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People's War in Peru

It's clear from press reports coming out of Peru that the U.S.-backed Fujimori regime has failed in its attempts to defeat the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) forces that carried out a powerful guerrilla attack on a Peruvian Army helicopter on October 2 in the Department of Junin. The PCP attack killed five Peruvian Army officers and up to four enlisted men. The government said their Army helicopter had landed near the town of Satipo, about 180 miles east of Lima, while in pursuit of a guerrilla column of more than 60 PCP combatants, when the revolutionary forces suddenly unleashed the unexpected attack.

The Battle Continues

Since the October 2 action, Fujimori has sent more than 3,000 troops into the jungle region of Junin and Northern Ayacucho to, in his words, "pursue the column of guerrillas responsible for the October 2 assault." Fujimori called the guerrilla column "followers of Oscar Ramirez, Comrade Feliciano." Government forces have included helicopter gunships, Army regulars, paramilitaries, and 400 of his elite "special forces." Fujimori admitted at a press conference that the PCP fighters were heavily armed but boasted that he would continue pursuing these PCP forces "until all the rebels are captured." Press reports in subsequent weeks, however, point to a failure of Fujimori's "Operation Annihilation" despite heightened U.S. military assistance.

A report in the Peruvian newspaper La Republica (October 18, 1999) said that in Satipo (in the same region as the Oct. 2 action) there was another armed clash between PCP guerrillas and government forces that reportedly lasted one hour and 45 minutes. According to the report, pro-government paramilitary forces were "serving as guides for the Army." The government ground troops were supported by helicopter-mounted artillery.

The La Republica article points out that despite the all-out assault by the Peruvian military since October 2, not a single PCP fighter has been captured in this area. The report also reveals that the government's recent barrage of helicopter-mounted artillery attacks in this area was not just targeted at PCP fighters but also villagers who live in this area along the banks of the Ene River.

According to reports from "native people who have fled from this zone, the helicopters have been firing rockets into this area near the Anapati River, where the ambush of the government helicopter occurred, but the principal [PCP] column has already retreated to Vizcatan [Northern Ayacucho] and only [PCP] contingency forces remained behind, and these are the ones who have been battling against the Army."

U.S. Ambassador Inaugurates New Military Base

An October 19, 1999 La Republica article reports that on that day, U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton inaugurated a new police base at Palmapampa. La Republica says that in response to recent PCP incursions in the jungle of Ayacucho, the head of the pro-government paramilitary forces of the Apurímac River area asked for "more coordination with the police authorities to fight the insurgency." He affirmed that "the insurgency was not eradicated" because guerrilla columns had recently entered towns in Ayacucho near the Apurímac River.

According to the paramilitary official, on October 8 a column of PCP fighters went into the community of Conaire and took supplies from various markets. Later, on October 12, according to La Republica, a column of approximately 50 Maoist combatants, men and women, entered the community of Iribamba-Choymacota in the Ayacucho province of Huanta, taking food and medicines. La Republica reports that the head of the paramilitary forces wanted "to warn about the latent danger of a resurgence" of the People's War.

The new military base, funded with a $13 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, is for the Peruvian National Police "Department of Tactical Anti-Drug Operations of Palmapampa." This police force is part of what the U.S. calls their "war on drugs." In reality this "drug war" is a pretext for sending more U.S. military assistance for Fujimori's vicious counter-insurgency. This past month the U.S. Congress approved a new $1.3 BILLION military assistance package to the Andean region, which includes Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

On Nov. 6, La Republica reported that two officers and three enlisted men of the Peruvian Armed Forces were killed in armed clashes with the PCP. The battles took place on November 3 and 4 in the departments of Junin and Ayacucho.

The first engagement was on Nov. 3 in an area where the Mantaro and Vizcatan Rivers meet in Ayacucho. A soldier patrolling the area stepped on a booby-trap land mine called "cazabobo." According to the official story, when an MI-17 helicopter came to evacuate the injured soldiers, the guerrillas opened fire. The helicopter received three shots to the cabin and could not take off. During the clash, Army captain Florencio Zegarra and two enlisted men were reportedly killed, as well as six PCP fighters.

On Nov. 4, a group of "Special Forces" of the Peruvian Army "confronted a senderista column in the Ene River Valley, near Tincaveni, in the jungle of Junin, resulting in one Army captain dead (unidentified) and four enlisted men injured." The La Republica report says that during the same week the Special Armed Forces operation intensified in Junin and Ayacucho in search of the PCP column that downed the helicopter on October 2. The report says the Army has combined the launching of rockets from the air with land pursuits--trying to carry out an "encirclement to keep the subversives from crossing the left bank of the Ene River to get food and supplies."

The article quotes Peruvian military sources saying they have been trying to cut the supply lines of the Maoist forces, in order to then encircle and proceed to "clean up" the area. But Peruvian press reports show that government forces are taking significant losses in these failed attempts to encircle the PCP's revolutionary forces.

