Fujimori Confronted by Protesters in the US

March 1994

On Tuesday, March 14, activists from the Committee to 
Support the Revolution in Peru and the IEC-US 
disrupted a press conference being given by Alberto 
Fujimori at the New York Sheraton. His press 
conference followed a $250-a-plate luncheon whose 
guest list included every major firm on Wall Street. The 
point of the visit appears to have been encouraging 
imperialist investors to further suck the blood of the 
Peruvian people, trying to reassure them that Peru 
would not undergo the economic disaster that Mexico is 
presently experiencing. 

Fujimori was not able to utter a word before protesters 
stood up at the front and unfurled a large banner with a 
picture of fire raging in the Andes that read: "Down with 
US intervention in Latin America, Support the People's 
War-- Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru."

A member of the 4th IEC Delegation to Peru spoke to the
large crowd of international journalists while pictures 
flashed, video cameras rolled, and Fujimori stood red-faced
at the podium. "This fascist puppet of the US has no right
to speak... selling Peru to the highest bidder...while the 
murderous poverty in Peru intensifies... while the 
government intensifies its genocidal counterinsurgency 
war... while the barbarous treatment of prisoners,
especially Abimael Guzman, continues!"

The protestors said that they spoke for the people of the 
shantytowns of Lima who had said to the 4th IEC 
Delegation: "You must tell the world that it is the 
People's War and the Communist Party of Peru which 
represents our future," not the US-backed regime. "You 
are a puppet dictator with no regard for human rights, 
trying to crush the People's War that will liberate the 
people of Peru" shouted the protesters in English and 
Spanish.

Fujimori and his aides and US handlers were stunned in 
silence for a long time and were very weak when they tried to 
rally. Fujimori himself clung to the podium so hard that 
later both his hands revealed long red imprints. Red-
faced Peruvian officials tried to tell the protestors that 
they should "show some respect to the President of 
Peru" and "give him a chance to speak." The protesters 
answered: "Fujimori speaks all over the world all the 
time, but the people in the shantytowns and prisons of 
Peru are not heard, but they are going to be heard here, 
not Fujimori."

The protestors shouted at Fujimori's face: "Why don't 
you let Abimael Guzman speak for himself? What are 
you afraid of?"  Fujimori finally answered that "Guzman 
would never speak to the Peruvian people. He will die in 
prison."

Eventually, some of the protestors were forcibly 
removed from the press conference, but not before 
international radio, television, and newspapers had 
gotten the story. A major New York Spanish language 
newspaper reported: "Fujimori opened his press 
conference with the question: 'Where is Sendero 
Luminoso?'--answering it himself: 'In jail.' But the events 
of the day showed that supporters of the Shining Path 
are right here in New York!"  The action was covered on 
the Voice of America wire, the Peruvian weekly Caretas 
and other television, radio and newspapers.

When Fujimori was finally able to do his press 
conference, one of the Latin American reporters asked if 
it was possible that something like what has been 
revealed about Argentina's dirty war, where thousands 
of prisoners were thrown out of planes, might have 
happened in Peru. Before Fujimori could answer, 
another CSRP activist who was still inside spoke out: 
"The question is not whether it happened, but how many 
times!" Fujimori's face went ashen. He said that such 
things had only taken place before he was President. 
When the CSRP person responded with "La Cantuta!" a 
big ripple went through the press crowd as people were 
quite familiar with the much publicized murder of 
students and coverup under Fujimori. 

A leaflet was widely distributed to the crowd with the 
title: "You can't privatize the People's War!"