AYACUCHO, Peru-Dozens of soldiers surrounded our plane as we landed at the Ayacucho airport. After passing a military checkpoint, we en- tered the airport where no civilians, except passengers, are allowed. Air- force and army personnel fill all air- line jobs, from ticket collectors to porters. For the next few days. I saw the military everywhere: on roadsides, in restaurants and hotels, outside churches, in the town square. It was difficult to imagine a more occupied town. The city of Ayacucho. nestled in a valley high in the Andes Mountains. is home to thousands of Quechua- speaking Indians. Traditionally ig- nored by the major centers of com- merce and industry, Ayacucho lacks the social services found in other parts of the country and most of the depart- ment's inhabitants are peasants, cul- tivating potatoes in a barren, inhospit- able landscape. In December 1982, the department, or state, of Ayacucho was put under the control of a "political! military command." The local police had been unable to beat back Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), the guerrilla move- ment which surfaced in 1980, Sendero destroyed police outposts throughout the department, and the police, in turn, committed numerous abuses against the civilian population, build- ing support for the guerrillas. Since 1982, living conditions for thousands of Ayacucho residents have sharply deteriorated. In pursuit of Sendero and its suspected supporters, the military-the army, marines and Sinchis, a special police counterin- surgency force-has extended its rule into every town and village. Some 5.000 people have been murdered in Ayacucho since 1983. Human rights officials estimate that 2,000 people have disappeared while the survivors Ayacuchanas selling coca leaves In front of Sendero graffItI 6 REPORT ON ThE AMERICAS The streets of Lima are a testimony to Peruvians' creative survival tactics. Vendors sell an assortment of items on virtually every corner while street- theater groups, fire eaters and singers perform for spare change. Crime has also increased substantially, with iron gates now surrounding most office buildings. Sales of burglar alarms, locks and weapons are booming. Residents of the pueblos jdvenes, or shantytowns, around Lima have demonstrated a more organized, mili- tant approach. Massive marches to the government palace frequently pro- test the lack of basic services and the catastrophic economic situation. Many neighborhood organizations have formed communal kitchens, at- tempting to provide affordable meals. The shantytowns are also growing rapidly, as extreme poverty in the countryside forces thousands of cam- pesinos to migrate to the cities. As the residents become organized, they are joining APRA, the Left and indepen- dent organizations. APRA also benefitted from the con- solidation of the Left; anti-com- munism is stronger in Peru than anti- Aprism. Many conservatives admitted relief at Garcia's victory over Bar- rantes. Along with mining towns and the impoverished southern Andean provinces, the shantytowns of Lima have provided the greatest political Ayacuchanas selling coca leaves in front of Sendero graffiti support for the United Left coalition. In light of the increased size and or- ganization of these groups and the Left's efforts to overcome its own in- ternal rifts, few doubt the political po- tential of the United Left. The new APRA government faces a formidable task. The outgoing admin- istration, which emphasized its loy- alty to the international banking sys- tem, has been in arrears for the last year on payment of the interest on Peru's $13.6 billion debt. Meanwhile, the working population has been promised a respite from inflation and unemployment. The conservative par- Peru Ayacucho Under Siege BY NANCY PECKENHAM AYACUCHO, Peru-Dozens of soldiers surrounded our plane as we landed at the Ayacucho airport. After passing a military checkpoint, we en- tered the airport where no civilians, except passengers, are allowed. Air- force and army personnel fill all air- line jobs, from ticket collectors to porters. For the next few days, I saw the military everywhere: on roadsides, in restaurants and hotels, outside churches, in the town square. It was difficult to imagine a more occupied town. The city of Ayacucho, nestled in a valley high in the Andes Mountains, is home to thousands of Quechua- speaking Indians. Traditionally ig- nored by the major centers of com- merce and industry, Ayacucho lacks the social services found in other parts of the country and most of the depart- ment's inhabitants are peasants, cul- tivating potatoes in a barren, inhospit- able landscape. In December 1982, the department, or state, of Ayacucho was put under the control of a "political/ military ties will now play the role of the in- transigent opposition while the possi- bility of the Left and APRA combin- ing forces looks dim. Despite these difficulties for