From: Luis Quispe <lquispe-AT-blythe.org>
Subject: Re: re-peru thread
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 01:28:42 -0500 (EST)


> 
> re-peru thread
> 
> Chris, thank you for your reasoned response. In using the term "neutrality" I
> was not referring to the control of a given territory but to the control of a
> given population. I have read that Ayacucho, the PCP's Andean stronghold, has
> emptied out over the past decade. Aprox. 70 per cent of the population has
> fled the war for the cities on the coast. So to some extent, the water in
> which the fish swim has in fact dried up. While it has become apparent to me
> that the army's policy of establishing armed bands is responsible for the
> escalation of violence in the countryside, the PCP response seems to me to be
> one that does not allow for the counter-efficacy of armed struggle. 
>
  This proves two important points: one that the Army is strong in the cities
  whereas the PCP dominates the rural areas which falls in the conception of
  People's War (surround the cities from the countryside). In 1981, 
  Senderologist Degregori came up with the idea that subversion was a
  regional problem of Ayacucho and that the Armed Forces intervene and
  liquidate or expell the PCP and its supporters the "water was dried and the
  fish dead." Gross mistake. From 1982-1984, two years of brutal genocide due
  to the direct intervention of the Army -the migration to Huamanga (the
  capital of Ayacucho) trippled. After 1985 the migration from Huamanga
  to Lima increased considerable to the heavy military represion. However,
  part of the river's flow consolidated the sea of the revolution in the
  iron belts of Lima (the Shantytowns 70-75% of Lima's population
  of Andean origin). At the same the revolutionary storm spread countrywide. 
 
> I quoted at length from the Americas Watch report about the MRTA and the
> Ashaninka in order to show a pattern common to a lot of the violence in rural
> Peru - as presented in Peru Under Fire. The area in question, the coca-rich
> Huallaga Valley, is the most economically dynamic  in the country. Unsavory
> alliances seem to go with the territory. Could it be otherwise?
> 
  If Amnesty is bad. America's Watch (AW) is worse. It is relevant to note
  (actually we will post a paper comparing AW's report on the FMLN and the
  PCP -both "terrorists" according to the U.S. controlled watch.) The AW 
  Consultant on Peru Robin Kirk has admitted "her bias and deep hatred to 
  the PCP" Because we have denounced her in 1992 an alleged interview of 
  PCP's female POWs she claimed to have conducted as fake and other 
  unsubstantiated allegations she made (e.g. Women of the PCP are
  perverted, etc.) 
    
> When I wrote about an incident being "characteristic" I was not referring to
> the PCP per se, but to the reports of PCP-linked atrocities in the Americas
> Watch report. There is a great difference, and I am sorry that I didn't make
> that clearer. (By "en masse," I meant, in a body. A dozen peasants killed en
> masse means a dozen peasants killed at once. I don't think this is
> hyperbole.)
  Where is the evidence?? AW has claimed that the PCP has killed the mayor
  of Huancayo while jogging and "the PCP has unsually accepted 
  responsibility". Two absurd allegations. The PCP always acknowledge
  responsability and it does so with a lenghty denunciation. For example to
  execute Moyano it took two years of public trials and condenation in El
  Diario and local papers --to finally give her just sanction for fingering
  out PCP supporters and organizing paramilitary thugs. When the People's 
  Army, wipe out these paramilitary organized by the Army in combat the
  Army, AI, AW, the Church Hierachy and even one US funded Peruvian right
  group "cordinadora" cry "en masse peasant killed." It also hits the same
  Army just two days ago on Feb. 27, 1996 54 soldiers (one Colonel) were
  annihilated in Combat in Tocache (the government admitted 14 and 5 officers
  dead). It was contigent of 150 Maoists against 200 Army personnel. Just
  wait the cry of "human rights violations of the PCP" FYI. All survivors
  were freed (large weaponry was captured.)

