It has now been almost four years since the capture of Dr Abimael Guzmán, and there has still been no break in his ongoing isolation. The Peruvian regime's treatment of political prisoners continues to flout international laws and treaties it has signed itself, as part of its efforts to break the back of the 16 years old People's War. Tuberculosis and pneumonia have become endemic in the harsh conditions of Peru's political prisons, and majority of prisoners are systematically denied access to family, lawyers, and doctors. The notorious hooded military judges who presided over the so-called trial of Dr Guzmán and most other political prisoners are still on their benches. The denial of the most elementary rights of the accused, including such rights as to present evidence, is still the norm, as many in the west learned in the recent case of the American Lori Berenson, charged with "treason" on the flimsiest grounds and sentenced to life in prison. Peru is still dotted with "emergency zones", where the military dictates with an iron fist. Amnesty has been granted to known assassins in the ranks of the military death squads, including the acknowledged killers of the university students in the La Cantuta case. Repeated statements by Fujimori have made it clear that all this will continue as part of the regime's efforts to defeat the People's War.
It is also clear that the battle must go on to end the isolation of Dr Guzmán. For almost four years now, the regime has kept Dr Guzmán in continual isolation in his specially constructed prison unit, denying him access to family, friends, lawyers or physicians. Fujimori has bragged openly of keeping Dr Guzmán on "an information diet", forbidding him free access to the media and the press and keeping him isolated from actual developments in Peru and the world. He has thus severed even this minimal connection to the revolutionary movement in Peru, which of course had been Dr Guzmán's very life. This isolation and "information diet" have been combined with repeated threats to Dr Guzmán's life, including Fujimori's highly publicized menace that he will die in prison by 1997 from psoriasis, a treatable non-life-threatening disease.
With the capture of Dr Guzmán, the regime gloated that the People's War had been dealt a mortal blow, and would be quickly defeated. In fact, despite the loss of its top leadership and the eruption of an intense two line struggle, a core of PCP cadres and fighters have persisted in the People's War, thus giving the lie to Fujimori's vow to have defeated the guerrillas by mid-1995. Revolutionaries and many others around the world have risen to the defense of the People's War. The IEC should point out the Call released by the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) last March to defend the PCP Central Committee, pursue the People's War and defeat the line of negotiating to bring the war to an end, which, RIM says, could only mean capitulation. The regime's own current assessment is that the guerrillas have retrenched and are regathering their forces and, in their own words, "cannot easily be uprooted". This has led the regime and its Yankee masters to renew their determination to pursue their hardline tactics -- as Fujimori himself recently stated, "the iron fist approach will continue". There is thus every reason to expect that there will be no let-up in the vicious treatment of the political prisoners and the more general severe repression. The thousands of men and women who are languishing in Peru's torture chambers because of their identification with the People's War continue to need your solidarity.
RIM: UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR THE PCP AND CORIM CALL:
The Information Bureau of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) has recently made public a document dated November 1995, that makes the following statement:
"the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement has, in accordance with its principles of functioning, conducted a vote of its participating Parties and Organisations on three important resolutions concerning the two-line struggle in the Communist Party of Peru.
The following resolutions were approved unanimously:
"RIM rejects the right opportunist line of negotiating peace accords to end the people's War in Peru.
"RIM reaffirms its full support for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Peru and the heroic People's War that they are leading.
"The Revolutionary Internationalist Movement endorses the Call made by the CoRIM on 28 March 1995, to 'Rally to the Defence of Our Red Flag Flying in Peru!'"
The RIM is the international organisation bringing together a number of Maoist parties and organisations from across the world.
Members include the PCP and the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist), both engaged in protracted people's war along Maoist principles of class warfare for the seizure of nationwide political power.