the next president, the first and second place finish of the op- position parties signifies an historic advance of popular political move- ments over Peru's old-style "creole liberalism." It was not a vote of pro- test, Alan Garcia said the day after the polling, but a vote of hope. Charles Walker writes for several Peruvian newspapers and magazines. command." The local police had been unable to beat back Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), the guerrilla move- ment which surfaced in 1980. Sendero destroyed police outposts throughout the department, and the police, in turn, committed numerous abuses against the civilian population, build- ing support for the guerrillas. Since 1982, living conditions for thousands of Ayacucho residents have sharply deteriorated. In pursuit of Sendero and its suspected supporters, the military-the army, marines and Sinchis, a special police counterin- surgency force-has extended its rule into every town and village. Some 5,000 people have been murdered in Ayacucho since 1983. Human rights officials estimate that 2,000 people have disappeared while the survivors REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 2 0 0 d e 6Leonor Zarnora is the mayor of Ayacucho. She won office in 1983. campaigning on a platform that prom- ised to check human rights abuses in the area. When I visited in mid- March. I found Dr. Zamora at her desk, sifting through piles of legal documents. 'Look at the number of documents that have come to me today. Zamora said. 'We thought. we had faith, that when the holy Pope came here to Ayacucho last February. things would calm down. But they continue kidnapping, they continue disappearing people. At times every- thing looks worse than before." A professor from Lima, Zamora has moved her four daughters back to the safety of the capital. Outside her of- lice, a group of 30 Quechua women, dressed in black, patiently waited to seek her help in their search for disap- peared relatives and friends. During the next few days I ran into these women, and others like them, all over town. They were in the court rooms, at the district attorney's office, in the offices of the Ayacucho Lawyer's Association, carrying the voluminous stacks of legal documents required to investigate the disappear- ance of a family member. Few can read the documents written in Spanish. still fewer ever receive a reply. Pablo Rojas, director of the Na- tional Human Rights Commission, has witnessed the effect of this fruit- less pilgrimage. "These people go knocking from door to door, asking for bodies if the victim is dead. But no one can solve their problem because, in practice, no one can exercise jus- tice. From frustration, many families join Sendero Luininoso." When martial law was declared in 1982, it encompassed seven provinces (counties) in the department of Ayacucho. Today political/military commands rule in 25 provinces in six departments and observers predict that the model will spread. "In the areas under political/mili- tary control, not even Peru's attorney general is respected. Judicial power is not respected and state institutions have little value," explained Pablo Rojas. "The only institution that has control is the political/military com- mand." Following the women of the Ayacucho Committee of Families of the Kidnapped, Detained and Disap- peared leads one through all the doors of civilian power. The lawyers, dis- trict attorneys and judges supporting their cause pursue their cases as far as they can-to the military's doorstep. Strong evidence implicating the se- curity forces in deaths or disappear- ances has been presented, but the mil- itary refuses to investigate, or to be held accountable for any of its ac- tions. In 1984 the military ceased is- suing reports on its actions against Sendero. In the previous two years, news accounts coming out of Aya- cucho were primarily based on official press releases as the military had vir- tually sealed the region off from the media. Now the armed forces do not even attempt to get out their side of the story, and the head of the political/ military command, Colonel Wilfredo Mon. refused numerous requests for an interview. "Friendly Fire" We had a taste of how the armed forces operate during our stay in Ayacucho. in an incident that re- flected the military's unaccountability in innumerable cases of violence in the area. On March 10, two ca?npesinos came down to the Ayacucho city of Huanta to report the discovery of a mass grave on a hillside outside town. A local reporter investigated and filed a story. The next day we joined a dozen local journalists, the judge and the district attorney as they formed a convoy under military protection to unearth the grave site. The site ap- peared to be a cave that had been dynamited to close up the opening. After two hours of digging, no bodies were discovered. As the marine commander from Huanta, Luls Gavidia Balarezo, harassed the local Peruvian journalists, calling them sensationalists trying to defame the military, shots rang out. "It's Sen- dero Luminoso!" shouted Gavidia. "Everyone on the ground." A column of soldiers ran off toward the shots, while others sent rounds of machine-gun fire down the hillside. Twenty minutes later, all firing stopped. No one was hurt, although our taxi was completely destroyed by "friendly fire." "Why did Sendero attack us?" 1 ask- MAY/JUNE 1985 7 have often fled to the cities.