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Cerpa had let hundreds of the original hostages walk out the door, but he kept a tight grip on the 72 he valued most: senior Peruvian officials, Fujimori's brother Pedro, foreign diplomats and the Japanese ambassador. The Peruvian President assumed that he would eventually have to fight to get them back. "The talks with the guerrillas weren't going to go anywhere," says a high-ranking Peruvian military official. "As soon as the tunnel and the commandos were ready, so was he." Britain, Germany and Israel offered to help, as did the U.S., but all were turned down. "There are some things we Peruvians can do better than the U.S.," Fujimori told TIME in an exclusive interview conducted late Saturday night. "Compare this with Waco." Although Fujimori had promised to inform Japan before making any military move, he didn't want to risk a leak. Also he wasn't sure the Japanese government would share his resolve. "I'm a person who takes audacious measures," he said. "I take responsibility. Challenges are part of my life."
So Fujimori went it alone. He first set Feb. 15 as D-day for the assault, the military official told TIME. But the February attack was called off because the guerrillas and hostages were shifting positions inside the building and intelligence could not pinpoint them. He then chose a date in early March, which was put on hold after Cerpa either heard the noise of the tunnel construction--the army tried to mask it with martial music on blaring loudspeakers--or was tipped off about the digging. Cerpa halted talks with the government's mediators and moved the hostages upstairs.
After Fujimori set the date for last week's assault, the army managed to smuggle at least 11 listening devices into the residence. Some were tiny, matchstick-size two-way microphones that allowed intelligence officers to communicate with the military and police commanders being held inside. The gizmos were carried into the building four days before the raid by intelligence agents posing as government doctors there to check on the hostages' health. The devices were supplied by the cia, according to the military official, and were concealed in personal items, like books, guitars and thermos bottles, that were supposedly sent in by families. Hostages signaled by opening curtains when it was safe to communicate.
When Fujimori gave the go order last week, the commandos did not attack immediately. They spoke to their colleagues inside, telling them they had 10 minutes to pass the word to the other hostages to get down and take cover. And they had a special request: try to open a heavy, metal-reinforced door leading to the balcony outside the master bedroom. The Peruvians whispered their warnings to the others, including Bolivian Ambassador Jorge Gumucio Granier. The news startled Gumucio, who instantly remembered that the guerrillas had practiced more than 20 times how they would react to a raid--by tossing grenades into the rooms the hostages occupied. Gumucio did not remember later how many minutes he waited for the attack to begin, but he said, "To me it was an eternity." Juan Julio Wicht, a Jesuit priest who had stayed on in the residence despite an offer of freedom, got the word that rescuers were coming in but dismissed it as black humor.