Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 16:04:50 -0500 (EST)
From: "Liam R.Flynn" <trinity-AT-hot-shot.com>
Subject: M-G: Remembering the action


>    
> -------------------------
> Via Workers World News Service
> Reprinted from the Jan. 2, 1997 
> issue of Workers World newspaper
> -------------------------
> Poverty & oppression underlie Peru crisis Daring rebel action catches
> Fujimori regime by surprise By M=f3nica Ruiz The daring and successful
> takeover of the Japanese ambassador's house in the capital city of
> Lima has focused world attention on Peru's T=fapac Amaru Revolutionary
>  Movement (MRTA). The MRTA, one of several revolutionary armies in
> Peru, took over the house on the evening of Dec. 17 in what the
> group called Operation Breaking the Silence. Dressed as waiters, the
>  rebels crashed a lavish party commemorating the birthday of
> Japanese Emperor Akihito. Hundreds of people, including members of
> Peru's ruling class and international and political elite, found
> their celebration transformed into an arena of class struggle. Some
> 600 party-goers were captured by the guerrillas. As of this writing,
>  the majority have been released, either for humanitarian reasons or
>  for negotiating purposes. MRTA militants-described as young and
> extremely disciplined-continue to hold Peruvian Foreign Minister
> Francisco Tudela, 11 ambassadors, the country's top generals and the
>  heads of Peru's political police, including Gen. M=e1ximo Rivera,
> director of the National Directorate Against Terrorism (DINCOTE),
> and Carlos Dom=ednguez, former DINCOTE director. The MRTA is demanding
>  the liberation of 500 of its comrades languishing in prisons
> throughout Peru and an end to the neoliberal economic policies of
> President Alberto Fujimori's regime. It also demands repeal of the
> amnesty law that absolves paramilitary death squads, the reestablishment
>  of union rights, abolition of the new land law, and guaranteed
> recognition of rural communal lands, according to released hostages.
>  U.S. and Japan intervene Negotiations between the Fujimori
> government and the MRTA have been taking place in a climate of open
> imperialist intervention by both the U.S. and Japanese governments.
> Outwardly, at least, the Japanese government has supported a more
> conciliatory approach toward the rebel demands, placing a priority
> on resolving the crisis without force. The U.S. has taken a more
> bellicose position, warning Peru's government not to reward
> hostage-takers by negotiating with them. The Fujimori government has
>  said it won't use force to resolve the crisis-as long as the MRTA
> surrenders. But it has stationed 900 police and special forces
> around the house and has cut off water, phone service and electricity,
>  creating a severe sanitary problem. The U.S. has rushed a team of
> "security advisers" to Lima. On Dec. 20, U.S. State Department
> spokesperson Nicholas Burns refused to comment on reports that the
> Pentagon has also dispatched a special commando called Delta Force
> from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Howard Air Force Base in the Panama Canal
> Zone for possible deployment to Peru. The British government,
> working in tandem with the U.S., also sent a security team-reportedly
>  elite Special Air Service "anti-terrorist" paratroopers. Beneath
> the differences in approach to the crisis between Japan and the U.S.
>  is their competition for hegemony in Peru. While the U.S. remains
> the largest source of economic and military aid to Peru, Japan runs
> a close second. Japan has tried to use Peru as an economic beachhead
>  in Latin America, making this Andean country the leading recipient
> of Japanese development loans in the region. Japan has an interest
> in keeping a modicum of peace and stability for its investments to
> continue flourishing. Fujimori is of Japanese ancestry, reflecting
> the affinity between one section of Peru's ruling class and the
> growing Japanese presence in what has been for over a century within
>  the U.S. economic sphere of influence. The U.S., on the other hand,
>  has tried to build stronger links to the Peruvian military under
> the cover of the so-called drug war. Using this excuse the Pentagon
> provides military helicopters and advisers to Peru-that can then be
> used against popular armed movements. Another avenue for seemingly
> innocuous assistance is the U.S. Agency for International Development,
>  which has been identified as a frequent conduit for CIA money. Peru
>  is the largest recipient in South America of USAID funds. Oppressed
>  are exhilarated The British news agency Reuter reports widespread
> support in the Latin American left for the MRTA action-which means
> that workers and peasants are celebrating this daring act. Julio
> Marenales, a former leader of the Uruguayan Movement for National
> Liberation, known as the Tupamaros, said he felt close to any
> movement that wages a sincere struggle and seeks a profound change
> in the country. Rina Bertaccini of the Argentine Communist Party
> charged that "The responsibility for this situation lies with the
> Peruvian government, which holds political prisoners in terrible
> conditions." Marco Leon Calarca, spokesperson for the Revolutionary
> Armed Forces of Colombia, stated, "The people of the world cannot
> sink into extreme poverty and misery without struggling. They have
> to defend themselves against the aggression of the neoliberal model."