FOUNDING CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE PHILIPPINES THREATENED WITH EXPULSION
In mid-July, the government of the Netherlands announced its intention to expel Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Philippine Communist Party, who has lived in exile in the Netherlands since 1987. The Netherlands decided to expel him "because of our national security" and naturally invoked the spectre of "terror activities", as is now being done with almost all opponents of the US-dominated New World Order; they gave him four weeks to leave the country. However, a worldwide ongoing campaign was initiated and the dutch authorities have temporarily backed down until the appeals case is processed. IEC activists might recall that a statement by Sison defending the life of Dr Guzmán was presented to the IEC Founding Conference, which drew on Sison's own experience as a political prisoner for nine years under the Marcos regime. The danger to Jose Maria Sison is real, and the IEC office urges statements of protest to be sent to the Netherlands government. Letters of protest should be mailed or faxed to the following:
Prime Minister W. Kok
c/o Dutch parliament, Postbus 20018, 2500 EA's- Gravenhage, Netherlands
Fax: 0031-70-3564683
Justice Minister W. Sorgdrager
Ministry of Justice, Postbus 30127, 2500 GC's- Gravenhage, Netherlands
Fax: 0031-70-3707911
From August 22 anyone with access to the internet can visit IEC Web pages from anywhere in the world. Several IEC documents, samples of music cassettes, photos, etc. are available for downloading.
The IEC Web pages are designed and maintained by the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (CSRP) in collaboration with the IEC-U.S. and is part of a more comprehensive web site of over sixty web pages.
The "World Wide Web" address of the site is: http://www.csrp.org -- Or alternatively you can access the IEC pages directly at: http://www.csrp.org/iec.htm
INDIA: Several meetings were held in support of the People's War in Peru in the early months of this year. The topics of speeches, discussion and debate were the history of the People's War in Peru, the current situation, capture of the main leadership and the campaign to defend the life of Dr Guzmán and other political prisoners, and the two line struggle in the PCP against the Right Opportunist Line of abandoning the fundamental gains of the people won through the People's War. Guest speakers included Raymond Lotta from US and Hisila Yami from Nepal who both explained the position of the RIM and the need to support the Central Committee of the PCP. These meetings were held in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Punjab. An outdoor rally and march was also organised by RIM supporters in Punjab. About a thousand people attended to express their support for the Central Committee of the PCP and the fighting people of Peru.
DENMARK: TV-Station Broadcast IEC Video A local Television Station with 1.4 million viewers broadcast the IEC video "You Must Tell the World" twice around the 16th anniversary of the initiation of the People's War in Peru.
The IEC activists in Denmark posted 1000 posters and distributed 1500 leaflets in the weeks preceding the broadcasts in April and May to advertise the TV premier of the IEC video. On both occasions the documentary was introduced by an interview with an IEC activist who explained the developments of the Campaign and the People's War led by the PCP.
This important event came about only through the hard, patient and persuasive work of the activists, and the courage and sense of fairness and balance on the part of some TV producers who were not put off by the hindrance of colleagues or the influence of mainstream politics.
On 13 May, a day after the second broadcast, the IEC held a well attended information meeting with guest speakers to inform the participants on the current situation in Peru and expand on the themes of the video and the interview. One of the speakers explained among other things, "how the Right Opportunist Line tried to stop the Peoples War after the arrest of PCP Chairman Gonzalo, without success."
At this meeting a new 60 page Danish pamphlet was launched and plans were made to disseminate it widely in Denmark and Norway.
GREECE: In a statement issued in June 96, the world famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis who is a signatory of the IEC Call, appealed to the Greek and world public opinion to raise their voice to demand:
"-That the barbarous isolation of A. Guzmán ends immediately.
-That political prisoners are treated humanely and according to international conventions.
-Respect for the democratic rights and liberties of the Peruvian people that are viciously suppressed."
The full text of the statement is available on request from the IEC office in London.
RED CROSS LIMA REFUSES TO MEET GREEK DELEGATION
The Panhellenic Independent Human Rights Committee "Citizens Without Chains" (CWC), sent a delegation of three Doctors and others to Peru in April 96. The delegation's mission arose, according to a statement of CWC, from "the steadily mounting deep concern of the public opinion in Greece about the abuse of thousands of political prisoners and prisoners of war in Peru" and in particular "the inhumane isolation of the ....leader of the insurgents, Dr Abimael Guzmán, in violation of all international laws...." The delegation stayed in Peru for two weeks to investigate the conditions of the prisoners particularly that of Dr Guzmán.
The all female delegation including Dr Katerina Papaguiku -a qualified oncologist in a major Athens hospital who has a long and solid experience of Latin American reality- tried to visit the Red Cross in Lima without success. When they first called the ICRC offices in Magdalena district, they were told the two top officials who could talk to the delegates were "out of town." On several subsequent occasions they were told the same story or "too busy", "involved in consecutive meetings", etc.
