[4] On 17 May 1980, a militant group called the Shining Path, the Communist Party of Peru,[a] began its guerrilla war against the Peruvian government by burning ballot boxes in Chuschi, Ayacucho.

[3] In subsequent statements to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), Estanislao described the men who stormed the Mendoza residence and seized their son:[6] ... there were some who were dressed in military uniform, green, chevrons on the shoulder and wearing balaclavas.

Some carried weapons on their shoulders and others pointed to them ...Loaded into a truck with other detainees, Arquímedes was taken to the Los Cabitos Barracks in Ayacucho where the military tortured and executed detained persons.

[7] According to later testimony to the CVR at a public hearing in Ayacucho, one of the soldiers that kidnapped Arquímedes told Mendoza that she could visit the Los Cabitos Barracks the next day to retrieve her son and that they were merely taking statements from their detainees as "witnesses.

[3][4] On 3 February 1985, Pope John Paul II visited Ayacucho to implore the communist insurgents to reconcile with the government and donated $50,000 to aid war orphans.

[12] Later that year, the ANFASEP successfully mounted its first march from the Plaza of Arms in Ayacucho, of which Nobel Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel took part.

Provisional President Valentín Paniagua created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Peru to meet the demands of the people but ultimately was unable to because of the stalling of his bureaucracy.

[17][7] In the afternoon of 28 August 2017, two weeks after the hearing that sentenced the perpetrators of the Los Cabitos Barracks to prison, Mendoza, aged 87, died in her home due to complications related to pneumonia.

[10] Upon learning of Mendoza's death, Gloria Cano, the lawyer who represented the victims of the Los Cabitos Barracks staff, wrote on her Facebook page, "You achieved the unity of your relatives with your struggle, you managed to get the truth to be known and to condemn two of those responsible.