On November 11, according to an article in the Peruvian magazine Caretas, Gedion Charrete--one of the main leaders of the government's reactionary para-military forces in Junin--was killed in a clash with PCP fighters. The report says that Charrete and his men were returning to the Natalio Sanchez counter-insurgency base when they were ambushed by PCP forces, leaving Charrete dead and a captain and three soldiers seriously wounded.

El Comercio newspaper reported that on January 21 "two soldiers were killed and another three seriously wounded" when "a military contingent that was carrying out a counter-insurgency operation in the locality of the Apurímac River Valley was ambushed by a Senderista group." This was in the mountain region of Junin that borders northern Ayacucho. The armed clash reportedly lasted over an hour. Two government soldiers were killed and another three were severely wounded. The press report says that an estimated 20 men and women combatants of the PCP took part in the attack.

According to a February article in La Republica, about 35 PCP combatants took over a stretch of the Tumtubaru Highway in the province of La Mar (Ayacucho), stopping vehicles and asking for support in the form of food or money. According to the article, the PCP fighters gathered the drivers and passengers of the different vehicles and gave a talk urging support for the People's War.

After PCP leader Comrade Feliciano was captured by government forces last July, the Fujimori regime and its U.S. imperialist godfathers have intensified their counter-revolutionary war--along with pompous claims that they were on their way to finally defeating the Maoist People's War. But the PCP and the revolutionary masses of Peru have other ideas--they have shown the ability to persevere in the People's War under very difficult conditions, demonstrating a fierce determination to "overcome the bend in the road" that followed the 1992 capture of PCP Chairman Gonzalo. As these battles intensify, and the U.S. tries to "beef up" Fujimori's military, it is more important than ever that people in the U.S. and around the world stand with the people of Peru.

Revolt at Yanamayo Prison

The following account of the recent rebellion by revolutionary prisoners in Peru is from the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael Guzmán (IEC-US).

In response to the revolutionary People's War of peasants, workers, students, and others, led by the Communist Party of Peru (often called "Sendero Luminoso" or "Shining Path"), successive U.S.-backed Peruvian regimes have carried out a dirty and vicious counter-insurgency war. Tens of thousands have been massacred, disappeared or executed by government forces. In 1992, the president of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, escalated the repression by staging a coup, dismissing congress and the courts to assume dictatorial rule. With U.S. assistance, a system of secret trials with hooded judges was established with no due process. Political prisoners continue to be railroaded into Peru's jails. Today there are more than 5,000 political prisoners, most accused of supporting the Communist Party of Peru (PCP). Yanamayo prison, which holds around 400 prisoners, is one of the most notorious and deadly on earth. It is located on an isolated highland near Peru's border with Bolivia--12,700 feet high in the Andes.

Uprising at the Yanamayo "Concentration Camp"

On Sunday, February 6, in the freezing cells of Yanamayo prison, 50 political prisoners and prisoners of war charged with belonging to the PCP rose up in rebellion. By holding two dozen guards hostage for two days, the heroic prisoners forced Fujimori, and the international press, to speak to their just demands.

These demands, as reported in the media and by Fujimori himself, include: that the prisoners be officially regarded as prisoners of war and political prisoners; that they be granted direct communication with imprisoned PCP leader Abimael Guzmán (Chairman Gonzalo); that the Callao Naval Base (where Abimael Guzmán and other PCP leaders are held in isolation) near Lima be closed; improvement of prison conditions; and the presence of the International Red Cross and human rights officials, "with the purpose of ensuring their physical integrity."

According to Peruvian press accounts, the rebellion was ignited by guards murdering a prisoner when 60 to 70 police, armed with shotguns and tear gas, stormed into Pavilion 4. The regime outrageously lied, saying that the prisoner was "killed by fellow inmates"!

During a similar attack on November 23 the prison warden, Colonel Oscar Altamirano Flores, stormed Pavilion 4 with 50 troops, shooting into the air and firing tear gas. According to relatives of the prisoners, "these goons beat prisoners and forced seven of them into totally dark, filthy isolation cells."

Although the prisoners released the 24 guards at noon on Tuesday, February 8, reports indicate that they remained in control of their cellblock throughout that day. During this time prisoners continuously chanted their demands and boldly flew red flags with hammers and sickles from the windows.

Danger of Further Attacks Against Yanamayo Prisoners

As of February 12, press and human rights observers have been repeatedly denied access to the prison, and it is unknown if government forces have yet entered Pavilion 4.

The prisoners and their families have warned, and Fujimori has stated, that the government may soon attempt to forcibly move some of the prisoners from Yanamayo in order to further isolate them. The prisoners have pledged to resist.

