Guerrillas and militarization
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986
Finally, despite a recognition of the need for restructuring the cooperative corporations, in the government's plan they remain the center and power-house of agricultural development. The peasant communities get the left-overs.
As an alternative to this scheme, the peasant organizations - the CCP, FUCAM, and the FDCP - have proposed their own plan. It was put
PERU before the National Assembly by
ON MAY 18, 1980, the day of the elections that were to put in
Izquierda Unida (IU) deputies and office a civilian government after 12 years of military rule, Sendero rejected by APRA. [See the inter-
Luminoso (SL) burned the ballot boxes in the village of Chuschi in the view with the general secretary of department of Ayacucho. In this way it showed that it was declaring the FDCP.]
Although the government promised open war against the state, regardless of whether the government was its law within
120 to implement days, the peasants were left waiting
Six years passed between that action, which went almost unfor the land to be handed over. At the beginning of September, the peasants noticed at the time, and the prison mutiny staged by Sendero actiwho occupied the Kunurama coopervists on June 18 and 19, when the Socialist International was meetative got 5,000 of the 10,000 hectares ing in Lima. The army, sent in to suppress the uprising, killed several initially assigned to them. The cooperative corporation still held 39,000 hectares. Significantly, the land was handed over under the eye of the army, which is ever-present in the region.
decided to
The FDCP congress occupy the land the peasants needed without relying on the good will of
Alan Garcia, and to defend these actions against the growing military building on the region by pressure peasants' self-defence organizations.
Not only has the government sought to discredit the peasant leaders the IU representatives and supthem of porting them by accusing belonging to Sendero Luminoso, it has not hesitated to resort to violence in an attempt to break the Puno peasant movement.
The official violence of the armed forces has been compounded by that of APRA's paramilitary commandos, which have directed attacks their at the same time against the peasants civilian or military. hundred prisoners.
In the beginning, SL only attacked material objectives, dynamiting bridges and rail lines. In 1981, it started carrying out more daring operations and executing those it called collaborators with the government. In 1982, the movement no longer confined its activity to the departments of Huancavelica and Apurimac but extended them to Lima. In February 1986, the capital was put under a state of siege, with the institution of a curfew from 1.00 a.m. to 5.00 a.m. At present, 25 provinces of six departments are under a state of siege.
While it is difficult to draw a balance sheet of Sendero Luminoso's activities, if only because it only exceptionally signs its actions, the officially published figures, give an idea of the growth of the movement.
In 1980, when Sendero Luminoso
701 operations in 1981; 891 in 1982; 1,226 in 1983; 2,408 in 1984; and 3,079, or nearly ten a day, in 1985.
The emergence of Sendero Luminoso in Ayacucho was the result of a situation common to the Andean highlands as a whole: poverty, injustice, subjection, an ancient tradition of humiliation for the Indian population. The reopening of the University of San Cristobal in Huamanga in 1959 provided a catalyst for this discontent. It was to play the role of detonator of the movement and of a breeding ground for the cadres of the guerrilla organization.
It was through university students who became teachers, nurses and agronomists that Sendero Luminoso was to begin to build a base among the peasants in the region. Moreover, a lot of Sendero Luminoso and their self-defence groups; IU activists; and the Church, which through Monsignor Francisco de Altaroche, bishop of Puno, has taken the side of the peasants. [See the PUM Poverty in Peru: one reason for the support for Sendero Luminoso (DR) press statement.]
The unification of all the peasant organizations in the FDCP is well underway. The government has announced a second distribution of land. Undoubtedly, this sudden concern is not unrelated to the fact that municipal elections are to be held in November throughout Peru.
The popularity that Alan Garcia enjoyed at the time of his election has sagged considerably. The demagogy of this politician who called himself the "president of the peasant communities" has fizzled out, and these elections are a major test both for the left as a whole, and, more broadly, for the Peruvian mass movement.
first appeared, there were 261 operations (terrorist attacks, sabotage and guerrilla actions). This figure rose to fighters are high-school or university students from peasant backgrounds who have lived in Lima. Education has only increased their frustration, owing
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986
PERU to the lack of perspectives in a crisiswracked society incapable of offering them any social advancement.
first phase strategy, between May 1980 and the end of 1982, was carried off with a minimum of violence. When there was violence, it was against the elements that had dominated the communities and made themselves odious by their abuses engaging in usury, judges, mayors,
Since the proclamation on October 12, 1981, of a state of siege in five provinces of the department of Ayacucho, and especially since the official involvement of the army in December 1982 and the extension of the state of siege to the entire department, the number of victims has been increasing at a staggering rate.
While 11 deaths were registered in 1981, there were hundred in 1982 and 2,000 in 1983. In most cases, these deaths were the result of outrages by the military way of reprisals. official total of victims has risen to 8,256 since 1980. But to this figure should be added thousands of "disappeared," kidnapped by the military or by the special units, the Sinchis. The human rights organizations have made the count, but their figures are probably below the real ones. on top of this, thousands of people are in prison on charges of belonging landowners who lands and cattle thieves. This policy won them the support of the popula-
"We want a real tion. For example, at the end of 1982,
15,000 people from
Ayacucho attended the burial of Edith Lagos, one of the movement's leaders.