Javier Heraud Pérez was a Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

vian poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and member of the Ejército de Liberación Nacional

National Liberation Army (Peru)

The National Liberation Army was a Peruvian guerrilla band that sprang from the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaria. It sought to gather militants regardless of their political affiliation...

 (ELN).

In January 1963, a group led by the 21-year-old poet Javier Heraud and Alain Elias crossed through Bolivia, where they picked up weapons, and entered southern Peru. Plagued by Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniasis is a disease caused by protozoan parasites that belong to the genus Leishmania and is transmitted by the bite of certain species of sand fly...

 infection however, the 15 member team decided to enter the city of Puerto Maldonado

Puerto Maldonado

Puerto Maldonado is a city in Southeastern Peru in the Amazon forest west of the Bolivian border on the confluence of the Tambopata and Madre de Dios River, a tributary of the Amazon River. It is the capital of the Madre de Dios Region....

 to seek out medical supplies. The local police were warned of the group's advance, and on May 15 Heraud was shot in the chest and killed while he drifted past the town in a dugout canoe.

External links

• Biography and selected poems
• "La página de Javier Heraud"
• Javier Heraud at "Literature peruana"
• "Biography of a Lost Poet". Time (May 31, 1963).