bout de papier, Vol. 23, No. 3 (2008), pp. 17–18
THE AMBASSADOR’S WORD —
HOSTAGE CRISIS IN PERU, 1996-1997
by David J. Goldfield, Penumbra Press,
2007, 168 pp., $27.95.
Big and little heroes/heroines of the Canadian Foreign Service are at work every day in or out of Ottawa engaged in the many crises of our global village. Occasionally an event occurs and someone steps up to the plate to become that day’s media story. So it happened to Tony Vincent in Lima on December 17, 1996 in the midst of a national day of celebration at the Japanese Embassy. On the spot he gave, and then kept, his word to act as guarantor for the terrorists holding 380 high profile guests-turned-hostages (including government ministers) in their negotiations with the Peruvian government of President Fujimori. In an instant Anthony (Tony) Vincent went from departmental disgrace/victim to redemption in glory. Before this newly released account of Tony’s role as mediator extraordinaire, the only lasting public memory of his life had been the “Anthony Vincent Park” in Manor Park in Ottawa where a bronze plaque tells curious dog walkers —
Anthony Vincent, 1939-1999, community leader and diplomat, was Canada’s ambassador to Peru in 1996 when he, his wife Lucie and more than 500 others were taken hostage at the Japanese Embassy. Ambassador Vincent was released to negotiate with the Peruvian Government, returning to the embassy on numerous occasions despite personal risk. He received Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal and the admiration of his friends, neighbours and colleagues.
Tony’s story of those days in Lima has now been brought vividly to life by David Goldfield in his book The Ambassador’s Word. The book was launched by Assistant Deputy Minister for the Americas, Peter Boehm, on December 12, 2007 to a packed audience in the Cadieux Auditorium of DFAIT headquarters. David recounted how upon his own return from Peru in 1999 he had first learned about Tony from his widow, Lucie, while participating in community events following Tony’s death. Through Lucie, David learnt of Tony’s suffering in the aftermath of the Al-Mashat affair and of his subsequent restoration to grace by a new government when he was appointed Canadian ambassador to Lima.
The setting of the story is the embattled Andean country of Peru where President Fujimori was determined to crush by any means a violent and largely indigenous guerilla movement — the Movimento Revoluciario Tupac Amaru (MRTA). Tony was the only one of the five diplomats, released by the hostage takers the morning following the terrorist takeover, to keep his word to act as their guarantor with President Fujimori. The mother and sister of the president had already been released at midnight.
Fourteen guerillas had pulled off an incredibly daring and ingeniously planned operation and had galvanized the attention of all Peru and the international press. Tony’s agreement to act as guarantor/mediator was accepted by the Canadian government with some hesitation. He shared this long drawn out, nerve-racking task with the then Archbishop of Lima, now Cardinal Archbishop Cipriani, and the local representative of the International Red Cross, Michel Minnig. Tony and his colleagues shuttled regularly between the armed and nervous hostage takers within the Japanese embassy, through the heavily armed military and media perimeter without, and over to various government offices, or home to shower, shave and sleep. David Goldfield delivers close-up portraits, not only of Ambassador Vincent, but also of the guerilla “commandante” his troops, President Fujimori and his notorious Minister of the Interior, Montesinos. Throughout the story we share the hesitations concerning the good faith of the bout de papier Vol.
Peruvian government which gnaw constantly at the guarantors.
On the basis of many interviews and meticulous research, David has written a gripping chronicle of what was in 1996 the most sensational hostage crisis since Israeli citizens were seized by President Idi Amin at Entebbe airport in Uganda in 1976. The four month long stand-off in Lima between determined guerillas and a humiliated Peruvian government, anxious to restore the “tough on terrorism” image it created to defeat the Sendero Luminoso threat, generated incendiary tensions on all sides. We share this tension in the gripping dialogues in meetings between and among the President, the guarantors, and the terrorists. In one instance on page 121, during a chat between the Archbishop and the leader of the terrorists, Nestor Cerpa, we glimpse the personal drama of Cerpa who had asked the Archbishop to hand a note to his two sons in Paris which read “Have faith in me. If I ever leave this place it will mean that your wish has come true. It will mean that your mother has been released from prison. …” So this was the key to releasing the hostages
– to release Nancy Gilvonio, whose name headed each of Cerpa’s lists of hostages to be exchanged. The Archbishop then pleaded with the President to release Nancy along with some others but was told by President Fujimori instead, “I don’t think it will be acceptable to release Nancy. She is a terrorist.” And so the story rolls on through more weeks of anxious, useless negotiations to the finale – the slaughter of all the terrorists. Perhaps the next installment from David will be the tragic love story of Nestor Cerpa and his beloved wife, Nancy, who remains in the dreadful bleak mountain prison from whose confines Nestor and his followers gave their lives to release her.
David draws a fast moving, exciting tale which confirms for Canadian diplomats the role which they could be called upon to play anywhere in the world at a moment’s notice. This is a story waiting for the action packed movie edition in a theatre near you.
The author David Goldfield is an Ottawa native and this is his first book. He has had a varied career in international business and currently is CEO of a company specializing in Latin American investments. He was most recently Regional Director for Latin America at Export Development Canada (EDC).
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 23, No. 3 (2008), pp. 17–18. Read the rest of this issue →
