Terrorists’ Most Effective Tool: Total Surprise

The target was as tough as it gets: a fancy reception in a well-guarded, high-walled mansion attended by hundreds of diplomats and politicians with bodyguards in tow.

But as witnesses and former hostages recalled Wednesday, the attack on the residence of the Japanese ambassador here was an equally tough display of nerve and skill.

The gunmen of Peru’s Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, invaded the fortress-like compound Tuesday night in a sophisticated, meticulous operation with cinematic touches--disguises, bullets hidden in desserts.

And now they are barricaded inside, holding as many as 490 VIP hostages and defying the world.

“It was incredible,” said a Spanish bodyguard who identified himself as Paco, his expression mixing awe and anger. “These guys knew what they were doing.”

He recalled the attack Wednesday as he stood with other Spanish diplomatic security guards near the cordoned-off perimeter where Peruvian sharpshooters had surrounded the ambassador’s residence. The tough-looking security expert wore a sport shirt, medallions on his chest and a semiautomatic pistol on his hip.

On Tuesday night, the bodyguard had accompanied Spain’s deputy ambassador to the gala reception in honor of the birthday of Japan’s Emperor Akihito.

Because Japan has played a major role in the economic renaissance led by President Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, the reception was one of the hottest tickets in town.

About 8:15 p.m., the Spanish bodyguard was standing by a bullet-proof Mercedes when a bomb went off, shaking the car. Then withering gunfire erupted from the area of the mansion.

“The bullets were hitting the sidewalk around us, and we didn’t know where they came from,” he recalled. “Everybody was shooting, and we didn’t know who we were shooting at.”

Inside, two teams of guerrillas had struck.

One team had gotten past the Japanese Embassy security guards, who have a reputation here for efficiency; the gunmen tricked security forces by posing as waiters and deliverymen setting up for the reception. They smuggled in gas masks, pistols, automatic rifles and ammunition hidden in boxes of panettone, a traditional Italian Christmas cake. Others arrived dressed as doctors in a phony ambulance.

The second Tupac Amaru team set off three explosions--blowing down a wall from an adjacent yard, according to one version. They charged into the midst of the 800 guests on the lawn--looking fearsome with red-and-white kerchiefs bearing the Tupac logo covering their faces--and shouted political slogans.

The firefight with police and plainclothes bodyguards in the street outside went on for half an hour. Miraculously, no one was killed.

The guests spent the next hour lying face down, terrified. Once the guerrillas had established control they strode about, warning their victims not to look up and calling out the names of congressmen, ministers and other powerful hostages. They were confirming that they had caught the roster of dignitaries they had set out to take hostage.

But the poised young men in dark clothes were not vicious. Former hostages agreed that some were even gentlemanly. One guerrilla noticed that foreign correspondent Sally Bowen was choking and spluttering, overcome by tear gas fired by the Peruvian police before they retreated. He dipped his handkerchief in water and helped her dry her eyes.

And when the gunmen announced that they would release the hundreds of women among the hostages--including the president’s mother and sister--Bowen, a veteran correspondent for the Financial Times, asked for and got a brief interview with the commander of the attack squad. He impressed her.

“He spoke very fluently,” said a weary Bowen in one of many interviews she gave Wednesday. “He seemed very sure of what he was about. He had his arguments well-prepared. He was not frightening, because he was very calm.”

The guerrilla leader, calling himself Commander Huerta, declared that Tupac had targeted the Japanese ambassador because the leftist, pro-Castro group accuses Japan of meddling in Peruvian affairs and supporting economic policies that have caused poverty and hunger here.

Bowen left with the impression that the government has run up against a daunting opponent.

“They have 250 top people as hostages,” she said. “This is the propaganda feat of the century for the MRTA.”

Showing its usual flair for public relations, the guerrilla group Wednesday used the media to maximum advantage.

The group let the hostages send out a letter calling for calm and explaining how the gunmen had positioned them as human shields in front of the first- and second-story windows of the mansion.

Though their tone was calm and laconic during telephone interviews, the guerrillas sounded occasionally chilling. They warned that they had mined the grounds with explosives and were prepared to die along with the hostages.

During a tense moment Wednesday morning, a television interviewer asked Huerta if the captives were unharmed. He responded: “Right now they are. But in an hour they might not be.”