U.S. Sponsored Repression, Massacres, Hooded Tribunals & Frigid Dungeons

In response to a revolutionary war of peasants, workers, students, and others, led by the Communist Party of Peru, successive Peruvian regimes have carried out a dirty and vicious counter-insurgency war. Tens of thousands have been massacred, disappeared or executed by government forces. In 1983 and 1984 alone, the Peruvian military slaughtered 8,700 mainly poor peasants in their effort to crush the revolution. Between 1983 and 1992, over four thousand people were "disappeared" and thousands of others killed, including 500 which were slaughtered in 19 separate massacres, by military and police forces.

In 1992, the president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, staged a coup to assume dictatorial rule over the country and institute even more brutal and sweeping forms of repression against the revolutionary movement. A few weeks after his coup, Fujimori carried out a massacre of 40 revolutionary prisoners at Canto Grande prison.

Peru's U.S.-supported Injustice System:

• In 1992 the US helped finance the formation of a "hooded justice" system with a $16 million "administration of justice" grant. (1) These courts include secret proceedings, hooded judges, and no due process -- defense lawyers can't call or cross-examine witnesses. This system has since been used to railroaded over 5,000 people accused of "terrorism" into deadly prisons.

• Legal definitions of "terrorism" include "provoking anxiety," "affecting international relations," and seeming to excuse the behavior of suspected guerrillas -- which is called "apology for terrorism." These "anti-terrorism" courts convict over 90% of all cases.

  WANTED for crimes against the people of Peru: the US-backed Fujimori regime

• "Not a single person charged with terrorism or treason in Peru since new laws were implemented in 1992 has received a fair trial." (2) "I've gone to trials that lasted an hour: accusation, defense and sentencing. Some cases include more than 100 people." (3) In one instance, an observer who mistakenly opened the wrong door observed the judges seats empty behind a one-way mirror; meanwhile, a defense attorney earnestly pled his client's case on the other side. (4) Lawyers of political prisoners have been killed -- others have been sentenced to life in prison.

• Much of Peru is often under military rule where all constitutional rights are suspended. 500,000 people were arbitrarily detained during a recent 18-month period. (5)

• Fujimori forced through draconian legislation that allowed the police to hold suspects incommunicado for up to 15 days without charges or evidence against them. This practice effectively institutionalized torture as a method to extract "confessions."

Inhuman Prison Conditions & Torture:

• "[Women had] been sexually abused by guards. They had no recourse whatsoever. A lot of them didn't even know the charges against them and yet were facing sentences that would last their whole lives. Men reported that, under torture, they had been forced to incriminate people they did not even know as the voltage of the electric cables attached to his body was increased, he kept shouting, 'Yes!' every time a person's name was read out." (6)

• Prisoners are completely isolated for their first year, then allowed a single half-hour visit per month. BUT in some cases prisoners are isolated for much longer. Abimael Guzmán (Chairman Gonzalo), captured chairman of the Communist Party of Peru, has been isolated from the outside world since 1992!

• Prison conditions include overcrowding and a desperate lack of food, water, light, heat and clothing. In Yanamayo prison (where NY native Lori Berenson and hundreds of others are held) water freezes on the floor due to the frigid temperatures. Prisoners sleep on cement slabs. Most cells have no windows -- others have had the glass broken out. A hole in the floor serves as a toilet. Most prisoners suffer chronic illnesses and none are allowed out of their cell for more than one half-hour a day.

• Peru's 1995 amnesty law for military members "insures that murder, disappearance, torture, and rape committed by agents of the state will go uninvestigated and unpunished." (7) Convicted death squad murderers have been released from prison.

Background on Peru

• Fujimori's last election was the most boycotted ever. Although it is against the law not to vote, millions risked being accused of subversion by not voting at all.

• The number of Peruvians living in poverty has doubled since 1990 when Fujimori first took office.

• "More than half of Peru's 24 million people live in poverty, 85% of the work force does not have full-time jobs and 93% of children do not have access to school books." (8)

• 36,000 children die every year before they reach their fifth birthday due to starvation or preventable disease. About seven million people don't have clean drinking water, and 12 million are without sanitation. (9)

• There are 350,000 socially abandoned children in Peru, including 40,000 children working as virtual slaves in the gold-panning areas in the jungle. (10)

• Of the huge export of fish caught off of Peru's shores (millions of tons per year), most is made into fishmeal for US pet food and fertilizer.

January 25, 1997
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Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru
PO Box 1246, Berkeley, California 94701
415-252-5786 * Fax: 415-252-7414