The U.S.-backed Peruvian regime has a long history of suppressing similar uprisings by massacring prisoners, often after the prison rebellions have ended. On May 6, 1992, the regime murdered 40 revolutionary prisoners in a military assault on Canto Grande prison. On June 19, 1986, the government attacked three prisons where revolutionaries were held. The revolutionary prisoners at El Frontón, Lurigancho, and the women's prison at Callao resisted the plans to kill them. At El Frontón, the prisoners held out for 24 hours against naval and helicopter attacks with homemade weapons. Nearly 300 prisoners were killed in what is now commemorated internationally as the "Day of Heroism."

The political prisoners in Peru risked all to break their isolation and make their voices heard. It is now up to us to answer their urgent call--lives hang in the balance. Here in the U.S., the country most responsible for the misery in Peru, we have a special responsibility to take action.

On Wednesday, February 9, members of the International Emergency Committee to Defend the Life of Abimael Guzmán and the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru picketed the Peruvian Consulate in San Francisco with the following slogans: Protest the Deadly Prison Conditions in Peru! The Yanamayo Prison Uprising Was Justified! Defend the Lives of the Political Prisoners Who Rebelled--Support their Just Demands! Local media reported this action as one of many held worldwide in support of the political prisoners at Yanamayo.

Demands of the Yanamayo Prisoners

Last November 4 prisoners at Yanamayo issued a list of urgent demands that addressed their horrendous conditions. This statement (summarized below and available in its entirety from the IEC) outlined point by point the outrageous and deadly prison conditions and demanded "the full re-establishment and respect of all rights as protected by the international norms of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the political constitution of Peru, Peru's Penal Code and Code of Penal Procedure." The prisoners described Yanamayo as "a fascist concentration camp where a plan of isolation, annihilation and genocide...is being applied." Six prisoner delegates put their lives at even greater risk by signing this document with their names and political titles: Pavilion 4 Delegate, Pavilion 4 Sub-delegate, two Food Delegates, Education and Culture Delegate, and Sports Delegate.

The following are excerpts from the Nov. 4 demands. The notes in parentheses are from the IEC-US.

@SLOGAN = ****

"We demand that the lock-down regimen be declared ILLEGAL, and especially that the Naval Base, Yanamayo and Challapalca concentration camps be CLOSED, because they threaten the physical and moral integrity of the prisoners... The lock-down regimen and the norms that sustain it are unconstitutional and contrary to the Code of Penal Procedure and international human rights." (Prisoners are locked down in cold cells [23 to 50 degrees F.] without lights or electricity, and allowed out of their cells a maximum of two hours per day.)

"We demand that we be transferred to our place of origin--to the Castro Castro prison [Canto Grande]--because we have been transferred here arbitrarily, and because our sentences have not been issued for this place, but for Lima." (Prisoners are moved to different prisons around the country arbitrarily and unannounced as a form of cruel punishment. Threats are made by the prison warden, Peruvian National Police Colonel Oscar Altamirano Flores, to send prisoners to an even more isolated and frigid prison in Challapalca, or to Lima's notorious Callao Naval base where Chairman Gonzalo [Dr. Abimael Guzman] and other PCP leaders are held in small, dark underground isolation cells.)

"We demand direct visits, without any restriction whatsoever, with relatives and friends...We demand that, pursuant to national and international law, visiting days be expanded...We demand the cessation of the harassment and intimidation of our relatives by PNP soldiers who by orders of [the warden] perform humiliating searches and blackmail our relatives." (Visits are allowed only with immediate family members. They are restricted to one hour per week, even though travel to Yanamayo can take days and is an expense and sacrifice only possible once or twice a year for many families. Visits are allowed only by means of a listening booth with no direct contact.)

"We demand the right to be in the yard all day long because the 22-hour confinement violates the right to health and to life...the right to moral, psychological and physical integrity..." (There are no medical specialists, no medications, no lab services, no x-rays, no surgery, etc. There are no preventative programs, TB control, nutritional support or women's health services. Dental care is sporadic and the necessary materials needed for treatment are lacking.)

"We demand complete respect for information and culture, access to media such as newspaper, magazines, radio, TV; the installation of TV sets in the halls as agreed with the pastoral team of the Vicar of Puno, who donated the equipment."

"We demand the outfitting and operation of the workshops, unrestricted flow of tools and production materials, respect for the right to work and the CESSATION OF THEFTS DURING SEARCHES."

"We demand...an improvement in the daily ration quality and quantity...We demand a stop to the robbing of food by staff...We demand the serving of food under hygienic conditions according to health standards...We demand unrestricted delivery of foodstuff... We demand authorization to utilize kitchenware and accessories for the preparation of food...We demand that the prisoner representatives implement control and supervision of the preparation of food and thus prevent the stealing of food which has reached outrageous levels. (Much of the food brought for prisoners by relatives is turned away or stolen by the authorities.)