Before leaving Lima for a week to investigate other places, the delegates called the Red Cross secretaries to arrange a definite appointment for when they were back. Again the response was: "not possible." Finally, having exhausted all possible means of arranging a meeting Dr Papaguiku went to the RC offices the day before leaving Peru and handed in two letters to the secretaries of the relevant officials.
The IEC was informed that the delegate's report of their investigations and experience with the Red Cross were to be published in the Greek weekly paper Prin.
SPAIN: Activists in Cantabria carried out large scale postering campaign from mid April 96. They also distributed large amounts of leaflets and other material in support of the revolution in Peru, the IEC and the initiation of the People's War in Nepal.
Similar activities were carried out in Barcelona by local activists and Peruvian supporters of the People's War.
FRANCE: Ann Marie Parodi circulated a 12 page overview of the treatment of political prisoners in Peru among fellow lawyers and human rights activists. The overview is based on an examination of documents from Amnesty International, the UN Committee on Torture and the IEC. She concludes that "there are today about 7000 political prisoners in Peru, who were all condemned after trials that were unjust and not in conformity with international law..... The majority of them were tortured and mistreated during their arrest and afterwards. It does not seem that the situation is improving currently: AI considers that current anti-terrorist legislation and the impunity with which human rights are violated promotes the continuation of these practices." Ms Parodi, an experienced lawyer herself, believes that the legal community have a particular role and responsibility in defending the rights of political prisoners.
IEC supporters including MPP-France participated in the annual May Day march in Paris. The coordinated contingents distributed leaflets and other material among the marchers and talked to a number of them interested to know more about the current situation in Peru and the IEC campaign.
System of faceless military judges exposed again:
The IEC, support groups for the People's War, human rights groups and many others have repeatedly exposed the system of "faceless military judges" instituted by the Fujimori regime in 1992 in trials of suspected guerrillas as a weapon against the People's War. Most recently, in May 1996, Amnesty International launched a campaign to free what they described as "hundreds of innocent Peruvians languishing in jail on false charges of terrorism".
In a response at that time, Peruvian government officials stated that some people have been "wrongfully" arrested during the war on the Maoist Shining Path movement. But they blamed "bad judges" for the "mistakes".
A recent bill introduced into the Peruvian legislature proposes creating a special commission with powers to recommend pardons for the hundreds of prisoners presumed to have been "wrongfully" convicted of guerrilla activities. Fujimori will be the final authority in issuing any pardons!
To assess these statements by the regime and the purpose of their new bill, it is necessary to put the system of "faceless military judges" into perspective. As reported in the New York Times (5 Aug 1996), in the last 18 months, analysts estimate that about 450 people have died in political violence in Peru, and the government has detained more than 500,000 suspects. This means that right in a period when the government has been bragging openly of victory over the People's War and the PCP, the police forces have detained nearly one Peruvian out of 40 within the space of one and a half years in its hunt for revolutionaries. The "faceless military judges" were part of a more general policy of mass repression aimed not only at the revolutionaries themselves but also at the social base for the People's War, in an effort to terrorize the population into submission.
Even as it tries to hide the mass nature of this repression with talk of correcting a few "mistakes", at the same time the Fujimori regime is insisting on retaining the policy of hooded judges and is threatening to extend the areas covered by the state of emergency laws. This mainly affects the countryside, where, far from the eyes of the world, the regime carries out the most vicious elements of its suppression campaign against the People's War.
Drug hauls by navy and air force:
President Alberto Fujimori implicitly admitted Tuesday that the armed forces were linked to drug traffickers.
"We do not doubt that drugstraffickers are capable of infiltrating and corrupting some bad elements," Fujimori said at a ceremony at an air force base in Lima.
His remarks came in the wake of a string of recent drug hauls that confirmed security forces are heavily implicated in the illegal drugs trade.
In May, the air force arrested four officers including one of Fujimori's pilots after 383 pounds of cocaine was found on a military plane. This month, there have been four seizures of a total 220 pounds of cocaine on navy ships.
Peru will suspend all commercial operations by its navy and air force to stem the use of military ships and aircraft in drug trafficking, Fujimori said. [source:Reuter 23.07.1996]
Drug Payoff: LIMA, Peru (AP) A reputed drug lord has testified during his cocaine trafficking trial that he made monthly payoffs to President Fujimori's adviser on national security.
Demetrio Chavez Penaherrera, known as "Vaticano" or "Vatican" told a court Friday that he paid national security adviser Vladimiro Montesinos $50,000 a month during 1991.
