October 4th: The "Day of the Prisoners of War."

The LTCs fulfill their heroic role politicizing and propagating the revolutionary character of the Peoples' War and the Peoples' Republic of Perú.

For many years now in our country, the Communists have been fighting, mobilizing and producing (e.g., art work and revolutionary literature) from inside the prisons in all parts of the country, despite the inhuman conditions of their imprisonment. One day of the year in recognition of the heroic struggle of the prisoners of war, which the Party and the people have designated to commemorate is October 4th, the "Day of the Prisoners of War."

This important date also has its own history. This is a history of courageous combat and revolutionary resistance of the Prisoners of War. It goes back to the first half of the 1980s, when the creative work of the political prisoners and prisoners of war was exposed nationally and internationally, and acknowledged for its outstanding creativity and dedication to their revolutionary cause.

In 1985, continuing the methods of its predecessors, the reactionary Aprista government carried out genocide against the Peoples' War. Reaction aimed cowardly against the prisoners of war, planning their genocidal annihilation. This genocide took place on October 4, 1985 with the murder of 30 communist fighters in the Lurigancho prison. The many struggles taking place in the LTCs, among them the July 13, 1985 joint struggle, by which the first act was obtained, and the genocide of October 4, 1985 and its corollary on the 31th of the same month, in which the prisoners achieved the second act (agreement to improve prison conditions, trans.) from the Aprista government. Eights months later, the regime would commit one of the worst crimes in the history of the country, that is the genocide of El Fronton, commemorated by the people as the "Day of Heroism."

"Day of the Prisoner of War": All Political Prisoners Recognized as Special Prisoners.

These heroic battles, and some later ones, showed to the entire world the tenacious strength of the best children of our people. They were confined to the dark dungeons, which were built by reaction to annihilate them. But the blood spilled never drowned the revolution. On the contrary, it has fanned the revolutionary flames and has spread them to all parts of the country, as the Peoples' War continues to develop today to even higher levels.

The luminous trench of combat is an example of the new Power that is being established in the countryside and is expanding every day. This is precisely what enrages the reactionaries to the point of desperation, and not satisfied with the gruesome genocides that they perpetrated, they fabricated hoaxes such as "mass surrenders" and "peace letters." The entire collection of false tales by which they sought to discredit and extinguish the advancing revolution, failed and will continue to fail.

The most solid proof of the new Power can be seen by the revolutionary light emanating from the LTCs, which is why reaction keeps the prisoners of war and political prisoners in the tightest and most shameful isolation. We must, therefore, ask the following questions:

• Why does the regime have so much fear about the prisoners being visited by relatives and friends?
• Why does the vicious destruction of the luminous trenches of combat take place, which after all, only exist behind prison bars?
• Why do the harassment, torture, and murder of prisoners occur? Isn't the regime content by depriving them electricity, food, water and medical care?
• Why did they build maximum security prisons in Lima and throughout the country, if the reactionaries know that for being "maximum security;" the prisoners will never be able to get out of there?
• Why did they prohibit the national and foreign press from visiting the prisoners, to prevent the LTCs from shining all over the world, if those confined in them are "common criminals" as they claimed?
• Why did they fire upon the LTCs' buildings when all that the communists confined there were doing was to sing "harmless" war songs? What magical power is contained in these war songs?
• Why is President Gonzalo not allowed to have visits? Or any communication whatsoever with the outside?
• Why are the masses prevented from visiting their friends and relatives who are confined there?
• Why is there so much fear about letting them speak directly to their people?
• Why are the reactionaries so insecure, when after all, those prisoners have already been sentenced to life and confined to maximum security prisons?
• Why are the reactionaries so afraid about letting any outsiders talk to the prisoners?

Simply because if the reactionaries allowed any of that, all of their painstakingly engineered fabrications, Sunday hoaxes, and lies would crumble down strepitously. This is simply because of the fact that for all their power and weapons, they continue to be paper tigers, who can't allow the LTC to shine before the country and the world for what they are: a solid demonstration of the strength of the emerging new Power, and of the undeniable reality of the victorious Peoples' War. Then the LTCs would fulfill their role of showing before the whole world the vitality and militancy of the Peoples' Republic of Perú.

But reaction will never allow that light to shine un-impended, and for that reason the communists confined in the LTCs know what to do. They are aware of their need to resist heroically from inside their cells, making use of the ever more ingenious mechanism in function of the Peoples' War.

Long live the Day of Prisoners of War! That is our position and firm resolve. The imprisoned comrades, courageous fighters and political prisoners, have shown us all this time that there is an infinitive number of forms to struggle after we are captured. As a result, today many of their relatives and friends have continued their example in the underground, in the countryside and in the cities.

If there is fear among reactionaries to see them directly, it is precisely because their presence reminds them and the whole world, that the future is brilliant for the Party and the class, and dark for reaction and the servants of Yankee imperialism.