In the late 1980’s, I was on temporary assignment from the El Paso Intelligence Center to the DEA Lima Country Office in support of Operation Snowcap. Operation Snowcap was a joint-operation between DEA and the government of Peru to identify and destroy cocaine laboratories and clandestine airfields primarily in Peru’s Upper Huallaga Valley. I did two 3-month tours in Snowcap in 1988 and 1989. We spent part of our time in Lima, and part of our time stationed at the forward base camp in the upper Huallaga valley, in the heart of the cocaine production area of Peru.
I arrived in Lima at around 2:00 pm on a Sunday after about 16 hours of travel as my flight took me from El Paso to Dallas, and then on to Lima. I made it through immigration and got to my hotel at around 3:30 in the afternoon. After dumping my stuff, I headed out to a restaurant located approximately 2 blocks from the hotel to get something to eat.
As you might expect, given the hour on a Sunday, the restaurant was fairly empty, with only three or four other tables occupied. But for some reason, the service took a lot longer than it should. I had only ordered a burger and fries, but it took forever to come out. Finally, after about 45 minutes, the waiter delivered a beautiful hamburger on a plate piled with fries. At that point, I was so hungry that I would have eaten anything, but this looked and smelled seriously good. Just as I grabbed the hamburger and raised it to my mouth, there was a terrible explosion that knocked the restaurant’s windows inward, sending glass in every direction.
The people in the restaurant – patrons and staff alike – began heading for the back exit as sirens started to blare. I followed suit and took off back to the hotel. As the panic slowly subsided, curiosity got the better of me and I circled back to the restaurant only to see a huge hole in the bank directly across the street from the restaurant. I would later learn that the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took responsibility for the bombing and that it had become their MO to place bombs in ATM machines.
I was halfway back to the hotel when I realized that I was still holding the uneaten hamburger in my hand. Even cold, that hamburger tasted pretty good.
A few months later, I was attending the Valentine’s Day party at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Lima. The residence was located right across the street from a large building that was occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is charged by the U.S. government with administering foreign aid. As we were all outside in the ambassador’s residence eating, drinking and dancing, somebody shot a shoulder-launched rocket right into the USAID building, which was largely empty at the time. A good portion of the people were so desensitized at that point that many did not even stop dancing.
I have been back to Peru dozens of times since then, and I can honestly say that none was quite as explosive as my first time.