> That aside, I found most of your comments to be on the mark. The situation is
> murky, and the authorities have considerable reason to make it even more so.
> However, I find it hard to judge the degree of popular support for the PCP in
> Peru. The fact that the organization relies on "armed strikes" in the cities
> makes me pause.
> Who are trying to foul? Before the Armed Strike was introduced, a handful
  of 20-30 cops armed to the teeth was enough to clean-up the streets from
  massive strikes of workers -couple of bullets and couple of deads that's 
  it. In Peru, 2/3 of the terrotory is under the State of emergency and
  curfews (the military kills brazenly in the street and nothing happen).
  Lima is also under State of emergency. Armed strike is not to force the
  people to strike but to confront militarily the military while the
  large masses actively participates. Armed strikes are successful to the
  extent the masses participate and they do participate. The PCP is ingrained
  in the masses, but ir does not mean it "control" 90% of the masses or the
  masses are all for insurrection. No yet. Let's learn of the FMLN final
  offensive.

> [all about Groucho deleted as irrelevant]
 
> The coca policy of the PCP in the Haullaga Valley seems to be yet one more
> example of this.
> What is the coca policy of the PCP? The PCP defends the rights of the
  peasants to plant coca and sell it for a fair price. But the PCP does not
  accept its processing nor comsuption. In the People's Committees coca
  substitution by other crops is a policy being applied. The PCP has
  drastically repressed the Colombian and Peruvian narcotrafickers and the
  Peruvian Army. The military and Fujimori is involved in drugs up to the 
  neck. Yet, they receive a "certificate of good conduct" by Yankee
  imperialism.

> scenario in which arms would be distributed to the masses. But wars are no
> longer fought with bayonets and muskets.
>  Good point. It is mainly political war. But don't forget that reactionary
   and institutionalized violence must be confronted with revolutionary
   violence. Otherwise repression will cut us into pieces.

> Waging a people's war in a country like China, which in Mao's time was over
> 80 per cent rural, is a very different proposition from doing so in
> contemporary Peru, which is over 75 per cent urban. Although it may be
> "philistine and post-modernist" to say so, the terrain of a city is very
> different from that of a rural area. 
  With due respect. You just don't Peruvian society. Who told it was 75%
  urban and "modernized". Peru is a semi-feudal, semi-colonial in which a
  deformed bureaucratic capitalism unfolds. There are cities in the coast,
  sierra and jungle all proven fertile grounds for revolution [please
  read From the Sierra to the Cities by Dr. McCormick Professor at the
  Navy Military Academy. Monterrey, CA --he is using USDOD data]


> Likewise, the response that can be anticipated by a modern army to armed
> insurrection in a city - witness Chechnia - has far reaching implications.
> Chechnya is no comparison with the People's War. How ridiculous!
  We will post the complete program of the PCP at due time -the one
  we posted was an abridged version so that most people can read. 

> The only response I can imagine, other than a Cambodia-like scenario, is one
> that involves the entire region. But thus far, the PCP does not seem capable
> of building bridges in Peru, let alone to Latin America. This stands in sharp
> contrast to the Zappatistas and I think there's a salutary lesson to be drawn
> from this. I don't think it is about the legitimacy of armed struggle - a
> question which must be answered in a concrete context - but rather, about
> popular democratic mobilization as opposed to authoritarian organization.  
> Uhh...Here you reveal your pacifist stand and you do not believe in
 revolution. Then, let's leave the priests and nuns leaded by Mother 
  Teresa take care of Peru. Zapatistas? They are a travesty of revolution.
  A caricature that go no where but "dialogue" and accomodation. Without
  Sate Power for the people, all is illusion.

> 
> luftmensch
> You are not Grouch, you are priest -hope you have your "sotana" with you.
> 
>luftmensch: you are a priest who was born without an asshole. Hope your 
 pope comeback to
 Ayacucho to bless the bloody bayonets of the Army ..but this time we
  won't only black out the lights as we did before, but open up his
 holy ass with a straigh b.....

> 
> 
> 
> 
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