Peru's Court of Injustice Sentences Comrade Feliciano

Article from the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru (CSRP-US):

On August 30 a military court in Peru sentenced Oscar Ramirez Durand, known as Comrade Feliciano, to life in prison. Comrade Feliciano was taken prisoner by the Peruvian military on July 14 and charged with "treason to the nation."

Comrade Feliciano assumed responsibility for leading the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) after the 1992 capture of Chairman Gonzalo and other PCP leaders. The PCP initiated the People's War in 1980 and mobilized Peru's poor in armed struggle for liberation. Since the capture of Chairman Gonzalo, the PCP Central Committee has continued the People's War under difficult conditions. They have fought against the attacks of the U.S.-led counter-insurgency. And they have struggled against the Right Opportunist Line that emerged in the ranks of the party advocating a peace agreement to end the People's War. The "crime" of "treason to the nation" that Comrade Feliciano was charged with amounts to leading the people in a revolutionary war to overthrow the oppressive system and free Peru from U.S. imperialist domination.

The outrageous treatment of Comrade Feliciano by the Fujimori regime exposes the workings of the system of injustice in Peru that denies political prisoners their most basic rights. On the very day that Comrade Feliciano was captured, Fujimori publicly announced that Comrade Feliciano would receive a guilty verdict and a life sentence. Fujimori made a similar announcement before the trial of Chairman Gonzalo in 1992.

After his capture, Comrade Feliciano was turned over for interrogation to Vladimir Montesinos--a known CIA operative and the head of Peru's secret police, the National Intelligence Service (SIN). SIN is notorious for routinely torturing political prisoners. During this entire period, Comrade Feliciano has been kept incommunicado. He has not been seen in public except for the day he was "presented" to the reactionary press in a cage made of one-way mirrors. Reporters could see him, but he could not see outside. Loud music covered up anything he might say. Comrade Feliciano raised his fist in defiance.

Comrade Feliciano was then tried in secret at an undisclosed location by military judges. No press or other observers were allowed to witness this farce. The military tribunal was a "summary process" which, under Peru's legal system, means that no real evidence is necessary for conviction, and defendants have no opportunity to present a defense. According to some reports, Comrade Feliciano was assigned an army captain as his "lawyer"! Even if he had been allowed a real lawyer, the number of lawyers able to defend political prisoners is limited because of government repression. The Fujimori regime has imprisoned many lawyers who take on cases of revolutionaries and government opponents. Six lawyers were recently put on trial for "terrorism" because they practiced their profession by defending political prisoners. At least nine attorneys are currently locked up in Peru's dungeons for defending people accused of supporting the Maoist revolution.

Fujimori and the Human Rights Court

Just a month before Comrade Feliciano was captured, the Fujimori regime declared that it would no longer recognize the rulings of the Inter-American Human Rights Court (IAC). The IAC is an offshoot of the Organization of American States, which mainly serves as a tool for U.S. domination of Latin America. But, as a result of hard-fought legal battles and people's struggle, the IAC at times has issued some decisions in favor of those persecuted by repressive governments.

There are a number of cases against the Fujimori regime before the IAC. But the case that triggered the response from Fujimori was a ruling criticizing the Peruvian military court's conviction of four Chilean supporters of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). (The MRTA does not have a strategy of Maoist people's war, but they have carried out some armed actions against the government.) The IAC ruled that the MRTA supporters were denied a fair trial and should have a new trial. The Peruvian rulers were clearly afraid that accepting the IAC ruling could open the door for challenges by thousands of other prisoners who have been convicted through unjust tribunals.

In response, Fujimori declared that his regime would not only refuse to recognize the ruling--they were pulling out of the IAC's jurisdiction altogether. With the capture of Comrade Feliciano several weeks later, Fujimori became even more emboldened in declaring contempt for the IAC. The Peruvian Congress, which is under Fujimori's control, voted to re-institute secret military tribunals that had been suspended in October 1997.

Fujimori's withdrawal from the IAC exposes even more starkly that Peru's legal system is completely unjust and cannot stand any international scrutiny. It was a brazen admission that his regime needs to use--and will continue to use--secret military tribunals as a weapon against the People's War.

The U.S. and the Fujimori Regime

The U.S. government and OAS initially expressed some concern at Fujimori's decision to withdraw from the IAC. Keeping Peru and other countries of Latin America in the IAC helps the U.S. imperialists maintain the lie that fascist regimes like the one headed by Fujimori are "moving toward democracy."

But since the capture of Comrade Feliciano, the U.S. has reaffirmed support for the Fujimori regime. On August 27, U.S. "drug czar" General Barry McCaffrey visited Peru and expressed "admiration for President Fujimori's leadership." McCaffrey also met with Vladimir Montesinos.

