Santa massacre


 * For the 2008 massacre perpetrated by a man in a Santa Claus suit, see Covina massacre.

The Santa Massacre was a massacre of nine campesinos carried out by Grupo Colina in the Santa Province of the Ancash Region of Peru. The massacre occurred on May 2, 1992.

Carlos Alberto Barrientos Velásquez, Roberto Barrientos Velásquez, Denis Atilio Castillo Chávez, Federico Coquis Velásquez, Gilmer Ramiro León Velásquez, Pedro Pablo López Gonzáles, Jesús Manfredo Noriega Ríos, Carlos Martín Tarazona More, and Jorge Luis Tarazona More all died in the massacre.

After carrying out the massacre, members of Grupo Colina, a death squad operating out of the Army of Peru, painted pro-Shining Path graffiti as a false flag operation. All of the members of Grupo Colina have since been jailed.

The victims of the massacre were finally exhumed and identified in August 2011 and buried in late November of the same year with the Peruvian government formally apologizing to the relatives of the victims in name of the state.