* Recently the government has expanded its use of paramilitary peasant patrols in the war against Se,zdero. frequently re- settling indigenous communities to areas under military control. Tracing the Disappeared Model of Control Spreading Imprisoned Senderlatas contInue theIr study of Mao Ze-dong have often fled to the cities.* Recently the government has expanded its use of paramilitary peasant patrols in the war against Sendero, frequently re- settling indigenous communities to areas under military control. Tracing the Disappeared Leonor Zamora is the mayor of Ayacucho. She won office in 1983, campaigning on a platform that prom- ised to check human rights abuses in the area. When I visited in mid- March, I found Dr. Zamora at her desk, sifting through piles of legal documents. "Look at the number of documents that have come to me today," Zamora said. "We thought, we had faith, that when the holy Pope came here to Ayacucho last February, things would calm down. But they continue kidnapping, they continue disappearing people. At times every- thing looks worse than before." A professor from Lima, Zamora has moved her four daughters back to the safety of the capital. Outside her of- fice, a group of 30 Quechua women, dressed in black, patiently waited to seek her help in their search for disap- peared relatives and friends. During the next few days I ran into these women, and others like them, all over town. They were in the court rooms, at the district attorney's office, in the offices of the Ayacucho Lawyer's Association, carrying the voluminous stacks of legal documents required to investigate the disappear- ance of a family member. Few can read the documents written in Spanish; still fewer ever receive a reply. Pablo Rojas, director of the Na- tional Human Rights Commission, has witnessed the effect of this fruit- less pilgrimage. "These people go knocking from door to door, asking for bodies if the victim is dead. But no one can solve their problem because, in practice, no one can exercise jus- tice. From frustration, many families join Sendero Luminoso." Model of Control Spreading When martial law was declared in 1982, it encompassed seven provinces (counties) in the department of Ayacucho. Today political/military commands rule in 25 provinces in six departments and observers predict that the model will spread. "In the areas under political/mili- tary control, not even Peru's attorney general is respected. Judicial power is not respected and state institutions have little value," explained Pablo Rojas. "The only institution that has control is the political/military com- mand." Following the women of the Ayacucho Committee of Families of the Kidnapped, Detained and Disap- peared leads one through all the doors Imprisoned Senderistas continue their study of Mao Ze-dong of civilian power. The lawyers, dis- trict attorneys and judges supporting their cause pursue their cases as far as they can-to the military's doorstep. Strong evidence implicating the se- curity forces in deaths or disappear- ances has been presented, but the mil- itary refuses to investigate, or to be held accountable for any of its ac- tions. In 1984 the military ceased is- suing reports on its actions against Sendero. In the previous two years, news accounts coming out of Aya- cucho were primarily based on official press releases as the military had vir- tually sealed the region off from the media. Now the armed forces do not even attempt to get out their side of the story, and the head of the political/ military command, Colonel Wilfredo Mori, refused numerous requests for an interview. "Friendly Fire" We had a taste of how the armed forces operate during our stay in Ayacucho, in an incident that re- flected the military's unaccountability in innumerable cases of violence in the area. On March 10, two campesinos came down to the Ayacucho city of Huanta to report the discovery of a mass grave on a hillside outside town. A local reporter investigated and filed a story. The next day we joined a dozen local journalists, the judge and the district attorney as they formed a convoy under military protection to unearth the grave site. The site ap- peared to be a cave that had been dynamited to close up the opening. After two hours of digging, no bodies were discovered. As the marine commander from Huanta, Luis Gavidia Balarezo, harassed the local Peruvian journalists, calling them sensationalists