From: ez000281@hamlet.ucdavis.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Subject: Re: Peru:Media Blanks Out Rising Strugg
Date: 3 Jan 93 07:44:18 GMT
Organization: Computing Services, UC Davis

SENDERESTA DESPERATION

As if matters were getting any worse for whats left of the "left" in the 
U.S.A., now they main "Revoulutionary" middle class organization of "workers" 
has endorsed the genocidic acts of Sendero Luminoso.  Workers World Service, 
via de NY Tranfer News Service writes:

>Media blanks out rising struggle in Peru

>By Greg Butterfield

>The lack of U.S. media coverage of the struggle in Peru belies
>the sharpening confrontation between the U.S.-backed government
>of President Alberto Fujimori and the revolutionary movement of
                                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>workers and peasants.
 ^^^^^^^     ^^^^^^^^

If the Sendero is revoulutionary, I am a communist.  How can a polpotian 
guerrilla which predicates a death toll of 2,000,000 Peruvians and the 
instalation of an Inca-like social system reminiscent of Pol Pot's forced 
evacuation of the urban centers in death camps of forced labor be considered 
"revoultionary".  In any case it is reactionary, for as any other variety of 
theoretical marxism it want to place a peaseant middle class (in theory at 
least) as the vanguard of the revoultion.  In Sendero's case, theory never 
makes good practice, for in Gustavo Gorriti's book (quoted below by "Workers" 
World), Sendero's cadres are shown to be mainly middle class teachers.  Anyone
who knows 2 pennys of whats going on in Peru, Know that the recently arrested 
Central Committee lived the high life of ballet and law, and the maximun leader 
himself was forced to lived in Lima's luxury so that his skin diseasy wouldn't 
bother him much.  So I dont know what "workers" and "peasants" they are 
supposed to represent.

>According to sources close to the Peruvian liberation movement,
>U.S. "drug war" troops stationed in Bolivia and Colombia make
>regular forays across the border into Peru to attack rebel
>positions. Peru's Communist Party leaders have warned that a U.S.
>military invasion is probable.


Communists (there are many Communist parties in Peru) always warn about U.S. 
invasions when it comes to generating nationalist fears on which they can live 
off.  Although perhaps they are telling the truth since communists have been 
reaping cocaine profits during the last decade in order to generate funding for 
their weapons, and any incursion against the drug trade is becoming more and 
more a war on communisms.  As to our state department's plans, we might just 
leave Peru alone and let Sendero take power for a while, so that the "workers" 
of our own country see what communism is like.  After all, it doesn't take long 
for marxists to generate enough hatred within the masses so that they are again 
toppled from within.

>A SHAM ELECTION

>Fujimori and his military regime held elections Nov. 22 for a
>"democratic constituent congress." Fujimori and the army staged a
>coup d'etat in April 1992, disbanding Congress and the courts and
>driving even his pro-capitalist political opponents into exile.

Unfortunately, the gross majority of the population participated in this 
"sham" including plenty of opposition parties.

>The president justified the takeover and widespread repression
>that followed by claiming it was necessary to defeat the
>revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP or
>"Shining Path").

What "widspread repression"?  The only ones repressed during the coup were the 
fat bellied corrups legislators who got wet from water cannons.  If Fujimori is 
a dictator, then Sadamm Hussein is democratic.

>Communist rebels called armed strikes that shut down
>transportation and commerce in Lima, Ancash and Ayacucho the week
>before the elections.

Well if you call terrorism a strike (i.e., a couple of car bombs placedy by a 
dozen individuals, then we should soon expect this "workers" party to bomb our 
airports whenever air traffic controllers as laid off.

>The elections were supposed to legitimize Fujimori's rule in the
>world's eyes. The U.S. government said the elections signaled "a
>return to democracy." But most of Peru is still under martial
>law.

As it was right before the coup in certain provinces.  Martial law occured in 
some areas even when parliament was in a honeymoon with Fuji.  So I, don't know
what one thing has to do with the other.

>Over 100,000 heavily armed troops and police surrounded polling
>places on election day. Anyone who didn't vote faced a $60 fine,
>far more than most Peruvians could afford to pay.

They could have voted blank, but it seems they voted en masse for the 
government.

>Yet people resisted even under these fearsome conditions. Rebels
>carried out military actions in several towns. Almost 23 percent
>of voters voided their ballots.

People did not "resist", the few that didn't vote were simply avoiding car 
bombs and bus hijackings.