>  By neoliberalism is meant the so-called free trade policy of the
> world banks that has forced so many indebted developing countries to
>  privatize state-owned industries and open their internal markets to
>  transnationals. This usually leads to the bankruptcy of domestic
> businesses and farms, with growing unemployment and misery for the
> people. Glaring rich-poor gap Over 50 percent of Peru's people live
> below the poverty line. The poor are overwhelmingly of Indian
> descent. Fully 54 percent of the population is Indian, with another
> 32 percent mixed Spanish and Indian. The ruling elite, on the other
> hand, is white. This tiny, wealthy elite lives surrounded both
> physically and socially by an enormous mass of super-oppressed. The
> rich neighborhoods where the wealthy live are surrounded by gigantic
>  slums known euphemistically as pueblos j=f3venes-oung towns. This
> small elite has every reason to fear the world around it, given the
> difference in wealth, power and numbers. So they have demanded, and
> got, a government that delivers fierce repression of any who
> challenge their privileged status. These conditions have inevitably
> led the Peruvian people toward armed revolutionary struggle. In 1980,
>  the Peruvian Communist Party-known as the Shining Path-launched a
> military campaign against the Peruvian ruling class that had strong
> support in some of the most impoverished rural areas. The MRTA, a
> Marxist-Leninist group that emerged in 1982, launched its first
> armed attack in 1984. It takes its name from T=fapac Amaru II, the
> last Inca to lead a rebellion against Spanish colonizers in 1782.
> Fujimori-a former engineer with no political background-was elected
> in 1990 as a reflection of the insecurity of the Peruvian elite. His
>  election marked a break from the traditional ruling parties toward
> military rule administered by law-and-order technocrats. His tough,
> dictatorial stance is aimed at shielding the elite from the fury of
> the masses. As the present situation shows, however, they can never
> shield themselves from the workers. It is workers who feed them,
> wash their clothes, cook their food, tend their gardens, and protect
>  their palatial homes. The revolutionaries who got into the
> ambassador's compound were dressed as caterers and came carrying
> champagne and caviar. Reports from released hostages describe them
> as young workers, women and men. Their leader is reported to be
> N=e9stor Cerpa Cartolini, a militant union official who was jailed in
> 1979 for leading a worker occupation of Cromotex, a textile plant
> that was being closed. Poverty and military dictatorship Consolidating
>  his control of the country, Fujimori shut down the Congress in
> April 1992. He then fired nearly half the Supreme Court and assumed
> dictatorial powers. Fujimori recently managed to amend the Peruvian
> constitution so he could rule for a third term. After years of
> economic policies dictated by the International Monetary Fund and
> the World Bank, 80 percent of Peru's workforce remains either
> jobless or under-employed, according to a Dec. 18 Reuter report.
> Only one in 32 people have a telephone and millions have little or
> no access to medical care. Fujimori's standing in the polls has
> steadily dropped over the last five years. In his campaign to
> decimate the revolutionary movements in Peru, Fujimori has given the
>  military free rein. As a consequence, the prisons have been flooded
>  with thousands of political prisoners. In the last 18 months alone,
>  the repressive anti-terrorism laws have led to 500,000 detentions-a
>  figure disputing Fujimori's claim that the guerrilla movements have
>  no popular support. Anyone arrested under these laws is sentenced
> within 24 hours by a military court administered by a hooded
> judge-iving rise to the term "faceless justice." The accused is
> almost always found guilty and is sentenced to long or life jail
> terms under brutal conditions. These repressive conditions have made
>  the prisons centers of political organizing. The MRTA's demand for
> the release of its leader, Victor Polay, and 500 other comrades has
> already thrown a spotlight on the brutal conditions faced by the
> thousands of political prisoners. No matter how the MRTA takeover
> ends, the Fujimori regime has suffered a significant defeat. Its
> claims of victory over the popular movement are now seen as mere
> wishful thinking. The silence has been broken as the voice of pain
> and anger of the political prisoners and masses of the poor has been
>  broadcast around the world. Their valiant action is a signal to
> imperialists around the world: the revolutionary forces in Peru are
> alive and well. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission
> to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact
> Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww-AT-wwpublish.com.
>  For subscription info send message to: ww-info-AT-wwpublish.com. Web:
> http://www.workers.org)   Copyright =a9 1997 workers.org 


                                                       Liam R.Flynn
                                                  liam-AT-stones.com
                                                       ICQ*5031073
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