Fujimori has repeatedly dismissed allegations that Montesinos was linked to drug traffickers.
A secret military tribunal sentenced Chavez Penaherrera in 1994 to 30 years in prison on charges of treason and helping Maoist Shining Path guerrillas.
Chavez Penaherrera admits to trafficking cocaine, but has denied the treason charges. He said he paid off army officials to protect his cocaine business from Shining Path rebels.
Montesinos, the de facto head of Peru's national intelligence service, is one of Fujimori's closest advisers.
In return for the payoffs to Montesinos, Chavez Penaherrera said he was allowed to use his "clandestine airstrip in Campanilla to take drugs out to Colombia and he also let me know when antinarcotics operations were going to take place in the Huallaga valley."
"That's why they never caught me," he told the threejudge panel trying his case.
Before becoming an adviser to Fujimori in his 1990 presidential campaign, Montesinos earned his living as a defense lawyer for drug traffickers....
Chavez Penaherrera controlled a clandestine air strip in Campanilla, a village 300 miles north of Lima in the jungleshrouded Huallaga Valley.... The strip was beside an army base set up to fight guerrillas in the region. [source: MONTE HAYE Associated Press Writer 18/08/96]
The Fujimori regime has been boasting for the past two years of having dealt a mortal blow to the revolutionary People's War and the PCP leading it. However, in the past few months there has been increasing worry by government spokesmen and the media of a "comeback" by the PCP. More concretely, the regime has maintained state of emergency rule in a large part of the country, including 19 districts in Lima itself, and there is now discussion of extending this once again.
As for the PCP, the two line struggle over the call for peace negotiations to bring the People's War to an end has been waged especially fiercely in Lima, particularly in the ranks of the political prisoners. However, it is clear that a core of revolutionaries united around the Central Committee of the PCP has rejected this call and is persevering in carrying forward the People's War, not only in the war's historic bases, such as Ayacucho, and also in the Upper Huallaga Valley, but even once again into the heart of the capital itself.
The "Return of Sendero", as it is being called, has led to charges and counter-charges on who is responsible, and to dire warnings to the Fujimori regime from various quarters. "I am very disappointed in the triumphalism of the government. It is very premature. I think we are going to be surprised," said one Western diplomat who studies Peru's internal conflicts. "I think Sendero still represents a serious, longterm threat." The diplomat warned that conditions in which the uprisings fomented, chiefly rural poverty and isolation, still exist. "The conditions for revolution have not changed," he said. "The authorities have relied on military and intelligence strategies but not addressed the underlying problems."
Indeed, as discussed in the past few issues of the EB, the so-called "economic recovery" in Peru came on the backs of Peru's oppressed and were built at the cost of heightened exploitation of large sectors of the population. There is much speculation in Peru's press that the PCP has been engaged in a campaign of rebuilding its networks and preparing for a new wave of activity.
In any case, what follows is a selective round-up of some of the more recent activity in the People's War, drawn mainly from accounts in the Peruvian and international press:
Aucayacu: About 250 Guerrillas of the PCP led People's Liberation Army took over the town on Friday August 2 at 7.00PM.
Eye witnesses quoted in the Caretas magazine said the guerrillas came in from three directions and infiltrated the district without arousing any suspicion. The Police stations noticed the presence of the PLA column only after they were surrounded and pinned down by the assigned PLA units.
The PLA column armed with FAL, AKM, revolvers and slingshots were mainly locals but some leaders were from Andean highlands, according to the reports.
During the five hour takeover, the rebels replenished their supplies, called a major public meeting in the city centre and specifically looked for Mijael Alvarado Paucar, the mayor and the two local bosses of narcotrafickers called "Cristal" and "Champa". The district mayor apparently stays every night in Tingo Maria as a precautionary measure.
Caretas magazine reporting eye witness accounts stated the guerrillas were very happy, readily mingled with the inhabitants and shared jokes with them.
Aucayacu with a population of 15,000 is located in the province of Leoncio Prado,in the department of Huanuco.
According to the mayor and several inhabitants, the aim of the incursion was to do armed propaganda and pave the way for the future "occupation" of the area according to established military plans of the People's War.
Before withdrawing, the PLA contingents painted numerous grafiti on the main roads and blocked the highway to Tingo Maria with a Katerpillar, and two trucks.
