This government needs a strong dose of pragmatism. We need internal savings, export capacity and the government, with its social sensitivity, has to find a way for lasting redistribution of wealth. There's no point in redistributing poverty. We have to reduce the extreme discrepancy between the haves and have-nots. But the discrepancies are enormous and historical in a society whose roots go back to pre-Inca times.
Racism is a fact of life here, at least on the economic and social fronts.
Guzman and his cadres indoctrinated a half-generation of students and teachers at the university with an indigenous Maoism. In 1980-82 Sendero staged hundreds of dynamite attacks in the Ayacucho area and in other parts of the highlands and in Lima. The government's counter-insurgency forces swung into action and proved to be effective recruiters for Sendero. And several massacres alleged to be the work of Senderistas appeared, on investigation, to have been the work of the counter-insurgency forces. With Garcia's inaugural in mid-1985, the military has been somewhat more disciplined and restrained.