During some debates in the U.S. Congress this past June, it was revealed that the U.S. has been directly funding Montesinos's SIN. Some in the U.S. ruling class apparently were concerned that such open ties with this infamous organization would be too exposing internationally and damage U.S. interests. For example, Elliot Abrams, former official in the Reagan administration, said, "It's really reprehensible for us to be supporting a corrupt and repressive organization like the Peruvian intelligence service. The Congress ought to cut off this relationship now, before more damage is done to Peruvian democracy and to the reputation of the United States." If anyone knows about corruption and repression, it's Abrams--after all, he was deeply involved in the U.S. covert support of the reactionary Contras in Nicaragua.

But that debate was before the capture of Comrade Feliciano. Since then, the U.S. has been stone silent about SIN and Montesinos, or about Peru's withdrawal from the IAC. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have hailed Fujimori as a leader in the "war on drugs." The U.S. sends military aid to Peru and other countries of the region under the cover of the "war on drugs." McCaffrey has called on Congress to allocate one billion dollars in additional funding to the military and police in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia. The U.S. might also be looking to the Peruvian military to play a role in possible intervention against anti-government guerrilla forces in Colombia. The Peruvian TV recently reported that one of the topics of discussion during McCaffrey's visit to Peru was a U.S. plan for a "multinational" invasion force composed of troops from Peru, Brazil and Ecuador.

Condemn the Attack on Comrade Feliciano!
Support the People's War in Peru!

In response to the outrageous and brutal treatment of Comrade Feliciano by the Fujimori regime, the Committee to Support the Revolution in Peru calls on people, especially here in the U.S.--the country most responsible for the misery and suffering of the people in Peru--to heighten our support for the continuing People's War. And we call on everyone to oppose all crimes of the U.S.-backed regime in Peru and its system of injustice. At this time in particular, we need to demand that the lives and physical integrity of Chairman Gonzalo, Comrade Feliciano and all political prisoners and prisoners of war in Peru be respected in accordance with international standards.

For over 19 years the revolutionaries in Peru have been waging a People's War. The Communist Party of Peru has shown that it is possible to organize a new people's power--a new life and a liberating future for the people. Like in all revolutions, the path to victory is not a straight line. They have faced twists and turns, advances and setbacks. But the Party and the masses have demonstrated an ability to continue overcoming great challenges. The capture of Comrade Feliciano is a new difficulty that the revolutionary masses and their Party will have to overcome--we are confident that they can. More than ever, they need and deserve the support of progressive and revolutionary people worldwide.

Statement on the Capture of Comrade Feliciano

From the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement We received this statement from the Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. The capture of Comrade Feliciano (Oscar Ramirez Durand) is painful for the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, and for all the world's Maoists, revolutionaries and progressive people. After the arrest of Communist Party of Peru Chairman Gonzalo in 1992, Comrade Feliciano assumed the responsibility of leading the Central Committee of the PCP through this "bend in the road." Since then the PCP has never faltered in continuing the People's War, showing the highest courage and determination in the face of the enemy, which has mounted repeated intensive military campaigns against the People's Liberation Army. The Party has also persevered despite the Right Opportunist Line that emerged from among the Party's ranks which insists that the war be abandoned in the face of hard blows. This would have meant abandoning the masses of people of Peru, who have always been the source of the Party's strength and its ability to overcome twists and turns. It would have also meant abandoning the cause of the exploited and oppressed of the whole world. It has been the PCP Central Committee's steadfastness and grasp of Marxism-Leninism- Maoism that has enabled it to find the ways to continue to draw on the strength of the people and persist in leading the People's War.

At this difficult moment for the revolution in Peru, it continues to be of vital importance for our cause to draw on the strength of the people in every country possible in support of the People's War in Peru. We call on all those who can be united to oppose the criminal Fujimori regime that has committed so many atrocities against the people and the revolutionaries, including holding Chairman Gonzalo in total isolation for nearly seven years, and to support the resistance of the heroic prisoners of war who are holding out against torture, abuse, horrendous conditions and other forms of pressure to force them to make peace with the U.S.-backed regime. At this time, it is particularly important to oppose the Fujimori regime's efforts to submit Comrade Feliciano to such treatment.

Condemn the Attacks on Comrade Feliciano On the morning of July 14, Peru's U.S.-backed dictator Alberto Fujimori announced to the media that the government military had captured Comrade Feliciano, who has been providing leadership to the Communist Party of Peru (PCP) and the People's War. According to reports in the press, Fujimori personally oversaw a military sweep of the central jungle area east of Lima by 1,500 troops--aimed specifically against Comrade Feliciano. While the actual story here is not yet entirely clear, it is very clear that the bloody handprints of the U.S. imperialists are on this operation. Washington supplies the Fujimori regime with military aid and "expertise" of the CIA and other intelligence agencies. This old reactionary state power serves U.S. economic and political interests and the U.S. does continuous work to prop it up and to attack the new revolutionary power of the people.

