From: ww@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.latin-america
Date: 01 Jan 93 22:59 PST
Subject: Peru:Media Blanks Out Rising Strugg
Nf-ID: #N:DBiqwB9w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-354001999:000:5466
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!ww    Jan  1 22:59:00 1993


Subject: Peru:Media Blanks Out Rising Struggle
From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service)


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


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.

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.

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. 

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").

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

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. 

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. 

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

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)


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