Creating a Bright Future Today for

Children, Women, Men & Families

Latin America

Women & Children at Risk

Topic:

Child Rape Case Profile - Ecuador, Peru Columbia

Assailant:

Pedro Alonzo Lopez

Article Title:

Pedro Lopez: The "Monster of the Andes"

Publisher:

Author:

David Lohr

Publish Date:

URL:

http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/pedro_lopez/1.html

Note:

CourtTV has posted crime author David Lohr's 7 chapter factual history of the case of mass serial child rapist and murderer Pedro Alonzo Lopez on its web site. Chapter 3 and 4 are excerpted here.

Pedro Alonzo Lopez confessed to the kidnapping, torture, rape and murder of over 300 girls between the ages of 8 and 12. Roughly 100 girls were killed in each of three countries: Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

Excerpt from David Lohr's story:

[Ecuadorian director of prison affairs, Victor] Lascano, later explained: “If someone confesses to 53 you find, and hundreds more, you tend to believe what he says.” Lascano also told reporters that, “I think his estimate of 300 is very low.”

LibertadLatina would like to take the opportunity to emphasize that girl children, and especially indigenous girl children (see below) are subjected to kidnapping, rape, murder and sale into the years-long hell of forced sexual trafficking and prostitution (ongoing forced child rape) by the hundreds of thousands across Latin America.

Major U.S. and Latin American Spanish language TV networks such as Telemundo have run numerous stories showing film footage of indigenous communities in Honduras, Ecuador and Mexico, among other countries, where crowds have lynched accused child rapists. (note: In November, 2004 two undercover Mexican federal police officers staking out a school were assumed to be child kidnappers and were lynched.)

Pedro Alonzo Lopez was saved from such a lynching in Peru, only to continue his child rape and murder spree.

Although Pedro Alonzo Lopez was convicted in Ecuador in 1980, conditions for girl children in Latin America remain extremely dangerous, especially for indigenous girls who face kidnapping and murder largely because of social and institutional racism that cause law enforcement and government to reject protecting them from impunity.

An Ecuadorian court sentenced Pedro Alonzo Lopez to Life in Prison (with a possibility of Parole) in 1980. If released, he will stand trial in Colombia and/or Peru.

May the many victims rest in peace.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

December 5, 2004

CourtTV's case abstract:

Pedro Lopez:
"The Monster of the Andes" murdered some 300 or more little girls as he roamed the poor neighborhoods of Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. He boasts now that he is the "Man of the Century," that no one will ever forget.

Excerpt - Chapter 3 - A Madman Captured

Upon his release from prison in 1978, Pedro traveled widely throughout Peru. It was during this time that he later claimed to have begun stalking and killing at least 100 young girls from various Indian tribes throughout the region. While it is impossible to verify these claims, it is known that he was captured by a group of Ayacuchos, in northern Peru, while attempting to kidnap a 9-year-old girl. The Indians stripped and tortured Pedro for hours before deciding to bury him alive. Nonetheless, luck was apparently on his side, because an American missionary intervened and convinced his captors that murder was ungodly and that they should turn Pedro over to the proper authorities. They reluctantly agreed and remanded their prisoner over to the Peruvian authorities. Not wanting to waste time investigating petty Indian complaints, the Peruvian Government deported Pedro back to Ecuador.

Following his return to Ecuador, Pedro began traveling extensively around the region, including frequent stops in Colombia. Authorities soon began to notice an increase in missing persons cases involving young girls, however they quickly concluded that they were due to the growing South American sex slave rings.

Excerpt - Chapter 4: Horrid Revelations

...Once back at police headquarters, Pedro refused to cooperate with authorities and remained silent throughout their lines of questioning. Investigators soon realized that they would have to employ a different strategy in order to get their suspect to talk. One of the officers soon suggested that they dress up a local priest, Father Cordoba Gudino, in prison garb and place him in a cell with Pedro. The plan was for Father Gudino to win the suspect’s confidence and get him to discuss his crime.

It did not take long for Pedro to begin talking, and by the next day he had revealed such repulsive acts of violence to the padre, that he could hear no more and asked to be taken out of the cell. Following a brief interview with Father Gudino, investigators confronted Pedro with their newly acquired evidence and he finally broke down.

Pedro confessed to investigators that he had murdered at least 110 girls in Ecuador, 100 in Colombia, and “many more than 100” in Peru. “I like the girls in Ecuador,” he told them. “They are more gentle and trusting, more innocent. They are not as suspicious of strangers as Colombian girls.” In the course of his confessions, Pedro blamed his crimes on his hard life and lonely adolescence. “I lost my innocence at age eight,” he explained, “so I decided to do the same to as many young girls as I could.” When asked how he was able to pull off his self-professed crimes, Pedro informed them that he often times trolled village markets for selected targets with “a certain look of innocence.” He always searched for his victims in full daylight, because he did not want darkness to hide their throes of death from him. When asked what he meant by this, Pedro explained that he would first rape his victim, and then strangle them as he stared into their eyes. He claimed to feel deep pleasure and sexual excitement watching their life fade before him. He went on to state that the horror would even continue after their death - he would often times act out gruesome tea parties with the bodies of the dead little girls - propping them up and talking to them.

Police were initially skeptical of Pedro’s grisly, almost incredible confessions, and liaisons with Peru and Colombia were unable to substantiate them. As Pedro realized that investigators doubted the truthfulness of his claims, he offered to lead them to several burial spots throughout the country. With little else that they could do, investigators agreed and put the plan into action.