trying to defame the military, shots rang out. "It's Sen- dero Luminoso!" shouted Gavidia. "Everyone on the ground." A column of soldiers ran off toward the shots, while others sent rounds of machine-gun fire down the hillside. Twenty minutes later, all firing stopped. No one was hurt, although our taxi was completely destroyed by "friendly fire." "Why did Sendero attack us?" I ask- MAY/JUNE 1985 7ed my companions as we were swept away under military escort. A local journalist shrugged, and remarked that perhaps it was not the guerrillas, who are well known for attacking only by night. "It could have been the marines who wanted to get us away from the mass grave," he said. Re- turning to Huanta, the judge closed the investigation into the grave with- out issuing findings. Everyone present during the attack agrees that the marines were the only ones logistically capable of staging the incident, though we have no con- clusive evidence proving them re- sponsible. Like thousands of local re- sidents, we were powerless in the face of the political/military command. Dr. EfraIn Morote Best is a well- known figure in Ayacucho. former dean of the Ayacucho Association of Lawyers and of the University of Huamanga. He is also the father of a Sendero leader, Osman Morote, and a frequent defender of the right of Peru- vians to revolt against the govern- ment. "There is an old saying," ex- plained Morote in an interview in his office in Ayacucho, "When all the doors of reason and of justice close, the doors of violence open. When state violence is permanent, the vio- lence which is the response of the people will be permanent. Sendero's best ally is the violence from the state." Young and Quechua During my final days in Peru. back amid the sophistication of Lima, the violence engendered by the "dirty war" in Ayacucho surfaced on the outskirts of the city. On March 21, two workers were detained by the police as they passed the scene of a common crime. Photos show the men, Carlos Honda and Santos Tenorio, being taken into the police station. Two days later, (heir bullet-riddled bodies turned up at the morgue, show- ing signs of torture. Santos Tenorio's sister, Marcelina, believes her brother was killed be- cause he was young. from Ayacucho and spoke Quechua. The police ac- cused her of being a terrorist, and as friends and relatives stood wake over the body. the police and soldiers burst in and searched the house, shouting: Where are the arms? Where did you hide the dynamite?" The Tenorio family are workers who fled Ayacucho to escape the vio- lence. But they found greater tragedy in Lima and today curse the govern- ment that allowed Santos to be mur- dered. Since the government believes Indian immigrants are responsible for urban bombings and blackouts, Aya- cuchanos are often subjected to harassment and surveillance. Looking for more clues about Sen- dero Lu,ninoso. I went down to the port of Lima where every Saturday and Sunday morning the families of political prisoners are ferried out to the island fortress prison. El Froton. There are some 400 political prisoners in El Froton, avowed members of Sendero Lunzinoso, who have instal- led a sub-society at the prison. A Sen- dero flag flies over the jail yard and inmates gather daily to recite chants in praise of their leader, Abimael Guz- man. Senderistas consider Guzman, a former university philosophy profes- sor, fourth in line after Marx, Lenin and Mao. As the families awaited the boat under the watchful eyes of uniformed and non-uniformed security agents, the group broke into chants for the benefit of the international press: 'Massacres, torture, assassinations will be avenged by the armed people. Long live the people's armed strug- gle!" Each chant was punctuated by rapid hand-clapping, giving an air of ritual to the performance. The security personnel stood quietly on the sidelines as a woman denounced the 'reactionary government" and praised "popular war." "The People Feel Defrauded" "The parties that have collaborated [with President Belatlndel are going to receive a serious reversal," predict- ed conservative novelist Mario Vargas Llosa in an interview several days be- fore Peru's April 14 general election. ISee accompanying article.] "The people feel defrauded by what has happened in the past four years be- cause democracy has not been able to create social and economic progress." Vargas Llosa is closely aligned with the ruling party. As they await their new president, we found Peruvians keenly aware of the overwhelming problems facing their country. Some foretell the in- evitability of revolutionary change; others continue to challenge the gov- ernment o remedy its abuses; and a diminishing group strain to verify the strength of an emerging democracy. Nancy Peckenham spent a month in Peru as associate producer on a documentary on human rights for European television. See "Peru-'Dirty War' in Ayacu- cho," NACLA