CONDEMN THE ATTACK ON COMRADE FELICIANO!
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE'S WAR IN PERU!
On July 14, 1999 the US-backed regime of Alberto Fujimori in Peru announced the capture of Oscar Ramirez Durand, known as Comrade Feliciano of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). The US government is celebrating the actions of the fascist regime in Peru and talking again of "finally pacifying" the country. The regime has announced that Comrade Feliciano will be tried by a secret military tribunal after a "prolonged and hard interrogation" (in other words-- torture) by its notorious CIA operative Vladimir Montesinos. Before the trial, Fujimori has already announced that Comrade Feliciano is to be imprisoned in the same underground Naval prison at El Callao where the PCP's Chairman Gonzalo has been kept isolated since shortly after his 1992 capture.
Comrade Feliciano is one of the leaders of the Communist Party of Peru who carried forward the People's War after Chairman Gonzalo's 1992 capture. In opposition to a Right Opportunist Line that emerged within the Party calling for abandoning the People's War, Comrade Feliciano and others in the PCP have led the masses of peasants and workers in re-strengthening the People's War in order to overcome the difficult "Bend in the Road" confronting them.
With the capture of Chairman Gonzalo in 1992, the regime loudly proclaimed the death of the revolution. The PCP proved them wrong. Today, with the capture of Comrade Feliciano, the reactionaries are once again making the same claims. But the conditions that gave rise to the People's War have not basically changed-- and the resistance of the people and the revolutionary line of the PCP will continue to fuel the revolution.
For over nineteen years the revolutionaries in Peru have waged a People's War. They have faced both advances and setbacks. But one thing is clear: the Communist Party of Peru has demonstrated its ability to organize the oppressed in a revolutionary war and build a new people's power that represents a new life and a different future for the people. Peasants, workers, and their allies have taken land and showed that it is possible to eradicate semi-feudal conditions in the countryside and replace them with Revolutionary Base Areas where the formerly oppressed become masters of a new society, organizing all aspects of social life including equality and justice for women, cooperative farming and food production, and new forms of culture and art. This revolutionary struggle demands our continuing support.
| “The capture of Comrade Feliciano is a new difficulty that the revolutionary masses and the PCP will have to overcome—we are confident that they can.” |
Only the People's War offers the possibility of a future where people don't have to live like this. Like all revolutions, the path to victory has not been a straight line but has meant twists and turns, advancing by overcoming setbacks and difficulties. The capture of Comrade Feliciano is a new difficulty that the revolutionary masses and the Communist Party of Peru will have to overcome-- we are confident that they can. More than ever, the struggling masses and their party need and deserve the support of progressive and revolutionary people worldwide.
The Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (CSRP) calls on people, especially here in the US -- the country most responsible for the misery and suffering of people in Peru -- to heighten support for the People' War and opposition to the fascist US-backed Peruvian regime and its system of injustice. Thousands of political prisoners in Peru have been kept incommunicado for various periods of time, tortured, and tried by secret military judges. The regime continues to hold Chairman Gonzalo in a tiny underground cell, and he is being denied visits by lawyers, doctors, and relatives. Progressive lawyers are being incarcerated for the "crime" of defending political prisoners and the regime has even rejected the jurisdiction of the OAS Inter-American Human Rights Court. People worldwide must continue to expose and oppose all these crimes and demand that the life and physical integrity of Chairman Gonzalo, Comrade Feliciano, and all political prisoners and prisoners of war in Peru be respected in accordance with basic international standards.
Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru
July 25, 1999
