The IEP (Instituto de Estudios Peruanos) is one of the many "Research Centers" in Peru set up by the CIA with the purpose of generating reactionary propaganda against the Peruvian Revolution. The IEP is supported with grants provided directly and covertly by U.S. imperialism (e.g., Ford Foundation), and its members are a group of pseudo-intellectuals led by the fundamentalist anti-communist Carlos Ivan Degregori. The IEP distorts the democratic character of the Peruvian Revolution, defames the leaders of the PCP, and demonizes the political and military actions of the People's War led by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP.)
The considerable mass support enjoyed by the PCP on its unstoppable path towards the conquest of power countrywide and the installation of the People's Republic of Peru, a future base of the world proletarian revolution, are presented as the actions of "terrorists killing peasants." Among the well paid and well structured gang of apprentice senderologists working for the IEP in Peru and abroad are: Orin Starn (Duke University, NC, USA), one of the promoters of the army-run paramilitary rondas in Peru; Luciano del Pino and José Coronel in Ayacucho, Peru; Robin Kirk of America's Watch; Trotskyite Martin Kopel of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party, and the U.S. magazine NACLA.
IEP periodically shifts its positions in accordance with the development of the People's War, and with the necessities imposed by the plans and strategies of U.S. imperialism and its puppet regime(s) in Peru. The world knows that the backbone of support for the People's War in Peru, the greatest revolutionary armed struggle in the world today, comes from the peasants, especially the poor peasants who make up the majority of the population in the countryside. Without them, there would be no revolution at all. It is the ideology of the proletariat: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, Gonzalo Thought which is ingrained in the fighting spirit of the people. This is why imperialism, through the work of the IEP and others, tries to dispel and distort this reality.
The first falsification is the supposed "defeat of Sendero Luminoso", a tale that only exists in their heads, since the spectacular blows of the People's War against the old State are continuously being heard worldwide. Even Calvin Sims and Nicole Bonnet, conservative reporters of the imperialist mouthpieces New York Times (USA) and Le Monde (France) respectively, could not hide the truth, but acknowledge the victories of the People's Army of Liberation and the Peruvian people. ["On the Trail of Peru's Maoist Rebels" NY Times, Aug. 8, 1996; "Peru's Rebels from Defunct to Dangerous" Aug. 5, 1996; "Sentier Lumineux a l'offensive" Le Monde Aug. 6, 1996.]
The second falsification is to claim that "paramilitary rondas have defeated Sendero." The paramilitary groups have different denominations and functions in Peru. Some are called "Civil Self-Defense Committees," others "peasant rondas", "Yana Humas" (black heads), "las mesnadas", "serenazgos", and "urban rondas". However, their main role is the same: to serve as cannon fodder for the genocidal military against the People's War.
In 1991 Yankee Senderologist Orin Starn sat on a militarized podium alongside Fujimori and delivered a speech at the First Congress of the Peasant Rondas. He paid homage to the bloody army and the rondas for fighting against the Peruvian revolution. Starn especially praised Pompeyo Rivera (ronda Commander "Huayhuaco") as "a hero of democracy." Huayhuaco was jailed shortly thereafter for being one of the most notorious narcotraffickers in the jungle region of Ayacucho. On Nov. 20, 1996, his successor, Antonio Cardenas was also captured for cocaine trafficking (Expreso, Nov. 22, 1996). This was clear evidence of the army and rondas' involvement in drug trafficking in that region for the last decade, a situation which is being swept under the rug by the USDEA and the U.S. State Department. Similarly, in the Huallaga Valley army generals and the paramilitary of the narcotraffickers have been working in close partnership against the People's Army. Another example of this is in the recent testimony of drug lord Demetrio Chavez Penaherrera, alias "Vaticano", who testified before the press that he paid $50,000 per month to Vladimiro Montesinos, head of the Intelligence Services (SIN) and Chief advisor to Fujimori [La Republica, Aug. 17, 1996.]
In 1993, Orin Starn was again transported by military helicopter to Ayacucho. In a conference where more soldiers than students attended at the University of San Cristobal de Huamanga, Starn spoke about the "successes of Fujimori" and the "benefits of capitalism." He later wrote a tale presented to the U.S. Latin American Studies Association (LASA), an academic organization, that said among other things: "My conference in Ayacucho was quiet. The students weren't interested in Sendero anymore. Everything has been modernized by Fujimori there; one student asked me about Clifford Geertz, other students asked me about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Leninism has been replaced by Lennonism." Starn goes on: "Tourism is booming in Peru, businesses are emerging, the worst is over." This is the exact propaganda spouted by Fujimori and Yankee imperialism.