Since the 1992 capture of Chairman Gonzalo, Comrade Feliciano and the PCP Central Committee have been heroically leading the Maoist People's War in a difficult situation. They have faced not only the brutal counter-revolutionary war carried out by the Fujimori regime and its U.S. imperialist master, but also a Right Opportunist Line that arose from within the Party and which called for abandoning the People's War. The Party's stance has remained firm. As the PCP said in a 1998 document, "The People's War is the people's road to emancipation and the winning of a new society..."

With the 1992 capture of Chairman Gonzalo, the regime loudly proclaimed the death of the revolution. The PCP has proven them liars. Today, as they report capturing Comrade Feliciano, the reactionaries once again make the same claims. But the conditions that gave rise to the People's War continue to exist. And the resistance of the masses and the basic line of the Party will continue to fuel the People's War in Peru.

Even some more sober media accounts recognize the underlying problem. One such U.S. news account said that this insurgency has proved "notoriously tough to eliminate because their communist philosophy continues to appeal to the desperately poor segments of the population." (Chicago Tribune, July 15.)

We have just received the early news of this reported capture and we will continue to report as we learn more about it. But it is absolutely clear that the attack on Comrade Feliciano is a crime and must be condemned.

And the struggle against this new attack must be linked with the struggle to defend the life of Chairman Gonzalo, defend against all the other attacks on the rights of the many prisoners of war---and to support the continuing People's War.

The revolutionary sisters and brothers in Peru have been a source of great inspiration and strength for proletarians and oppressed people around the world. Now is the time for people everywhere to step up support for the comrades of the Communist Party of Peru and the People's War they are leading.

Why the Peruvian People Need a Revolution

Conditions of the People

  • Half of Peru's 24 million people live in poverty [1]. Many never have enough to eat or adequate shelter. 36,000 children die every year from treatable diseases of poverty [2].
  • The number of people living under the official poverty line has doubled since President Fujimori took office in 1990. Eighty-five percent of Peru's workers lack full-time jobs [3].
  • 48 percent of Peru's school-age children are chronically malnourished [4], and 25 percent under age five suffer stunted growth from inadequate food [5].
    •

    This misery is being challenged and fought by a revolutionary people's war led by the Communist Party of Peru-PCP (often called Sendero Luminoso or Shining Path). People led by the PCP rose up in 1980 and have been fighting a protracted armed struggle. Based mainly in the countryside, they have organized revolutionary base areas run by peasants, workers, and their allies from the middle classes. Their goal is to eventually take power nationwide and build a new society that serves Peru's people as a whole--instead of the wealthy elite and foreign (especially U.S.) capitalists who dominate Peru today.

    The Land

    The majority of Peru's people are Indian peasants who for generations have depended on the land for survival. But this land has been wrenched away from them through a legacy of domination--from the Spanish conquistadors of five centuries ago, to today's foreign exploiters, led by the U.S.

    Three times the size of California, Peru has large expanses of agricultural land and a wealth of minerals including gold, copper, silver, zinc, lead, natural gas, and oil. Ocean fishing often yields over a million tons of fish per year. Yet people are starving.

  • Most of the rural population has less to eat today than their ancestors did 500 years ago--rarely able to afford meat, eggs, milk or even fresh water. According to United Nations studies, peasants often survive on 400 calories a day--equivalent to a couple of potatoes and a carrot.

    Though many peasants have migrated to cities in search of work, a third of all Peruvians (eight million men, women and children) still live in the countryside, mainly in the Andean highlands and the forested river valleys of the eastern Andes. Many families, even those who own some land, must survive by laboring on larger farms, or by picking up odd jobs in mining, transport, and other services.

  • In the 1970s, land reforms were supposed to give poor peasants greater access to the land. State farm "cooperatives" were set up, but the state merely became a new exploiting landlord, often with the same old local tyrants running things. Control of the land was never truly put into the hands of the people.
  • Just a generation ago, foreign groups and one thousand Peruvian landlords held 70 percent of Peru's farmable land. One landowner held 1.2 million acres while more than 500,000 peasant farmers and their families were surviving on an average of four acres each!
  • Of the peasant farmers in the highlands who still own a few acres, 90 percent live in critical poverty--unable to secure the loans and support needed to cultivate their land [6]. In fact, Fujimori has instituted new laws allowing powerful business consortiums to gobble up lands from impoverished campesinos [7], supporting export crops instead of meeting the needs of Peru's people.

    • The program of the revolution is to seize all the land of the big landowners and foreign capitalists and distribute it among the peasants under a policy of "land to those who work it."