The army arrived in the area on Sunday, surrounded the town, but did not dare to come into Aucayacu for fear of being ambushed. When the army finally came in, they rounded up at least 50 inhabitants for "questioning" on suspicion of supporting PCP.
The local mayors had, prior to the incursion asked Hermosa and the chief of the Huallaga front for reinforcements, without success. [source: Caretas, 8/8/96]
From a Reuters account, July 31 Four guerrilla attacks in less than a week forced the resignation of the head of Peru's antiterrorist police. Gen. Carlos Dominguez's resignation followed government criticism that the antiterrorist police were careless in failing to prevent the attacks. ...the Maoist Shining Path, has traditionally launched attacks around the country's July 28 Independence Day. On Wednesday Shining Path guerrillas attacked a construction company in the highlands, destroying equipment and property. These attacks followed last weekend's car bomb explosions in Lima at the home of an army general and at police headquarters. The second bomb was less than two blocks from Congress.
Dominguez was replaced by Gen. Maximo Rivera, who was responsible for public order at the National Police. Rivera returns to the antiterrorist police where he coordinated preventative operations against the guerrillas in 1993. The recent rebel attacks have put Peru's security forces on full alert and could lead to extension of the stateofemergency rule, which has been in force in 19 Lima districts.
From United Press International (UPI), July 30 About 30 Shining Path rebels attacked a road construction camp in the Andean district of Palca Tuesday, setting fire to several pieces of roadbuilding equipment, police reported. The heavily armed rebel group gave a recruitment talk to workers at the building camp and attempted to convince them to join the column, authorities said. The guerrillas then blew up an earth mover, motorized rollers and an asphalt plant before fleeing into nearby mountains. ... the group has been stepping up recruiting activities and attacks in recent months.
Following the weekend carbombs, President Alberto Fujimori tried to calm nerves during Monday's military parade to mark the independence anniversary. "The attacks do not signify that we have let our guard down. I repeat we guarantee citizens' security and the iron fist approach will continue," he said. "Terrorism does not frighten the Peruvian people any more and we reaffirm on every Independence Day our decision to fight whatever new outbreak. We are ready to fight the violence as we have done in its worst moments."
Reuters, July 26 A car bomb exploded outside a police station in the centre of Lima early on Friday injuring 10 people including two police officers, local radio reported. Police could not confirm who was responsible for the attack which occurred two blocks from Congress. The explosion smashed windows and caused superficial damage to several buildings adjacent to the police post, the radio said. The car bomb came two days before the anniversary of Peru's independence, which the country's rebel groups traditionally mark by carrying out attacks.
16 May: A 33pound bomb exploded at 11:15 p.m. Thursday at the oil company storage center in the La Victoria district. The explosion came on the eve of the expected signing of an agreement by Shell, Mobil Oil and the government to develop the huge Camisea gas reserves in the Amazon jungle. The attack came on the eve of the formal signing of a $2.7 billion dollar hydrocarbon contract between the government and a consortium of Royal Dutch/Shell and Mobil. Friday is also the 16th anniversary of the May 17, 1980 uprising of Peru's Maoist guerrilla movement Shining Path, which has stepped up activity in recent months.
Heavily armed guerrilla columns in the Upper Huallaga Valley, have carried out several ambushes this year, killing dozens of soldiers. And a pattern of executions, indoctrination sessions and grassroots recruiting has also been reported in the Upper Huallaga Valley and the mountainous province of Ayacucho.
March 22 (Reuter) Two Peruvian soldiers and several Maoist guerrillas were killed in battles along the junglecovered eastern slopes of Peru's Andes, the military said on Friday. Sources at an army base in Ayacucho department said a patrol of soldiers and civilian militiamen was attacked by between 50 and 80 Shining Path rebels on Wednesday near the Ene and Apurimac river valleys in the Boca del Mantaro area, 217 miles (350 km) southeast of Lima. The sources, who requested anonymity, said the patrol leader was shot dead with a bullet to the head by a sniper, and a fire fight ensued. Army sources said precise casualty figures were unavailable because the bodies had not been brought back to the base yet and Shining Path guerrillas usually carry off their dead. Some 250 special antiterrorist troops have been dispatched to the area, they said. Sources said another soldier was killed in a separate battle on Wednesday in Ayacucho's Sello de Oro area, a former rebel stronghold thought to have been cleared of guerrillas. Precise casualty figures in that incident were not available.