Report on the Ameri- cas (May-June 1983) and "Peru- Amnesty Speaks Out," (January-Feb- ruary 1984). SecurIty checks have become commonplace in Ayacucho 8 REPORT ON ThE AMERICAS Security checks have become commonplace In Ayacucho ed my companions as we were swept away under military escort. A local journalist shrugged, and remarked that perhaps it was not the guerrillas, who are well known for attacking only by night. "It could have been the marines who wanted to get us away from the mass grave." he said. Re- turning to Huanta, the judge closed the investigation into the grave with- out issuing findings. Everyone present during the attack agrees that the marines were the only ones logistically capable of staging the incident, though we have no con- clusive evidence proving them re- sponsible. Like thousands of local re- sidents, we were powerless in the face of the political/military command. Dr. Efrain Morote Best is a well- known figure in Ayacucho. former dean of the Ayacucho Association of Lawyers and of the University of Huamanga. He is also the father of a Sendero leader. Osman Morote, and a frequent defender of the right of Peru- vians to revolt against the govern- ment. "There is an old saying," ex- plained Morote in an interview in his office in Ayacucho, "When all the doors of reason and of justice close, the doors of violence open. When state violence is permanent, the vio- lence which is the response of the people will be permanent. Sendero's best ally is the violence from the state." Young and Quechua During my final days in Peru. back amid the sophistication of Lima, the violence engendered by the "dirty war" in Ayacucho surfaced on the outskirts of the city. On March 21, two workers were detained by the police as they passed the scene of a common crime. Photos show the men, Carlos Honda and Santos Tenorio, being taken into the police station. Two days later, their bullet-riddled bodies turned up at the morgue, show- ing signs of torture. Santos Tenorio's sister, Marcelina, believes her brother was killed be- cause he was young, from Ayacucho and spoke Quechua. The police ac- cused her of being a terrorist, and as friends and relatives stood wake over the body, the police and soldiers burst in and searched the house, shouting: "Where are the arms? Where did you hide the dynamite?" The Tenorio family are workers who fled Ayacucho to escape the vio- lence. But they found greater tragedy in Lima and today curse the govern- ment that allowed Santos to be mur- dered. Since the government believes Indian immigrants are responsible for urban bombings and blackouts, Aya- cuchanos are often subjected to harassment and surveillance. Looking for more clues about Sen- dero Luminoso. I went down to the port of Lima where every Saturday and Sunday morning the families of political prisoners are ferried out to the island fortress prison, El Frot6n. There are some 400 political prisoners in El Frot6n, avowed members of "I Nancy Peckenhanl spent a month in Peru as associate producer on a documentary on huan, rights for European television. *See "Peru-'Dirty War' in Ayacu- cho," NACLA Report on the Ameri- cas (May-June 1983) and "Peru- Amnesty Speaks Out," (January-Feb- ruary 1984). REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Sendero Luminoso. who have instal- led a sub-society at the prison. A Sen- dero flag flies over the jail yard and inmates gather daily to recite chants in praise of their leader. Abimael Guz- min. Senderistas consider GuzmAn. a former university philosophy profes- sor, fourth in line after Marx, Lenin and Mao. As the families awaited the boat under the watchful eyes of uniformed and non-uniformed security agents. the group broke into chants for the benefit of the international press: "Massacres, torture, assassinations will be avenged by the armed people. Long live the people's armed strug- gle!" Each chant was punctuated by rapid hand-clapping, giving an air of ritual to the performance. The security personnel stood quietly on the sidelines as a woman denounced the " 'reactionary government" and praised "popular war." "The People Feel Defrauded" "The parties that have collaborated [with President Belatindel are going to receive a serious reversal," predict- ed conservative novelist Mario Vargas Llosa in an interview several days be- fore Peru's April 14 general election. [See accompanying article.] "The people feel defrauded by what has happened in the past four years be- cause democracy has not been able to create social and economic progress." Vargas Llosa is closely aligned with the ruling party. As they await their new president, we found Peruvians keenly aware of the overwhelming problems facing their country. Some foretell the in- evitability of revolutionary change; others continue to challenge the gov- ernment to remedy its abuses; and a diminishing group strain to verify the strength of an emerging democracy.