    Cultural Oppression

    Cultural discrimination against the Indian peasants in Peru is a key feature of their oppression. Traditional indigenous clothing and languages are scorned by Peru's elite who view these as signs of ignorance and backwardness. This legacy of Spanish colonial prejudice is relied on and perpetuated in an attempt to justify the way peasants are cruelly exploited and oppressed today.

  • Quechua and Aymara speaking peasants were denied voting rights up until 1979 if they couldn't pass a Spanish literacy test [8].
  • Recent reports from Lima describe growing numbers of indigenous women seeking out back-alley plastic surgeons in desperate (and often disastrous) attempts to look more "European," hoping for a better chance at getting a job [9].
    •

    Oppression of Women

    Women in Peru face particularly harsh and cruel treatment. Spanish feudal traditions of male domination and patriarchy remain an essential element of social relations-especially in the countryside.

  • A survey in the rural department (state) of San Martin revealed that 94 percent of adult women there had been battered [11].
  • Until 1997 it was legal for men to rape their wives, and if a man raped an acquaintance he could escape punishment by marrying his victim [12]. Rape is also used routinely as a torture and terror tactic against women who are detained by the military and police.

    • In the revolutionary base areas of Peru's countryside, women live free of rape and abuse for the first time in centuries, and are on the front lines of leading and fighting the People's War.

    The Myth of Fujimori's Economic "Miracle"

    Fujimori's government and his economic reforms are designed to serve the interests and needs of U.S. capitalists and a handful of big capitalists in Peru. A former World Bank official admits: "This is a good economy for 5 percent of Peruvians, so-so for 20 percent, and a disaster for everyone else [10]."

  • One of President Fujimori's first actions in office was to institute a brutal program of social cutbacks dictated by the International Monetary Fund-severe austerity measures now referred to as "Fujishock." Food prices skyrocketed 300 percent in a single month.

    Peru's industry, including food and fish processing, metal and oil refining, and the manufacturing of textiles and clothing, remains underdeveloped offering few jobs. Most products are exported to richer countries like the U.S., leaving millions in Peru hungry and unemployed.

  • The government has calculated a survival living standard of $320 a month, but 55 percent of urban workers earn only $85 to $170 a month, leaving their families well below the poverty line [13].
  • Mine workers are hired for only a few months at a time, and paid only $5-9 a day. This exploitation results in booming profits for the mining industry ($2.6 billion in 1997) [14].
  • The mainly U.S.-owned Yanacocha gold mine profited $230 million in one year, while none of the villages surrounding the complex have running water, sewage facilities, telephones or regular electricity [15].
  • U.S.-owned Southern Peru Copper refinery in Ilo caused severe respiratory problems among workers and residents, and ruined local agriculture and fishing by spewing 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide into the air daily (15 times the U.S. limit) [16].
  • Over a million tons of fish per year is exported (as fertilizer, cat food, etc.), yet the workers can hardly feed their children. A young woman describes the horrid conditions: "you're always cold because you're working in water and fish waste...soaked from head to foot...hands full of sores from the fish bones...It's a long time since they promised to give us gloves and boots, but they never have."

    • This kind of super-exploitation is the lifeblood of U.S. domination in Peru. That's why the Communist Party of Peru has declared that "sweeping away imperialist oppression, primarily Yankee," is a major objective of the revolution.

    Migration to the Cities

    As the crisis in Peru grows, more and more people are unable to survive in the countryside and must travel to towns and cities in search of work. The capital city of Lima and its surrounding shantytowns are now home to about one third of Peru's 24 million people. Upon arrival they find more crisis: no jobs, and no services.

  • Nearly 6 million people live without paved roads, drinkable water, or sewage systems. Garbage dumps are carefully raked over for food scraps[17].
  • A 32-year-old taxi driver who works 14 hours a day explained how his family of four gets to eat meat no more than twice a month [18].
  • In shantytowns, hundreds of thousands make their living peddling cigarettes one at a time, or other items on the sidewalks of the city. 90 percent of children work to help their families survive [19].
    •

    To enforce the current set-up responsible for these conditions in Peru, and in an attempt to defeat the advancing People's War, President Fujimori took dictatorial powers in 1992, backed up by his military and police. Brutal repression, systematic rape and torture of detainees, kangaroo courts, and other harsh measures designed by Fujimori and his U.S. advisors, have been utilized against the people's resistance.

    In the face of all this, the Communist Party of Peru writes in a 1998 document:

    "[The government's] dream was and still is to annihilate the People's War, but despite difficulties and setbacks the People's War is being maintained and advanced, routing reactionary military campaigns and counter-subversive operations... The People's War is the people's road to emancipation and the winning of a new society..."

    News from Peru's Guerilla War

    The mainstream press often hides or slanders the advances of the People's War in Peru, but a review of recent mainstream news reports in Peru makes one thing clear: the People's War continues. Press reports in the past six months indicate that there have been guerrilla actions involving sizeable units of the People's Liberation Army led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP)--particularly in the Upper Huallaga Region, in the northern provinces of the Department of Ayacucho, and in parts of the Department of Ancash. (A "department" is similar to a state in the U.S.)

