[citation needed] At the beginning of his 1985–1990 term, President Alan García demonstrated an interest in changing the counter-subversive strategy of his predecessor, Fernando Belaúnde Terry, with the purpose of reducing human rights violations against the civilian population, by calling on the civil society to propose solutions to the problem of political violence in Peru.

Nevertheless, his government authorized a swift and violent takeover of the prisons to regain control, placing Peru's human rights violations back into the national and international spotlight.

The riots took place while a congress of the Socialist International, of which Alan García's APRA political party was a member, was being conducted in Lima.

The government of Peru sent a negotiating commission formed by Caesar Samamé, Augusto Rodriguez Rabanal and Fernando Cabieses, arriving at El Frontón Prison at 4:30 PM.

[6] Later, the Navy, with Naval Infantry support, attacked the "Blue Ward" of El Frontón, which was where Shining Path guerrilla members were imprisoned.

Hours later, numerous prisoners that occupied the building lay dead: most had been executed, one by one, by a shot to the nape of the neck.

During President García's delayed visit to the scene of the events, he declared that there were two possibilities: "either they [the authors of the massacre] go or I go."

The ensuing international outrage exerted enormous pressure on the Peruvian Government to establish an independent commission of inquiry.

The Peruvian Congress quickly moved on to approve a special-mandated body in August 1986, but political negotiations regarding its composition dragged the appointment of its member for a whole year.