History - 1970s: Violations move outside the prison walls
By the late 1970s, Amnesty International reports were exposing the widespread pattern of political killings and "disappearances" across Latin America and elsewhere.
Human rights violations had moved outside prison walls.
More that 20,000 people were reported killed by death squads in Guatemala between 1966 and 1978. Amnesty named at least 2,665 people who were "disappeared" in the first three years of military rule in Argentina. In Cambodia during 1975-1979, unimaginable numbers of people were killed under Khmer Rouge rule.
In one instance, Amnesty reported in 1985 that more than 1,000 men, women and children - mostly Indigenous peasants - had been "disappeared" in one area of Peru after being seized by government troops and police.
This report was widely publicized across Peru. One magazine published Amnesty's findings in Spanish. The report was also discussed on TV and widely available in news kiosks.
At first, Peruvian officials dismissed Amnesty as a "Communist organization" and attacked the report's contents. But journalists used the report to keep asking questions. Public debate intensified.
Finally, officials began to admit "isolated" excesses and agreed to investigate the allegations. At least for a moment, Amnesty International had helped re-appear - forced out into the light of public accountability - the horror of "disappearances" in Peru.