>Fujimori's "New Majority/Change 90" alliance won only 38.3
>percent of valid votes. According to rules Fujimori decreed, that
>will give him a majority with 44 seats in the 80-member congress.

All democracies have special rules that constitue majorities easily (e.g., the 
Electoral College in the U.S.)

>Peru's three largest capitalist parties refused to participate in
>the elections. Gustavo Gorriti, a prominent anti-communist,
>complained, "There is not a major party, right or left, whose
>leaders have not been smeared, harassed, arrested or driven into
>exile." (New York Times, Dec. 27)

Well I saw quite a few that were very happy on TV.  Those who have been driven 
into exile are either corrupt (A. Garcia) or plotters of the recent coup.

>The U.S. government and the Organization of American States
>approved the election in glowing terms, praising the "return of
>democracy." Japan pledged an immediate $100 million loan, and the
>InterAmerican Development Bank promised $220 million, according
>to the Dec. 2 Financial Times. Washington will soon release $120
>million in new aid.

How in hell would capitalists risk so much capital in a country which is about 
to collapsed, as depicted above?  Is it that our intelligence agencies are 
blind?

>A dictatorship "doesn't exist anymore," said Luigi Einaudi, U.S.
>ambassador to the OAS. Workers and peasants, facing constant
>repression by the military and government death squads, disagree.

The only ones facing repression are the senderistas, along with a few innocent 
victims of the excesses of any counterterrorist campaign.

>Peru is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Since
>Fujimori took office in 1990, conditions have worsened under a
>severe International Monetary Fund austerity program. Peru's
>government owes over $22 billion to imperialist banks.

And if Sendero takes over it will be even poorer since there will be no 
capitalist banks from which to reconstruct their infrastructure.

>FOILED ATTACK

>In late November, Peru's army and air force carried out a raid on
>a rebel base in Ayacucho province. It proved to be a humiliating
>defeat for Fujimori and it went unreported here.

>Despite intense preparations for the assault, say sources in the
>Peruvian community in New York, the attack failed. Guerrillas
>infiltrated the highest ranks of military officers and warned
>their comrades of the attack. When the army arrived, the rebel
>camp was deserted.

Perhaps they are getting their news from the wrong sources.  My Peruvian 
friends tell me things are getting better and the Army is getting things under 
control.  However if you ask any of the maois idiots in the U.S. the country is 
about to collaps and the revolution is about to begin within the United States.

>Increasing divisions within Peru's army also threaten the regime.
>Peruvian sources report the president has disbanded death squads
>created under the previous president, Alan Garcia, for fear they
>are disloyal. He is creating a new death squad loyal only to him.

>Former death squad members have been imprisoned alongside rebels
>from the Communist Party and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary
>Movement, endangering the revolutionary prisoners. 

Now this an excellent idea: putting assasins from both camps together to that 
they can shoot it out on their own.  Viva Fujimori!!!

>Women
>prisoners are reportedly being starved for days and weeks.

What do you expect in the poorest country in South America: broccoli with 
beef?  After all, they should not worry about diets for soon the liberating 
troops of the country which is about to collaps will lead the rescue of the 
proletarian/peasant vanguard.

>PCP leader Abimael Guzman (Presidente Gonzalo) remains imprisoned
>by the military. Supporters fear for his life. Guzman hasn't been
>seen since he was sentenced to life imprisonment in October.

I also fear for his life. I have changed my mind, and think he should be 
executed at once (or share a cell with a death squad member).  Who want to risk 
having him out in the street planning the massacre of peaseants and workers?

>He has been deprived of medical care and legal representation.
>Rumors that U.S. agents are directing his interrogation abound in
>Lima. The CIA was involved in Guzman's capture Sept. 12.

Our taxes are finally being well spent.

>Fujimori originally scheduled a referendum on restoring the death
>penalty to take place during the congressional elections. He has
>threatened to execute Guzman and other revolutionary prisoners.
>Mass pressure inside Peru and around the world forced him to
>postpone the referendum until January.

If the referendum takes place the "mass pressure" will be on Gonzalo himself, 
for polls state that an overwhelming majority of the population favor 
reinstating the death penalty.  But the church, as usual has to meddle in the 
affairs of the state and block the peoples will.

>The PCP has launched what it calls the Sixth Military Plan, "to
>defend Presidente Gonzalo and fight the Fujimori dictatorship."
>Washington's Peru analysts admit that Communist-led actions have
>not decreased since Guzman's capture.

Just like Japaneese Kamikazees did not decrease by the end of the war.

If these "workers" are really workers our educational system certainly needs 
an overhaul.

Edelmiro