A few steps from San Martín Square, on the crossroads Tacna and Emancipation Avenues, A monumental building covered with oxide, graphite walls and metal bars that prevent any attempt to access. The construction, which was originally conceived as a complex of offices and departments, has been plunged into deterioration for more than thirty years, without doors, without windows and without a specific function in the city.
More than An abandoned structurethe property has become a key piece within an extensive judicial framework, full of irregularities, non -existent identities and controversial political decisions. Its history involves a real estate company that was left without funds, a state loan that was never clearly resolved and even a presidential order that unleashed a legal battle that persists until today.
during the 1980s, when Peru crossed a deep economic crisis and a wave of internal violence, Oropesa’s real estate company undertook the building of a 19 -story tower in the center of Lima. At the time, the bet was risky but visionary: Revitalize a historical area with modern infrastructure. However, the dream collapsed when the funds sold out before the end of the work.
Faced with the lack of liquidity, the real estate company requested a credit to the then Mortgage Central Bank. The debt, however, did not bring a solution, but a chain of litigation that extends to the present. The case acquired unexpected turns in 1982, when a character identified as Fernando Ponce Salomón appeared on the scene as a legal representative of the financial entity. The problem: There was no official record of his identity in the country’s standards.
Ponce claimed that the debt had been completely canceled and that the building had to be transferred to its represented. The operation was never transparent, and the alleged lawyer never gave his face again. Since then, the property conflict was caught in a legal limbo from which he has not been able to leave.
The story took an unexpected turn in November 1986, when the then President Alan García made a comment that still generates controversy. According to the story of Jesús Linares Cornejo, owner of the real estate, García described the unfinished building as “A slap to poverty.” Shortly after, the president signed a Supreme Decree that ordered the transfer of the land and the construction to the Ministry of Interior.
The measure, adopted without a firm judicial resolution, triggered a series of legal resources presented by Linares. The case reached the Constitutional Court, was discussed in Congress and resulted in a long list of cross complaints. Linares says that, for not abandoning his claim, he was the target of persecutions and criminal processes during the Vladimiro Montesinos regime, and that he even had to hide to avoid reprisals.
Despite the multiple judicial failures that have emerged over the years, none has managed to definitively resolve the future of the property. The property remains in dispute, while the building continues to deteriorate without any entity being able to intervene directly.
The current image of the building is bleak. In its base there is no door or income, not even a slit that allows you to observe the interior clearly. The structure was completely fenced during the Exalcalde Alberto Andrade managementwho decided to block his access after discovering that the place served as a refuge for people in street situations.
On a recent visit by the content creator @kvnnit was revealed that the interior of the building is invaded by garbage, accumulated bags, abandoned tires and remains of human activities. The walls are covered with graffiti and on the roof still a tank of oxidized hydris is preserved. There is no electricity, nor safe railings, nor maintenance signs. Only ruins.
The lack of access has not prevented information on what happens inside. Former municipal workers, neighbors and former officials have confirmed that in the past there were failed attempts to demolish the structure or remodel it. None prospered for the complex legal network that surrounds it.
In an interview with a national media more than a decade ago, Jesús Linares confessed that he was not willing to give up his right to property, despite the time elapsed. “They tell me that it was a long time and that I should forget it, but I’m still fighting.”he declared. Since then, no significant progress has been recorded in the case.
The Tacna and Emancipation building is maintained as an urban and legal scar in the heart of Lima. Nobody occupies it, nobody claims it publicly, nobody takes care of it. While the municipal, judicial and political authorities fail to reach a final resolution, it will continue to be part of the landscape as a modern ghost: a symbol of abandonment, power and unfulfilled promises.
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