agrarian reform"
This attitude was to change when the Senderistas began to forbid the peasants to develop saleable crops and, in order to starve the towns, ordered them to confine themselves to purely subsistence agriculture. The brutal methods Sendero Luminoso
THE MAIN ISSUES debated in the third congress of the Puno Departused against those who refused to ment Peasants' Federation, held August 28-31, are described in this these orders helped to interview with Julian Paucar, outgoing general secretary of the or deprive it of part of its initial capital ganization. At the center of discussion were restructuring the co-
It is in the villages and small operative enterprises, distributing land to the Indian communities, towns in the high
Andean valleys peasants' self-defence and the struggle for a regional government. (1)
that Sendero Luminoso put down
It had been expected that a thousand delegates would turn up, its deepest roots.
habitants of these settlements derive but the final number was 1,250. The fight waged by the peasants only a part of their income from in Puno today is one of the focal points of the mass mobilization agriculture. A lot of them are obagainst the APRA government. The following interview was given to to supplement seasonal ricultural work with other occupations that take them out of their same time itinerant peddlers, building workers or miners, depending on what jobs they can find. This situation, far from being specific to Ayacucho, common to most of the Andean departments. It has been aggravated by the effects of the economic crisis that is hitting Peru and breaking down the traditional social structures.
The rural exodus, which is yearly the shantytowns of is helping to magnify the numbers of the unemployed or at best employed who are living from hand to mouth, going from one precarious job to another.
According to Alan Garcia himself,
70 per cent of the Peruvian population live on the margins of the economy. This is one of the factors that explains the spread of the outside Ayacucho, its birthplace.
The state of emergency brought a and authorized the repressive forces to make searches and arrests without any warrant.
tion of entire areas of Peru, under the pretext of fighting Sendero Luminoso, has had tragic consequences for the
Frank Slegers on August 31 in Puno.
Question. What is the structure of land holding like in the Puno region after Valasco's reforms? government an agrarian reform was carried out in Puno. The bulk of the land that was previously hands of big landowners is now held by business cooperatives.
In Puno, among the cooperatives formed 16 are Social Interest Agricultural Societies (SAIS), 16
Cooperatives (CAPS), and five are Socially Owned Rural Enterprises (ERPS). These cooperatives hold 1,800,000 hectares of
While there Indian communities on the register, plots of land, which have often been rocky. The peasant munities have remained marginalized in this process of agrarian reform.
It should be added that a thousand communities were parcialidades such were recognized as communities. were not entitled to a single plot this agrarian
For this reason, in the department of Puno, the bulk of the land is concentrated in coopera-
The peasant communities do not have the land. They have been pushed way up in the mountains, into the most arid and rocky areas, where irrigation is non-existent and
The cooperatives gotten the flatlands where irrigation which greatly facilitates
In these cooperatives, there are few peasants. Most of the peasants are in the communities or the parcialidades. The peasants, who were to be partners in the cooperatives, have in fact become
The situation in the department of Puno can be summed up as follows. On the one hand, we have cooperatives that include few peasants and hold a great deal of land. On the other, communities containing the majority of the peasants, have little land and that is of poor quality.
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See also the interview with Hugo 107, October 27, 1986.
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986
Peasant Federation is in progress now. What are the issues at this congress and what are its objectives?
In this third congress, we are going to examine the problem of the land as it arises in our region. One of our major objectives is to change the agrarian structure. We do not agree with the way the land was distributed under Velasco.
We want a real agrarian reform. And that can only be accomplished through a genuine restructuring of the cooperatives. As I have already said, these enterprises hold the bulk of the better land, and therefore want a restructuring of land tenure. We want all these cooperin Puno liquidated, because this sort of cooperative is not suited this department. It is good for
We want the land distributed to peasant communities, parcialidades and to the people who work in these enterprises, who are agricultural workers. enterprises were managers and I technicians become
We want to see the domination that these managers exercise in these enterprises disappear. The laborers who are working the land should be able to manage themselves and combine to form give more than a million hectares to the people in various communities, was delivered. As a result, in this congress, we are going to decide to carry out the restruc-
The agricultural workers feudalorios] are taking part in this congress. Together we are going to agree to restructure the cooperatives ourselves. We are going to fight to get the changes carried
Q. So, land occupations and land seizures are one of the main objectives of this congress?
in fact one of the central objectives. of our congress, to take action ourselves to take the land need. We can't spend our time waiting on the convenience and good of the government. We went through that experience with the
We mobilized hundreds of us restructuring, and five years went by and it was not done. Exactly the same thing could happen
So, we have decided to carry out this restructuring by means of land oc-
Q. In your opinion, the government respond to these occupations? By violence? If that happens, how are you going to face up to that problem!
The government is trying to impose its will on us by violence. For example, in Melgar province, which is part of Puno, the government responded to the peasants' by establishing rule. This militarization is not only aimed against against all the peasant communities in the region.
So, we have to take up the problem of militarization in this gress, and not just in words, not militarization," because the government has already imposed put it into are already under military rule.
In this third congress, going to pose the question of peasself-defence. discussing is largely how to guarantee in practice the non-militarization of the department of Puno. role of Sendero Luminoso?
A. Sendero Luminoso showed up in this department at the start of the 1980s. I think that the root of the problem is that all the successive governments never paid any attention to the peasants or even, to a very large extent, the working people as a whole. That is why agricultural cooperatives small communal enterprises.
Peru's black economy is mushrooming (DR)
the growth of production and productivity in the department is the government's policy toward this proposal?
