The Unstoppable People’s War
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A World to Win No. 27 (Dec 2001)
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January 2001
6 January: Action by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in Tocache province, department of San Martín. 1
12 January: Two National Police non-commissioned officers are ambushed in the village of Chicrín, Yaruscayán district, Pasco. The PLA confiscates their weapons. 2
27 January: Night-time confrontation between the PLA and the reactionary armed forces in the Bajo Pacae sector, Juan José Crespo district, Leoncio Prado province. 3
February 2001
PLA intercepts a bus in the hamlet Los Olivos, at the 24 kilometre milestone of the Carretera Marginal roadway, and annihilates a collaborator. 4
15 February 2001: PLA incursion in the hamlet El Progreso, Chiclayo, near the border of the departments of Piura and Lambayeque, to mobilise the masses and carry out people’s trials in the area. 5
18 February: In a spectacular feat, the PLA downs a military helicopter in the Viscatán area, Huanta province, Ayacucho, annihilating a sergeant and wounding a lieutenant. The army helicopter was attacked whilst supplying the Monjapata military base, located in the Apurímac river valley. 6
27 February: A PLA company takes the village of Tambogrande (population 20,000), blacks out the electricity and carries out actions against the property of collaborators. Some property is confiscated. This PLA operation is co-ordinated with a mass action in which thousands of protestors destroy the premises of the Canadian mining company Manhattan. 7
March 2001
1 March: A PLA platoon carries out the selective annihilation of two traitors turned informers in the hamlet Ramal de Aspuzana, in Progreso, Tocache province, leaving leaflets explaining their action. 8
2 March: A PLA company enters a village near the Sivia district in Ayacucho and organises a meeting with the inhabitants. 9
3, 5, 11 and 15 March: The PLA carries out repeated incursions in the town of Aucayacu, in Huánuco. 10, 11, 12, 13
5 March: A platoon of some 30 PLA combatants carry out an incursion and confiscate foodstuffs in the town of Tribolini, department of Apurímac. Chanting slogans supporting Chairman Gonzalo, the PCP and the People’s War, the PLA gathers the villagers and calls on them to boycott the 8 April elections. 14
In early March, the PLA confiscates dynamite and fuses from an engineering works in Chanchamayo, in preparation for boycott actions. 15
8 March: Confrontation between the PLA and police forces in the Santa Ana area, Las Palmas district, some 18 kilometres south of Huancayo. 16
8 March: Confrontation between the PLA and forces from the National Office against Terrorism (DINCOTE) in Puente Durán, Chinchao district, Acomayo province. 17
Around 10 March: In Ayacucho, a PLA company takes villages near Sivia and holds a boycott meeting. 18
Also around 10 March: Another PLA company carries out actions calling on people to boycott the elections in Apurímac. 19
14 March, at 2am: a PLA company takes the village Pampa Soris, in Ayahuanco district (Huanta) for two hours. The combatants, including 15 Ashaninkas (indigenous people), gather the villagers at the main square for a meeting. They also confiscate 20 shotguns from the Pampa Soris armed forces-led “self-defence committee”, in addition to foodstuffs and other products. 20
29 March: PLA incursion in the village of Puerto Ángel, by the 560 kilometre milestone of the Carretera Marginal highway, in José Crespo y Castillo district. Four informers annihilated. 21
30 March: A platoon of some 30 PLA combatants enters the Cuylpapata enclosure in the Concepción province, Junín department, and holds a meeting. 22
Late March: The PLA holds a meeting with inhabitants of Tingo María, calling for an elections boycott. 23
April 2001
Early April 2001: a PLA company carries out actions in the Ene and Tambo river valleys, forcing Ministry of Health staff to abandon medical stations. 24
Also in the beginning of April, the PLA carries out an incursion in the hamlet of Hatunhuasi, Andamarca district, Concepción province, and holds a meeting with the inhabitants. 25
The PLA gives out leaflets along the Jorge Basadre and Marginal de la Selva roadways, along the route leading to the town of Aucayacu and the district of Tocache, the latter in San Martín department. 26
5 April: In the Las Rocas enclosure (25 kilometres from Tingo María, in the San José Crespo y Castillo district), the PLA annihilates a collaborator of the reactionary armed forces. 27
6 April: In the early morning hours, the PLA annihilates a criminal in Tingo María. 28
8 April (the day of the first round of the elections): The PLA bombs the offices of Toledo’s Perú Posible Party in the city of Ayacucho. 29 It also carries out an action against the offices of APRA, the party of Alan García, the other main candidate, near the main square in the same departmental capital. 30
8 April: A PLA platoon stages a 20-minute attack on a military base in Mercedes Locro, close to the jungle city of Tingo María, 550 kilometres north-east of Lima. 31
8 April: Anti-elections actions in Villa Rica, Oxapampa, in Pasco 32; action against the voting premises in a school in Castillo Viejo, Huánuco 33; red flags with the hammer and sickle hoisted in the hills of Bolonga 34 and Gran Chimú 35 in Trujillo; the PLA enters the town of Rancho Grande, in the jurisdiction of Sayapullo, Gran Chimú province 36 , and gathers the inhabitants; they hoist the red flag and call upon the population not to vote; similar meetings take place in the remote villages Colpa 37, El Porvenir 38 and Mundo Nuevo 39 in the same area, and in Villa Cruz, jurisdiction of Chacicadán, Santiago de Chucho province. 40
