etc., etc., etc. (7)). Even if we stick with fiction, focusing on the preparation of the operation, instead of a richly detailed account, we get military propaganda for easy applause in 90 minutes. The exploits of the Peruvian military are shown in slow motion and Michael Bay-style music video lighting, which does little to help the seriousness of the matter. Meanwhile, the terrorists are presented in broad strokes, evil for no reason and with a vague discourse about the “people's war” and “freeing political prisoners”—the MRTA came from radicalized factions of the APRA and Cerpa was a violent and military cadre, there was much to explore on the side of political motivations.
Rodrigo Sánchez Patiño plays Juan Valer, leader of the team that will rescue the hostages, who will be supported by Major Rivera (André Silva) and will report to Colonel Williams (Sergio Galliani). The real EP commander Juan Valer Sandoval, nicknamed “Chizito,” was a 39-year-old from Tumbes who had been in charge of the security of President Fujimori and his son Kenji since 1994 (8), but these details are also omitted.
Also omitted is the presence of Fujimori, his corrupt advisor Vladimiro Montesinos, and military figures such as General Nicolás de Bari Hermoza Ríos, Colonel Jesús Zamudio Aliaga, and Colonel Roberto Huamán Azcurra, all key names that, in the case of the military, are liquefied into the figure of Galliani's 'Colonel Williams,' who spends more time haranguing and spouting clichés than showing off his strategic skills. “Chavín de Huántar” also insists on the figure of Valer, leaving aside the other hero who fell in combat, Captain Raúl Jiménez. We are thus faced with a film that is more concerned with entertaining with basic, formulaic, and sugarcoated fiction than with seeking any reflection on the truth: there is not even a mention of the first aborted rescue attempt on Monday, 21st.
And what about the Red Cross mediator, Michel Minnig? There is something there. Of course, an ecclesiastical cardinal is shown (resembling the then Archbishop Juan Luis Cipriani, affiliated with the conservative Opus Dei), but the gesture of economist and Jesuit priest Juan Julio Wicht, who decided to voluntarily stay with the hostages—and whom Cipriani treated “coldly” (9)—is omitted. On the hostages' side, the narrative is driven by the figure of “Vice Admiral Rinaldi” (Carlos Thorton), an emulator of the real Admiral Luis Giampietri, who did indeed play a key role in the rescue, and “Foreign Minister Fernando Tavera” (Alfonso Dibós), representing Foreign Minister Francisco Tudela, who was protected by Valer in combat.
Chavín de Huántar reaches its peak in the eagerly awaited rescue scenes, which manage to thrill and move us, making us forget the poor opening scene of the explosion that brings the terrorists into the residence. Before that, the film navigates in a fairly standard way through the reconstruction of the commandos' training, their comings and goings, and adds a melodramatic touch to the love story of the Valer family, destined for tragedy. De León shows off his privileged access to real military facilities and the replica of the Japanese residence, which no longer exists today. Otherwise, we are dealing with an allegory, a fabrication that accommodates the facts to celebrate military success without thinking too much about it, without accepting questions from the viewer about the story on screen. In that sense, a film about a military operation with a similar theme is Kathryn Bigelow's “Zero Dark Thirty” (2013), about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The fact is that there is a profound betrayal of the spirit of “Saving Private Ryan.” In Spielberg's film, a heartbreaking, chaotic, and deeply human conflict provided the backdrop for violence and sacrifice to be shown without any idealization. Here, it is precisely an opportunity for self-promotion and sweeping the dirt under the rug. Let us remember that Fujimontesinism needed this victory: on April 6, 1997, Army Intelligence Service (SIE) agent
Leonor La Rosa reported that she had been tortured by members of her own institution. That same day, at kilometer 25 of the road to Canta, the dismembered body of her colleague, SIE agent Mariella Barreto, was found in a black plastic bag. Barreto was expecting a child by Major Santiago Martin Rivas, head of the criminal Colina Group, which was under Montesinos' command. On April 13, it was revealed that Montesinos was earning an average of US$40,000 per month as an advisor (10).
Is it worth sacrificing the truth to sell mutilated stories? Let's ask ourselves a better question: who benefits from this story? Chavín de Huántar will hit theaters in late 2025 and is expected to be available for streaming soon after, just a year before the 2026 elections, at a time when the Peruvian right wing is talking about “unleashing the kraken” in anticipation of Montesinos' release from prison in June of that same year.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that “in politics, nothing happens by accident. Whenever an event occurs, you can be sure that it was planned to happen that way.” Roosevelt was president of the United States for much of World War II, the real-life setting for the fictional events of “Saving Private Ryan”.
SOURCES:
1. Informe Final de la Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación Nacional, Las ejecuciones extrajudiciales en la residencia del Embajador de Japón (1997). P. 729 https://tinyurl.com/CVREmbajada97
2. The Canadian Encyclopedia, “End of Hostage Crisis in Lima” https://tinyurl.com/EndOfHostageCrisis
3. “Fujimori, la crisis de los rehenes del MRTA y la distinción amigo-enemigo : La conducta presidencial y la operación militar Chavín de Huántar, bajo la perspectiva conservadora de Carl Schmitt”. Orazio Potestá, 2016
4. Dedo Medio. https://tinyurl.com/LRyECTunel
6. Informe Final de la Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación Nacional, Las ejecuciones extrajudiciales en la residencia del Embajador de Japón (1997). P. 723 https://tinyurl.com/CVREmbajada97
7. Informe Final de la Comisión de la Verdad y la Reconciliación Nacional, Las ejecuciones extrajudiciales en la residencia del Embajador de Japón (1997). P. 732 https://tinyurl.com/CVREmbajada97
8. “Base Tokio: La crisis de los rehenes en el Perú”. Empresa Editora El Comercio, Lima, 1997. P. 236-237.
9. “Base Tokio: La crisis de los rehenes en el Perú”. Empresa Editora El Comercio, Lima, 1997. P. 147.
10. “Base Tokio: La crisis de los rehenes en el Perú”. Empresa Editora El Comercio, Lima, 1997. P. 181.
Year of Release: | 2025 |
Director | Diego de León |
Producer | Luis Guillermo Camacho |
Cast | Rodrigo Sánchez Patiño, André Silva, Miguel Iza, Connie Chaparro, Sergio Galliani, Alfonso Dibos, Cristhian Esquivel |
IMDB |
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