Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 15:46:21 -0500
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
Subject: M-I: Fidel Castro on the Shining Path


[Oscar Eduardo Bravo] Oscar Eduardo Bravo of Radio Programs of Peru.
Commander Fidel Castro, . . . what is the Cuban Government's position
regarding the terrorist group Shining path, which is operating in Peru, and
now according to reports is also in Bolivia, Chile, and in Tucuman, Argentina?

[Castro] . . . You ask me about Shining Path. I absolutely have no links
with Shining Path. I do not know and have never known anyone linked to
Shining Path. I know as much about Shining Path as you do. It is a mystery.
I have said in some of my interviews that it seems to confirm the country's
state of social instability. It seems to confirm a very deep economic
crisis in the country. That is what Shining Path seems to mean -- more so,
when you read the statistics on Cuzco, about the number of illiterate and
hungry peasants and undernourished children.

A Peruvian peasant leader who spoke here recently complained about very few
people having more than 200 calories daily and according to what the charts
recommended a person should consume 2,500 calories daily. There are
children who are only getting 10 to 15 calories [corrects himself] 15 to 20
grams of protein daily, who should be consuming an average of 60, 70 or 80
grams of protein. More than 100 children for every 1,000 die every year. I
call this terrorism of the worst kind. How many children are going to be
born in Peru? Peru has approximately 20 million inhabitants. Suppose we
place the birthrate at 3 percent. This means that at least half a million
will be borne and if 10 percent of these die in their first year of life,
this will mean that 50,000 children will die. However, with a health system
like the one we have in Cuba, more than 40,000 of those children could be
saved. This means that the existing social system is the cause of the death
of 40,000 children every year. To this we must add those children who die
between the age of 1 and 5 and those who grow up with physical and mental
problems. There is not a more heinous form of terrorism than the one
created by that exploitation system.

Yet, I only hear about the other type of terrorism, never about this
terrorism. I would like to hear more talk about this type of terrorism. The
other terrorism is a social outburst.

Anyone can understand that whenever there is a movement advocating a
program that has unknown objectives and intentions, but that remains active
after so many years, this means that the country is facing a terrible
social situation.

I realize that this problem cannot be solved with weapons. Peru's internal
peace problem can only be solved through political means. Among such means,
are the eradication of the social factors and causes that originated the
problem and when the people of the rural areas and cities and the abandoned
children stop dying of hunger and when there is no malnutrition, poverty,
and unemployment.

**************

(This is from the database of Castro's speeches at the University of Texas
and the only text that is returned when you do a keyword search on "shining
path." I would be very interested to see where Castro makes reference to
the Maoists in terms more explicitly condemnatory than these. While it is
clear that he does not view them as allies, it is also clear that he does
not view them simply as a "bunch of terrorists." He puts the onus for
terror on the capitalist system, even after the reporter from Peru
practically invites him to attack them. If the Maoists of the world,
including those that held state power in China in the 1960s, had been as
circumspect in their wording toward Castro, it would have gone a long way
in setting an example of proletarian solidarity. As it turned out, the
Chinese Communist Party was way out on an ultraleft limb which made
socialist unity almost impossible in those days. The Vietnamese, the
Soviets, the Cubans and the Chinese SHOULD HAVE REMAINED ALLIES THROUGH
THICK AND THIN. The fact that they didn't is a sad commentary on the sort
of training these leaderships received when they were up-and-coming. Petty
national self-interest always seemed to come first. The capitalist class
was much more united than the Communist Parties, so Nixon took advantage of
the Sino-Soviet split and the rest is history.)

Louis Proyect



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