From: Luis Quispe <lquispe-AT-blythe.org>
Subject: PERU: Newsbriefs (Part 2)
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 1996 01:23:13 -0400 (EDT)


                         NEWSBRIEFS 
                   The New Flag, Vol. 3 No. 1
                          July 1996.

THE MOST SERVILE GOVERNMENT TO IMPERIALISM


LIMA. Caretas No. 1471 reports that Michael Camdessus, the IMF blood
sucker, is the "real Minister of economy of Peru." Although an estimated
17 million Peruvians (about 75%) suffer hunger and misery, according to
Camdessus: "Peru is the best and most conspicuous payer of the foreign
debt... Education and health must be privatized to help the poor."  To be
able to pay the foreign debt, the regime increased the taxes to the poor,
two drastic increases in the price of gasoline, 23% in one year, and cuts in
health, education and others totaling 32% (Gestion June 3, 1996) whereas
the military budget increases considerably each year.  That is the result of
the widely publicized "economic miracle."  The PCP said that such
"miracle" was nothing more than a mirage.  The total deficit (GNP) in 1995
is $1,380 million. The foreign debt has increased from $27,487 million
to $ 32,445 million dollars in a period of one week! [Caretas July 6, 96]
and in accordance to the agreement of Peru with the IMF of May 4, 1993,
beginning in 1996, the annual payment of interests would be increased
>from 300 million to 966 million dollars.

What does Fujimori offers the IMF in the agreement or Declaration of
Intent they just reached?  In 1996, Peru will allocate $225 million to the
Brady Plan (IMF plan for Peru), plus $1,200 million to foreign banks
through a mechanism of selling the debt for the banks (an auction in
Holland is planned).  The largest payment is to the Paris Club, U.S. banks
and the Russians.  It is clear that a large fraction of money from the
privatizations will be used to pay the foreign debt, thus  breaking their own
law (Decree 674) that requires spending the money in social expenses and
 pacification.   The IMF s farce offers to the tyrant 6% of growth for 1998
and increase of the treasury from 16.5% to 320%.

The future of the old State is gray; before it is swallowed by greedy
imperialist bankers, it will be demolished by the powerful People s War and
install instead a New Power The People's Republic of Peru.

5,000 PEOPLE DISAPPEARED AFTER BEING DETAINED BY THE
ARMED FORCES. THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE
LANGUISHING IN PRISONS

On May 30th, 1996, a rally took place inn Lima as part of the XIV
International Week of the Detained and Disappeared. The rally was
organized by the relatives and family members of the victims. They
denounced the disappearance of 5,000 people detained by the police and
armed forces. This is a small fraction of the actual number, which is
unreported and estimated to be more than 25,000. Due to the regime's
policy of arresting and killing relatives of "suspected terrorists," most of the
relatives of the disappeared do not report the crimes of the armed forces.
Most of the killings of the reactionary army in the countryside are
unreported. Most of the time the human rights groups run by NGOs such
as CNDH, APDH, Cofader, and AI base their reports on "official" sources
only trying to minimize the extend of the crimes of Fujimori. No
independent observer is allowed by the government to conduct on-site
investigations. (La Republica, May 31, 1996)

During his last trip to the U.S., Fujimori acknowledged to NBC and CNN,
major TV networks in the U.S., that there are many innocent people
accused of "terrorism" in prison and that his Kangaroo Congress was
looking into it. The Commission of Human Rights (Comisedh) estimated
more than one thousand. Amnesty International requested the release of
more than 650 and "La Coordinadora Nacional," reported that there are
900 proven cases of innocent people thrown in jail by the genocidal regime
to boost its fictitious "victory on Sendero." (La Republica, May 26)

SIN/CIA CONTROLS THE PRESS IN PERU.

The Institute of Press and Society of Peru, a NGO, (IPYS, January 15,
1996), published something that is well known in Peru: "SIN agents have
become journalists and many journalists have become SIN agents. In the
field of TV, SIN supplies complete reports that are broadcasted without a
doubt or complaints about its veracity. SIN agents control the TV. SIN
journalists have infiltrated the radio, daily newspapers and magazines. On
the other hand, legitimate reports are silenced. To say nothing about this is
a form of lying." [The writer is Cesar Levano, Editor of Semana Si, who is
a staunch anti-Communist in Lima. See article on Senderologists in this
issue.] The above shows how the control of the press is crucial for the Low
Intensity Warfare of Imperialism, and psychological operations have also
been implemented in Peru. For example:

1) During President Gonzalo's speech from the cage most of the
"journalists" were agents of SIN,

2) The "peace letters," "videos," and "surrender of Guzman" in reality were
hoaxes cooked up by SIN,

3) These journalists wash out the genocidal nature of the regime serving as
propagandists of Fujimori's "victories" against Sendero, Ecuador, and
poverty, etc.

