File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1997/marxism-general.9707, message 130


Date: Sun, 13 Jul 1997 13:35:57 -0400
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (Hariette Spierings)
Subject: M-G: El Diario Number 39 - In English



SHINING PATH STRIKES AGAIN - ATE-VITARTE ATTACKED

Such were the Peruvian press headlines reporting 
the military action of the Communist Party of 
Peru (PCP) against the police barracks and 
Town Hall in the district of Ate-Vitarte (Lima).

This guerilla raid took place on Thursday May 15 
as part of the campaign of celebration of the 
17th Anniversary of the Initiation of the 
People's War. 
 
Lending support to the struggle of the 
itinerant workers in Lima and the rest 
of Peruvian provinces was also one of 
its objectives: As the public is aware, 
the mayor of Lima had launched ferocious 
police repression against thousands of 
itinerant peddlers eking a meagre living
in the streets of the capital of Peru.

This stunning guerilla attack was not 
an action isolated from others taking
place in different parts of the country. 

In the Alto Huallaga region, the Maoist 
guerillas mobilized  main columns of 
the People's Liberation Army in launching 
lightning assaults on military and police 
strongholds. 

On May 9, along the "Marginal" Highway, 
near Jose Crespo y Castillo district, they
ambushed an army patrol inflicting 4 fatal 
casualties among the soldiery.

In the same area, in January 31 this year 
a Maoist column composed of 200 fighters 
had surrounded and seized control of the 
Highway impeding all vehicular transit 
for 24 hours.  

In this battle, the guerillas had fought
off a Russian made armoured attack helicopter, 
raking it with heavy ground to air fire. 

Ayacucho, Junin, Huanuco, Huancavelica, and 
other Peruvian departments were also shaken 
by powerful guerilla actions.

The mercenary Peruvian press -  which relishes 
to support the counter-insurgency plans of 
the regime  - was forced to breach the news
black-out strategy they use against the Maoist 
guerillas and to console themselves 
screaming in despair.

All those dreaming of "defeat of Shining Path" 
were brought down to earth with a mighty 
shudder. Here, a brief transcription from 
some of the information published on May 
16 by the most important daily papers in Peru:

The Raid
(verbatim from the Lima press).

"Jaime Antezana and Carlos Tapia, anti-insurgency 
specialists, said that the raid by Shining Path 
against the police headquarters and the Town Hall 
of the Ate-Vitarte district aims to remind us 
that their organisation still exists and that 
they have already began their Maoist campaign 
to commemorate May 17 1980, as the Day of 
Initiation of the Armed Struggle (ILA)".

"According to the anti-terrorist police, the 
raid would have been carried out by around 10 
members of Shining Path.  Four or five took 
positions at the back of the police building, 
three were in charge of launching the "car
bomb", while three others acted as a 
"containment force". 

"A bomb went off downwards from the slopes of 
the hill behind the police headquarters while 
the police building was raked by gunfire".  

"The troops repelled the attack from the
side where the shots were being fired.  
Simultaneously two dark coloured vehicles 
approached from the Central Highway.  
>From these vehicles, machine gun fire 
erupted against the main entrance of the 
police building.  One of the vehicles came 
to a halt and three unidentified people made 
their get away. Seconds later, the vehicle 
- converted into a car bomb - exploded". 

"One of the terrorists then took off in a car 
while the other two escaped on foot into the 
local market place ....".

"A van loaded with more than 50 kilograms of 
dynamite and anfo which Shining Path terrorists 
planted at the gates of the police headquarters 
in the district of Ate-Vitarte (6 miles East from 
Main Square in Lima) exploded".  

"The police building was practically demolished
.... Eight policemen and four civilians were 
seriously wounded as a consequence of the explosion 
..... The action was claimed by Shining Path
by means of leaflets distributed by support 
personnel of that subversive organisation".

"In their document, the senderistas claim 
that the Police is "genocidal", they commemorate 
the Initiation of the Armed Struggle (ILA- May 17,
1980, and make reference to the issue of 
the itinerant peddlers .... "

"Exactly at 03:16:25 in the morning, the 
enormous explosion of this "car-bomb" 
stopped the clock in the office of the 
mayor of Vitarte, Enrique Pajuelo Roldan. 
The scene from the outside was right out 
of Dante's Inferno and inside, it was a 
nighmare for those who at that moment found
themselves in the buildings affected ....." 

"A preliminary valuation from the authorities 
in the zone established that material damage 
in a five block radius had been substantial ...."

"After one minute of ceaseless gunfire, the 
devastating car bomb planted by four provincial 
looking youths went off.  The blast left behind 
a 10 feet wide crater on the tarmac of the 
Central Highway.  The police building was
demolished.  Some of its walls, collapsed like 
a pack of cards.  Doors and windows strewn in 
all directions several yards away.  Nearly 100% 
of the Town Hall building was also blown-up by 
the expansive waves".





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