A. Alan Garcia's government has for years failed to heed the demand raised by the Puno peasants. Recently
VIVA F in a struggle in the Melgar province, we occupied the lands of a cooperataking back 10,000 hectares. In another part of the department, the same way, we took enabled us to advance our struggle and to put pressure on the government, which has found itself forced to issue Decree 006 on restructuring law within 120 days. The deadline has passed, and the decree has not been applied. The 15-day period for appeals has also without any results. Alan Garcia's promise about the 305,000 hectares involved in this region has remained only words. In practice, he has done nothing. He had also promised to give 700,000 hectares to the peasant communities. That also remained a dead letter.
Altogether, he had promised to
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GA:18 CHACALON
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A
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986 the group appeared as an armed because there was group, possibility of mere paper-work solutions. The group started out by saying that it was necessary first to take power in order to guarantee that attention would be paid to
Puno on the national level.
Q. But this congress is not supporting Sendero Luminoso?
In the congress, we have not
A.
felt any presence of Sendero Luminoso.
We don't feel it in the countryside
The other objective of the congress is the fight for regional autonomy and for a regional govern-
What is the significance of this demand?
We want Puno to have a regional government. Some of us in are perfectly aware cannot achieve it within the framework of this system.
to change this system, is necessary to replace it with just system in which be neither rich nor poor.
the real guarantee of a regional government.
here and now for a regional, autonomous government for Puno.
PERU IN STATISTICS
19 million — 46% Indian,
Creole, 15% white; 63% urban.
Lima: 5.5 million inhabitants, 500 shantytowns, covering an area of
2.5 million hectares.
Arequipa: 800,000 inhabitants.
(in the Andes) 924,000
Infant mortality
100,000 births; in the in the Andes, 250 per 100,000.
Life expectancy
58 years (it was 62 ten years ago),
Gross National Product per capita
1983:1,040
Economically active population
(12% of GNP)
(40% of GNP)
(48% of GNP)
Inflation (official figures)
1980:59.2%; 1981:75.4%;
64.4%; 1983:111.2%; 1984:110% thousands of millions of dollars)
1980:9.6; (56% of Gross Domestic product);
20 with that. We want to solve we face ourselves. for example the case structuring of the cooperative enterprises in Puno. That is a specific problem of the department. should be solved here. we are fighting for a regional govern-
Q. How does the question of the Quechuas Aymaras fit into this regional government frame-
The Quechuas and Aymaras are two nationalities in the department northern part, Quechua is spoken; in the south, Aymara. We are all working together in an organized way in the Federation. There is no discrimination. Every one of us is using his or her own language, and I don't think there will be a lot of problems in the context of a regional government. the population of Puno are peasants, and so we will fight to assure that the peasants have a majority in the regional government.
What balance sheet have the peasants drawn of the various poliorganizations and formations, of APRA and the Izquierda Unida?
APRA has been in government for a year now. We have seen it at work, and it has not any of the problems of the peasants, of the countryside. And we are not the only ones. All sections of ordinary people have seen this.
For example, Puno suffered from floods caused by rising waters in turned a blind eye to the problem, just offering as usual. It did nothing in practice.
On the other hand, some aid was sent to the department by international bodies. Under various prethe governmental authorities in the region did not distribute this aid. They kept it, and now that an approaching, they are distributing it to get people to vote for the government party,
We say that this government is an anti-peasant government incapable of solving the peasants' problems. In his election campaign, Alan Garcia made us a lot of promises. So far we haven't seen him even start to deliver on them.
The IU is playing a very important in the Puna region. In the peasant federation, we have prepared a bill on restructuring, the sort of law we want for Puno. But we are not members of parliament not present it. Deputies have to introduce it, and the IU comrades have helped us a lot in this respect. We have three IU deputies for this department who have brought the restructuring question into the Chamber of Deputies. They didn't get a hearing. The bill has not been discussed. The government has not bothered to apply the bill that it passed as an alternative.
What place does the Federation hold in the Peruvian people's movement as a whole?
A. The peasants have to strugbut experience has taught us that we cannot fight isolated in our
We have to unite all the people's forces on the departmental and national level. In the peasant federation, we are going to take part in the second preparatory meeting for a People's Assembly, which is to be held in January. We will be at that meeting and at the People's Assembly, of which we are
We will make known there the point of view of the peasants and the alternatives we'll propose. In Puno, we have a lot of experience with people's assemblies, because we think they are the best way to bring together all the people's forces in the department at all levels. For example, at the time of the last land occupation in Airibiri we held a people's assembly. The people decided to strike in support of the peasants, and we then proceeded to occupy the land.
Q. What sort of government does the Federation propose for Peru as
We want Peru to have a government that corresponds to the aspirations and needs of the people. In the last elections, it was the parties of the right that won out, the APRA. The peasants were taken in by Alan Garcia's promises. But his demagogic policy fizzled. We think that our role as a federation is also to clarify political questions, and our objective is a workers' and peasants'
What role do women play in Last year in Puno, we organized a departmental federation of peasant women. That is part of the Federation's organizing plan. Sometimes the men have played active roles in the Federation, while our companions have been left at the sidelines. So now, women are org anizing in order to strengthen the departmental federation. To achieve our objectives, we need everybody, men and women.
International Viewpoint 10 November 1986
PERU trators in parliament.
* The campaign of intimidation waged by Luis Denas Peralta, former sub-prefect of Puno and today APRA's candidate for mayor of the city. This