In addition, the expertise of SIN in running opinion polls with companies
such as Apoyo, and Imagen among others should not be discarded. These
SIN polls demonstrate "Fujimori's high popularity" no matter what the
crimes are that he commits. After all, he is faithfully serving Yankee
imperialism. All of these psychosocial warfare tactics are being melted as
an ice cream cone, before the luminous sunlight of the People's War.

THE CONFESSIONS OF AN OLD BOOT LICKER.

Augusto Elmore, a journalist of Caretas (a reactionary magazine in Peru)
revealed the truth on the disinformation campaign against the PCP. He
bluntly stated: "We cannot be impartial reporters on the Civil War in Peru.
We cannot be objective with Sendero. It is time that all of us reaffirm our
position against the common enemy, Sendero Luminoso. All of us must
denounce them." He also has a definition for terrorism: "Terrorism is not
only to plant a bomb, but to publish a front page article, reporting that
Fujimori will fire 15,000 sugar mill workers because of the privatizations."
(Caretas #1407, Mar 29)

PERU REPORT: "JOURNALISTS" SERVING FUJIMORI.

Dreaming about the "Defeat of Sendero," the US AID allocated $120,000
for a pilot settlement project of 250 people to a red zone in Ayacucho
named Huamanquiquia. If the US does it directly, it doesn't look good, so
the Geneva's International Organization of Migration and Fujimori's
counterinsurgency organization "Proyecto de Apoyo a la Repoblacion" were
brought into the anti-PCP partnership. Of course, there is need for the
"free press" in the scheme. U.S. journalists Sally Bowen and Richard Bauer
were hired by the government for public relations abroad. The message to
be used in their  Peru Report: The Return of the Displaced of 9/95" was to
provide an "evidence that Sendero is dead, and people are going back from
Lima to their communities in the countryside."  Bowen and Bauer were
transported by an army helicopter to Huamanquiquia and they began their
anti-PCP fact finding operation. First, their source of information was the
army itself, and Humberto Vivanco Alarcon and Leoncio Arguedas. Who
are these people? Vivanco is the head of the paramilitary ronda controlled
directly by the army base located nearby, and Arguedas is also a
paramilitary, who acts as the "Mayor" of Huamanquiquia appointed by the
local military. Let's see how Bowen and Bauer write: "According to
Vivanco, on July 17, 92, 18 people from the village were hacked to death in
front of their families...Sendero dressed as military rounded up women,
children, and killed them, with axes and sticks, poked their eyes, ripped
their intestines, and cut off their ears...We are grateful to President
Fujimori for the ten Winchester guns granted to the ronda, and the 200
bullets." The farce of Yankee mercenaries Sally Bowen and Richard Bauer
can be easily refuted. Let's review the report of former Attorney General
of Ayacucho (Fiscal), Hugo Escobar, on the situation of Huamanquiquia
reported at the time: "...Based on an interview to the victims and witnesses,
the army committed the genocide at Huamanquiqia on July 17, 1992."
Escobar, who also investigated several genocides committed by the armed
forces in Ayacucho, was threatened with death by Fujimori's death squad
"Grupo Colina" and fled abroad. Why did the peasants, who are the
principal base of support of the People's War, leave their communities in
the first place? Wasn't this migration caused by the widespread bombings
and genocides committed by the armed forces? How can they return if
65% of the country is under military occupation through the state of
emergency, and military curfews and the blatant crimes of the regime
continue? The answer is that the counterinsurgency plan of low-intensity
warfare calls for the installation of human settlements controlled by the
military to confront masses against masses. There is a large investment of
imperialism working through the partnership of the NGOs and the army to
organize "settlements" to be used as buffer zones against the People's War.
This fact has been acknowledged by the notorious Senderologist Carlos
Tapia who heads a NGO that investigate "re-population." This reactionary
policy is a reminiscent of the "Phoenix Program" during the Vietnam war.

          WORKERS CLASH WITH REACTIONARY ARMED FORCES

On May 20 and 24, Construction Workers mobilized in front of Fujimori's
palace and the municipality of Lima and were confronted by the armed
forces who fired live ammunition and spread tear gas. At least six workers
were wounded and 50 detained (Expreso, May 24). On May 22, thousands
of public school teachers rallied on the streets of midtown Lima, against
the murderous regime. They were joined by the city maintenance workers
as part of a two day successful strike. The armed forces shot 6 workers, and
50 were detained and accused of being "Senderistas."  (El Sol, May 23)

================================Published by The New Flag
30-08 Broadway, Suite 159
Queens, NY 11106
E-Mail:lquispe-AT-nyxfer.blythe.org
PCP Web page:
http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp
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