Resumen de El archivo de la Comisión de la Verdad y Reconciliación del Perú: ¿de quién son estas memorias?
Between 1980 and 2000, Peru went through a period of extreme political violence that confronted two subversive groups, Shining Path and the MRTA, against the forces of the state, and caused almost 70,000 casualties. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was formed in 2001 to investigate the causes of violence and the responsibilities for the human rights violations that took place during that period. In August, 2003, a Final Report was issued by the TRC and, shortly after, an archive with the documents produced during the two years of work was organized. This "Center of Information for Collective Memory and Human Rights" was placed under the jurisdiction of the Defensoría del Pueblo (Ombudsman Office) and began to offer its services to researchers and the general public in April 2004. This article discusses the formation, contents, and functioning of this archive, highlighting its importance in current efforts to both reconstruct the past and preserve individual and collective memories of the recent period of political violence in Peru.
