From: nyxfer%panix.com@UMCVMB.missouri.edu (N.Y. Transfer)
Subject: NEWS: US Paves Way for Peru Repression
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Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: University of Missouri
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@UMCVMB.missouri.edu>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 21:57:10 GMT



Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit


              U.S. PAVES WAY FOR REPRESSION IN PERU

                         By Rebeca Toledo

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited.)

Peru's military is poised to carry out fierce repression against
the revolutionary guerrilla movement that has won widespread
support among the deeply impoverished peasants and workers of that
land.

The Bush administration claims to be shocked by the military coup
of April 5. It has loudly announced a suspension of aid to the
regime of President Alberto Fujimori, who immediately tore up the
Constitution and disbanded Peru's congress. Yet the U.S.
government's actions belie its words.

U.S. blocks OAS sanctions

At an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States
held in Washington on April 13, the U.S. blocked the seating of a
delegation of Peruvian legislators opposed to the coup. They had
been elected by a majority of the disbanded congress and were
challenging the legitimacy of the Fujimori-army regime.

The Bush administration also prevented any sanctions from being
levied by the OAS against the military regime.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson had arrived in
Peru the day of the coup. In an op-ed in the New York Times (April
13), columnist Leslie H. Gelb spelled out Washington's
forked-tongue policy. "Publicly," said Gelb, the U.S. "will
continue to censure the coup and reaffirm the cutoff of new U.S.
aid." But "privately," it continues to sympathize with Fujimori's
goal.

These diplomatic moves by U.S. imperialism to deflect
international censure coincide with stepped-up attacks by the
Peruvian military on the mass movement. The hundreds of political
prisoners held in the Canto Grande and Lurigancho prisons continue
to be surrounded by soldiers who have entered the prisons and
taken over everything except the rooms where the prisoners
actually live. The standoff brings to mind the massacre of June
1986, when over 300 striking prisoners were gunned down in cold
blood. Family members say such a possibility exists again.

Hundreds of people have been arrested and held for sympathizing
with the armed organization Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path). The
military is rounding up anyone who knows anything about Shining
Path, including lawyers who have represented the guerrillas.

According to "Peru Scholars/News and Notes" for April, the
military in recent months had forcibly recruited 200,000 peasants
into "urban rondas," or paramilitary organizations, in the
shantytowns around the capital of Lima.

One such attempt was made in San Juan de Lurigancho before the
coup. A public meeting was called by the army, along with mayor
Pedro Zazzali. To the dismay of the army and local government,
Shining Path's presence and support was evident. A popular vote
was taken on whether to allow the army to remain in the town. By
an overwhelming majority, according to the conservative daily
newspaper El Expreso, the military was asked to leave.

Armed resistance continues

In the week after the coup, Shining Path conducted 10 major
attacks, blowing up several police stations. It was a message to
the military that they would continue to wage a people's war even
under fascist conditions.

The Fujimori-military crackdown is in response to a growing
uprising of the Peruvian peasants and working class. Revolutionary
groups like Shining Path and Tupac Amaru have rallied support in
the countryside and urban areas. Although their programs differ,
these groups challenge the legitimacy of a system that keeps the
people in dire conditions. They call for the ouster of U.S.
imperialism from Peru, and the overthrow of bourgeois politicians
who do the bidding of the rich against the poor.

A successful Feb. 14 work stoppage called by Shining Path to
coincide with the visit of an IMF representative was a heavy blow
to the Fujimori government. The IMF is demanding even greater
austerity from the half-starved masses and the crushing of
revolutionary resistance in exchange for new loans to the
bourgeoisie.

Cholera epidemic sign of desperate poverty

Growing poverty has brought many peasants into the already densely
populated cities, where jobs are extremely scarce. Living
conditions throughout the country are deteriorating even further.
For example, Peru ranks highest in the world in the number of
cholera cases--approximately 340,000. This compares to the
second-ranking Ecuador at about 52,000.

Under the tired guise of fighting a war on drugs, the U.S. now has
military personnel in Peru. However, even the capitalist press in
that country has documented the collusion between the Peruvian
military, who invited in the U.S. presence, and the drug dealers.
And the New York Times (Feb. 17) reported that "South of the
Huallaga Valley in the Ene River Valley, Shining Path's domination
has coincided with the death of the coca trade."

Did the U.S. secretly help plan this coup? In March 1990, Gordon
H.  McCormick wrote a report for the Rand Corporation entitled,
"The Shining Path and the Future of Peru." The Rand Corporation is
a right-wing think-tank for the Department of State and the
Defense Department. Many of its recommendations are ultimately
adopted as U.S. policy.  The report offers some solutions to the
growing mass movement.  "Given the country's turbulent political
situation..., the escalating level of guerrilla violence..., and
the certainty that conditions will become much worse before they
get better, the real question is not whether there will be a coup
but when."

However, some in the Peruvian ruling class, among them former
President Alan Garcia and novelist Mario Vargas Llosa (who ran
against Fujimori in the last election), fear the coup will mean
their ultimate demise. Although in full agreement with the goals
of the coup--to crush the mass uprising--they think it will
boomerang and strengthen the revolutionary movements.

In opposition to the coup, 135 ousted lawmakers met secretly on
April 9 and elected their own leader to challenge Fujimori. By a
unanimous vote, this grouping, which represents a majority of
Peru's 240 legislators, chose Peru's second vice president, Carlos
Garcia, as their new president. Their move seemed aimed at
influencing the OAS meeting. However, their delegation was
rebuffed and nothing more has been heard of this group. Both
Carlos Garcia and Alan Garcia (no relation) remain in hiding.

The future of Peru rests on the shoulders of the revolutionary
masses, who are fighting not just their own ruling class but U.S.
imperialist intervention. In this sense, their struggle is the
same as those that have been waged by Vietnam, Cuba, Angola,
Nicaragua, and so many other peoples oppressed by monopoly capital
and its collaborators among the local oligarchy.


                               ***

This article originally appeared in Workers World newspaper. A
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