8 April: Armed shutdown against the elections in Vilcashuamán, Ayacucho. 41 PLA combatants paint slogans and the hammer and sickle along several of the streets of Vilcashuamán. Another armed strike against the elections in the town of Satipo and surrounding villages. 42
16 April: PLA combatants take the town of Aucayacu for an hour, with armed agitation and propaganda against the elections and in defence of the life of Chairman Gonzalo, making use of the local radio station, as well as leaflets. 43
27 April: Action of armed agitation and propaganda in the town of Pachacútec, in Ventanilla. A huge hammer and sickle is painted on rocks, 8 metres long and 6 metres wide, on one of the town’s hills. During the night, more painting and chanting of slogans. 44
May-early June 2001
Early May: Action by a platoon of some 30 PLA combatants in Nechuya village, 60 kilometers from Pucallpa, near the Jorge Basadre highway. 45
12 May: PLA fighters intercept a minibus and annihilate the mayor of the Pacapausa district, Ayacucho. 46
13 May: Bomb explodes on the premises of the military recruitment office 32-A in the town of Tingo María, department of Huánuco. 47
16 May: In an action with high political impact, the PLA sets off a bomb at the National Election Board (JNE) in downtown Lima, wounding several police officers. Leaflets against the elections and supporting the People’s War and the defence of the life of Chairman Gonzalo appear. 48
In the wake of this, the Peruvian reaction also had to admit to some other PLA actions carried out during the first months of 2001. The “Global Report on the Current Situation of the Shining Path Terrorist Organisation”, written by the Internal Order Division of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces (see Caretas 1671, 24 May 2001), mentions several actions in Lima, including several protests by relatives of prisoners of war 49; the handing out of leaflets against the elections at the University of San Marcos 50, at the University of La Cantuta 51, on the avenue Gamarra in La Victoria 52, at a school in San Juan de Miraflores 53 at another school in Villa El Salvador 54, and in the districts of San Martín de Porres 55 and Santa Anita. 56
Other actions that came to light after the action against the JNE included a series of sabotage actions against mining companies. At a press conference, the chairman of the National Mining, Oil and Energy Association (SNMPE), Ricardo Briceño Villena, complained that what he called the “resurgence of violent actions” is “putting investments in this sector at risk ”. (Correo of Lima, 24 May 2001) According to Briceño, there were 39 attacks against mining companies in April alone, and so far this year there have been actions against the mining sector in nine towns in central Peru: Pasco 57, Moquegua 58, Huancavelica 59, Piura 60, Cajamarca 61, Cusco 62, Ancash 63, Ucayali 64 and Paramonga. 65
16 May: Among other actions to celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of the People’s War on 17 May is the bombing of the Military Recruitment Office in Tingo María; on this occasion PLA combatants also distributed leaflets supporting the People’s War. 66
18 May: In the hamlet of Castillo Grande, Tingo María, PLA combatants hoist the red flag with the hammer and sickle and give out leaflets with slogans supporting the People’s War and demanding the public presentation of Chairman Gonzalo. A report on this action appears on Peruvian television. 67
18 May: Armed agitation and propaganda in Castillo Grande hamlet in Tingo María, Huánuco. Slogans supporting the People’s War and the symbol of the hammer and sickle painted on the walls of the stadium in Cumaná and in the housing area of San Sebastián in Huamanga, along with leafleting. 68
28 and 29 May and 1 June: The PLA carries out a series of incursions in the hamlet of Pacae in the province Aucayacu. On 28 and 29 May, they paint slogans calling for an armed shutdown and on 1 June two informers are annihilated. 69, 70, 71
30 May: PLA incursion on the slope from the village Tambo to San Francisco, La Mar province, in the department of Ayacucho, as part of the boycott against the elections. 72
31 May: In the early morning hours PLA fighters take a village in the border region of the jungle in the Apurímac valley and hold a meeting against the run-off elections. 73
31 May: A PLA battalion of some 200 combatants stops more than 50 vehicles travelling along the route from Ayacucho to the inner jungle area of the upper Apurímac river valley, at Totumbaro, two hours from the San Francisco district, in the province of La Mar. They call for an armed shutdown against the elections and paint PCP slogans on the vehicles. 74
31 May: A PLA company carries out armed agitation and propaganda against the elections and calling for an armed shutdown, seizing two villages in Ayacucho. 75
2-4 June 2001: Armed strike against the elections in Aucayacu 76, Huamanga 77, La Mar 78 and other provinces in Ayacucho. In La Mar, PLA combatants stop and burn a bus on election day, 3 June.
3 June: The government Ombudsman’s office reports 21 actions to impede the elections in: Ayacucho 79, Palpa 80, Arequipa 81, La Arena 82, Ayabaca 83 and Catacaos 84 (Piura); Angaraes 85(Huancavelica); Iquitos 86, Yurimaguas 87, Hauri 88 (Ancash); Lima 89; Callao 90; and other places.
