Immigration Agents Capture 5 Alleged Human Rights Violators Hiding Out In Bay Area
(CBS SF) -- Federal agents arrested 50 international fugitives nationwide this week, including five from the Bay Area, accused of committing human right violations in their home countries.
Among those arrested in the Bay Area include Roberto Ferrer "Miranda" Alvarado, a man from Peru who served as an interpreter for the Peruvian Civil Guard in the 1980s, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said Thursday.
As a native speaker of Quechua and Spanish, Miranda's assignment included working in a Quechua-speaking neighborhood to prevent the infiltration by the Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path"). He allegedly served as an interpreter for other Civil Guard officers who interrogated suspected Shining Path members, often with electric shock and other torturous means.
Miranda sought asylum in the United States, but a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied his petition. In the 2006 hearing, Miranda said he witnessed acts of torture but denied personally executing them.
"Many times in a closed room with sand, electrical current was passed into their hands or feet," and the interrogees "shouted and gave expressions of pain," he said.
Miranda resigned from the Civil Guard six years after the interrogations began. He asserts he did "because I didn't want to belong anymore because I didn't like how the people doing the interrogations abused the Shining Path members."
But an immigration judge saw it differently.
"Even if Mr. Miranda did not interrogate Shining Path detainees and apply electric shocks or beat them, he was a necessary part of the interrogation. Without his services as a Quechua interpreter, the interrogations could not proceed," the judge was quoted in the hearing.
In a press release Thursday, ICE officials said they also arrested an individual accused of executing the forced disappearance of civilians while serving in a Central American military unit.
All five of the individuals remain in ICE custody and are awaiting removal to their native countries.
ICE routinely investigates human rights violators attempting evade justice in their home counties by seeking refuge in the United States.
Nicole Jones is a digital producer for CBS San Francisco. Follow her musings @nicjonestweets
