International Emergency Committee to
Defend the Life of Dr. Abimael Guzmán

IEC-US, 2912 Diamond St #302
San Francisco, CA 94131
415-252-5786 / fax: 415-252-7414

Uprising of Revolutionary Prisoners at Yanamayo, Peru

Please send letters in support of their demands - and help defend their lives.

February 12, 2000
Yanamayo
Yanamayo Prison, southern Peru





Red Flags at Yanamayo
Prisoners hung posters of their demands and boldly flew red flags during the uprising on February 8.


Troops Surround Yanamayo 300 heavily armored government troops surrounded Yanamayo during the uprising.

In response to the revolutionary People's War of peasants, workers, students, and others, led by the Communist Party of Peru (often called "Sendero Luminoso" or "Shining Path"), successive US-backed 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 1992, the president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, escalated the repression by staging a coup, dismissing congress and the courts to assume dictatorial rule. With US assistance, a system of secret trials with hooded judges was established with no due process. Political prisoners continue to be railroaded into Peru's jails. Today there are more than 5,000 political prisoners, most accused of supporting the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Yanamayo prison, which holds around 400 prisoners, is one of the most notorious and deadly on earth. It is located on an isolated highland near Peru's border with Bolivia 12,700 feet high in the Andes.

Uprising at the Yanamayo "Concentration Camp"

On Sunday, February 6, in the freezing cells of Yanamayo prison, 50 political prisoners and prisoners of war charged with belonging to the PCP rose up in rebellion. By holding two dozen guards hostage for two days, the heroic prisoners forced Fujimori, and the international press, to speak to their just demands.

These demands, as reported in the media and by Fujimori himself, include: that the prisoners be officially regarded as prisoners of war and political prisoners; that they be granted direct communication with imprisoned PCP leader Abimael Guzman (Chairman Gonzalo); that the Callao Naval Base (where Abimael Guzman and other PCP leaders are held in isolation) near Lima be closed; improvement of prison conditions, and the presence of the International Red Cross and human rights officials "with the purpose of ensuring their physical integrity."

According to Peruvian press accounts, the rebellion was ignited by guards murdering a prisoner when 60 to 70 police, armed with shotguns and tear gas, stormed into Pavilion 4. The regime outrageously lied, saying that the prisoner was "killed by fellow inmates!" 20 prisoners were said to be wounded or injured.

During a similar attack on November 23 the prison warden Colonel Oscar Altamirano Flores had stormed Pavilion 4 with 50 troops, shooting into the air and firing tear gas. According to relatives of the prisoners, "these goons beat prisoners and forced seven of them into totally dark, filthy isolation cells."

Although the prisoners released the 24 guards at noon on Tuesday, February 8, reports indicate that they remained in control of their cellblock throughout that day. During this time prisoners continuously chanted their demands and boldly flew red flags with hammers and sickles from the windows.

Danger of Further Attacks Against Yanamayo Prisoners

As of February 12, press and human rights observers have been repeatedly denied access to the prison, and it is unknown if government forces have yet entered Pavilion 4.

The prisoners and their families have warned, and Fujimori has stated, that the government may soon attempt to forcibly move some of the prisoners from Yanamayo in order to further isolate them. The prisoners have pledged to resist.

The US-backed Peruvian regime has a long history of suppressing similar uprisings by massacring prisoners, often after the prison rebellions have ended. On May 6, 1992, the regime murdered 40 revolutionary prisoners in a military assault on Canto Grande prison. On June 19, 1986, the government attacked three prisons where revolutionaries were held. The revolutionary prisoners at El Fronton, Lurigancho, and the women's prison at Callao resisted the plans to kill them. At El Fronton, the prisoners held out for 24 hours against naval and helicopter attacks with homemade weapons. Nearly 300 prisoners were killed in what is now commemorated internationally as the "Day of Heroism."

The political prisoners in Peru risked all to break their isolation and make their voices heard. It is now up to us to answer their urgent call-lives hang in the balance. Here in the US, the country most responsible for the misery in Peru, we have a special responsibility to take action.

IEC/CSRP Protest
IEC and CSRP members called an emergency protest outside of the Peruvian Consulate in San Francisco, February 9.
On Wednesday, February 9, members of the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael Guzman and the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru picketed the Peruvian Consulate in San Francisco with the following slogans: Protest the Deadly Prison Conditions in Peru! The Yanamayo Prison Uprising Was Justified! Defend the Lives of the Political Prisoners who Rebelled - Support their Just Demands! Local media reported this action as one of many held worldwide in support of the political prisoners at Yanamayo.

Please send individual letters of support for the prisoners to the IEC. We will forward copies of these to: the Embassy of Peru in Washington DC, the Defensor del Pueblo (a "non-governmental" human rights official in Peru), the President of the Supreme Court of Peru, President Alberto Fujimori, the Lima newspaper La Republica, and directly to the warden of Yanamayo prison.

Update

February 25, 2000

The crisis continues at Yanamayo Prison in Peru following the February 6 uprising of 50 prisoners charged with being members of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). The prisoners and their families say there is a possibility of violent retaliation by the prison authorities, and they are calling for the International Red Cross and human rights officials to be allowed to come into the prison to inspect the inhuman conditions. So far, the prison authorities have denied all visits with the Yanamayo prisoners because of "security measures."

The Peruvian government has a history of carrying out massacres of political prisoners. The recalcitrant response of the prison authorities to the demands of the Yanarnayo prisoners is increasing the concerns of families and supporters that another attack is being planned.

According to the media, the prisoners have presented a list of demands to the prison authorities. The demands include: end to the prison isolation of PCP Chairman Gonzalo (Abimael Guzmán) and his presentation, live and in person, to the public; a direct meeting with Chairman Gonzalo; official recognition as prisoners of war; closing of the prison at El Callao Naval Base near Lima where Chairman Gonzalo and other PCP leaders are held; improvement of prison conditions. Peruvian President Fujimori declared that he refuses to even consider the just demands of the prisoners. He has threatened to transfer prisoners who took part in the uprising to a maximum-security prison near Lima where other political prisoners are held in solitary confinement.

The heroic action of the prisoners at Yanamayo brings to public attention the brutal treatment of all political prisoners in Peru-and it shines a light once again on the cruel isolation of Chairman Gonzalo. Since his capture by government forces in 1992, Chairman Gonzalo has been held in an underground concrete dungeon at El Callao. He is denied visits by lawyers, doctors and relatives and deprived of proper medical care. Fujimori has publicly threatened to execute Chairman Gonzalo and boasted of applying psychological torture on him. The IEC has waged an international campaign to demand an end to the isolation of Chairman Gonzalo.

It is urgent that people in the U.S. and around the world come to the defense of the revolutionary prisoners in Peru and support their demands. The IEC is calling on people to send letters to demand that the International Red Cross, the Defensor del Pueblo and other human rights agencies be allowed to enter Yanamayo Prison and verify the safety and well being of the prisoners. Send letters to the IEC in San Francisco (Fax: 415-252-7414) to be forwarded to the Peruvian consulate, human rights groups and the prison authorities in Peru.