    Press reports also indicate that the PCP has been recruiting significant numbers of young people to join the ranks of the Maoist fighters--and that a large proportion of the revolutionary combatants, including those apparently leading guerrilla columns, are women.

    In a February 1998 document, the Central Committee of the PCP spoke about the current situation with the People's War: "The Plan `Overcome the Bend in the Road by Developing the People's War' successfully achieved the objectives set for it. We have begun to emerge from the bend. The masses are gradually becoming active once again. Some reactionary spokespeople are talking about a `fresh outbreak,' saying `They have organized,' `They have expanded their area of operations,' `They have put an end to the period of withdrawal.' What should be emphasized is that the enemy's `low intensity warfare' has been systematically fought against and their operations and campaigns and counter-campaigns have been defeated both successively and simultaneously. The advance is taking place amidst a hard-fought and determined struggle. Our center is combat. The People's Committees and the base areas have been defended with blood."

    The following are some actions that have made it into the mainstream media in recent months:

    October 8, 1998: At least two government soldiers were reportedly killed and another injured when Maoist guerrillas ambushed a military patrol in the area called Putis in the Department of Ayacucho. Those killed were non-commissioned officers from a regional military base 550 kilometers southeast of Lima. In the weeks prior to this attack the government forces were repeatedly harassed by the guerrillas.

    Week of November 25, 1998: A column of about 100 guerrilla fighters of the People's War attacked the police outpost in the town of Conchucos to the north of Huaraz in the Department of Ancash. They reportedly captured guns, ammunition and radio equipment from the police post--as well as money from the National Bank and medicines from the local hospital and two pharmacies. Press reports also said that the revolutionary column recruited various youths from the area who joined the guerrillas and traveled with them into the mountains and jungle.

    December 5, 1998: According to press reports, some 40 PCP fighters entered the Andean communities of Accobamba and Chingalpo, in the Province of Sihuás, Ancash Department. Press reports said that five young women were part of this guerrilla column. Residents gathered at the central plazas to listen to revolutionary speeches. The guerrillas reportedly appropriated medicines and surgical equipment from the health centers and food from the stores. Press reports also cited military sources who revealed that counter-insurgency posts which had been dismantled in recent months would be reactivated due to the new upsurge in guerrilla activity in the region.

    December 10, 1998: The Peruvian press reported that PCP fighters blocked a section of the Central Highway between Tingo María and Pucallpa in the Upper Huallaga region and burned seven vehicles. The Maoist fighters--about 20 young men and women--halted traffic for four hours near the town of Las Vegas, about 37 kilometers from Tingo María. During that time they painted revolutionary graffiti on the highway and on some buses. They agitated among the passengers, calling on them to support the People's War and to demand "humanitarian treatment for Chairman Gonzalo," the leader of the Communist Party of Peru who has been imprisoned for six years in conditions of isolation. The guerrillas took over almost a kilometer of the highway and stopped more than 30 vehicles. Five empty fuel tankers were burned. The fighters reportedly used dynamite and phosphorus bombs to destroy the trucks. Two government trucks belonging to the customs service were also burned.

    Week of December 7, 1998: A column of about 80 guerrillas reportedly took over the small town of Mollepata, province of Santiago de Chuco, Department of La Libertad. The guerrillas called for a 24-hour armed strike and a boycott of the second round of municipal elections. People of the town said that the revolutionaries appeared from the hills, from where they shouted denunciations of the government and local political authorities. It was also reported that 20 days earlier, a similar column entered the town of La Aguilera where, after confiscating supplies from warehouses, they painted the hammer and sickle symbol on some buildings. In the nearby town of Pataz and Bolívar the revolutionaries distributed leaflets calling on people to join the armed strike in rejection of the central government.

    December 17, 1998: The Peruvian press reported that the Minister of Defense extended the state of emergency for an additional 60 days in the provinces of Coronel Portillo and Padre Abad in the Department of Ucayali and in the province of Puerto Inca in the Department of Huánuco. During those 60 days the armed forces will assume total control over the local authorities.

    Early March, 1999: According to press reports, groups of guerrillas numbering up to 50 entered the towns of Huayllacayan, Congos, Pampas Chico y Huambro, in the province of Huaraz, Department of Ancash. The guerrillas demanded that the local authorities resign.

    April 24, 1999: A column of 20 guerrillas entered the town of Chongos in the Province of Huanta, Department of Ayacucho taking clothing, food and medical supplies.

    April 29, 1999: Press reports said that a PCP guerrilla column made up of about 15 fighters and led by a woman in her 20s ambushed a patrol of the National Police on the road between Tingo María and Aucayacu in the Upper Huallaga Region.

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