Starn also downplays the thousands of crimes committed by the military and its rondas, and the extermination of entire communities by the murderous army he praises. He ignored the army's occupation of peasant communities and the forced recruitment of their inhabitants into the rondas. As do the other senderologists, he promotes the tale that the military subjugation of peasant communities, the army's fascist organizational control of the rondas as part of "low intensity warfare" in the countryside, is a "pragmatic alliance of the peasants with the armed forces." He thus shifts from his old position that the peasants are "caught in the middle" of the crossfire between the PCP and the army, to a more realistic one: the historical alliance of rich peasants and landowners with the military against the worker-peasant alliance led by the PCP.
In 1983, Senderologist Degregori also stated that the people are caught in the middle between the PCP and the Army (Degregori, IPS, 1985); but in early 1993, in tune with the psychological warfare of the armed forces, he claimed "Sendero was defeated, due to the capture of its leader, Abimael Guzman. The people now back the armed forces" (Degregori y Rivera, IPS, 1993.) Thus, Degregori too shamelessly exposed his true reactionary position, no more disguises: propagandist of the murderous Peruvian regime.
Absent from the analysis of the senderologists are the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Peruvian military, such as the genocides of Accormarca, Huanta, Ucchuraccay, Umaru (this community was totally wiped out), Tambo, La Mar, Cangallo, Vilcashuman and Victor Fajardo, the bank of Rio Apurimac, Huamanga; the massacres of poltical prisoners in El Fronton, Cantogrande, Lurigancho, and others. These are dismissed by the mercenaries of IEP as "regretful but necessary actions by democracy" (Degregori y Rivera, 1993).
In Ayacucho alone from 1980 to 1993 there were 10,561 people murdered by the forces of repression, mainly by the armed forces and their rondas (Ideele, No. 62, 1994.) For this reason, the armed forces of Fujimori occupying Ayacucho are considered by the people to be "foreign mercenaries or pishtacos, the throat cutters" (See the book The Return of the Pishtacos, Portocarrarero, 1991) If killings by the Peruvian Army had maintained the rate of murders in Ayacucho, nationwide it would have reached more than 500,000. However, this river of blood caused by the terrorist old State could not contain, much less defeat, the heroic and determined struggle of the Peruvian people led by the Central Committee of the PCP.
As part of the imperialist doctrine of low intensity warfare, the political work of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such as the IEP, and of a myriad of anti-Communist religious groups has expanded in Peru, especially in Ayacucho. The activities of the U.S. and right wing Christian groups doing ideological work alongside the counterinsurgency activities of the armed forces, have increased considerably since 1980. Evangelical organizations gather intelligence information for the army and rondas disguised as managers of small community projects; among these is California-based World Vision. NGOs also traffic with handouts of food and used clothing that they receive in exchange for participation in pro-government rallies and paramilitary recruitment. Counterinsurgency political activities also exist under other covers. For example, Foncodes (Fund for Social Development) and PAR (Repopulation Program) closely work with the military and the rondas to mobilize masses against masses (see Table below.)
We must emphasize however, that the "social actions" of the NGOs and the regime (regardless of their real objectives) are sometimes seen by the poor masses as a beneficial by-product of the People's War. For instance, we see this when (often armed) communities considered "red zones", or supportive of the People's War, demand sewage or water services from the reactionary government and the NGOs, without compromising their political line. This explains why the PCP has never attacked the "Glass of Milk" programs run by women in various parts of the country (they only shut them down if they are directly controlled by the military or rondas.) The same Isabel Coral (an opportunist politician) who periodically slanders the revolution, had to recognize that the PCP, as a matter of policy, doesn't target independent mass organizations such as the Glass of Milk Program in Peru.
Under the bloody bayonets of the army, peasants living in communities under military occupation are also forced to listen to the national anthem and to wave the white and red flag of the Peruvian oppressor every day, flags that are transformed at night into the red flag of the international proletariat, and at dawn proudly wave on top of the hills surrounding the city of Huamanga, Ayacucho's capital.
The third falsification of the IEP is to legitimize the butcher Fujimori who is presented as "a democrat elected by the majority of the people." In the election of 1995, as well as in the previous presidential election, less than 30% of those registered even voted in the election in spite of death threats, fines and imprisonment. Out of this small portion of registered voters, less than 18% voted for Fujimori, a number boosted by fraud and military interference. This shows the failure of the counter-insurgency efforts of imperialism and its puppet regime in Peru, and the fact that the New Power organized in the People's Committees is alive and healthy. It shows that the consolidation of the People's Committees is fundamentally irreversible, due to the failure of the military and economic policies of the government. In addition, the deep contradictions of the people with the rondas and the demoralization within the military are evident in the many clashes among the reactionaries themselves.
On the other hand, the People's War has brought a qualitative change in the social relations between the rural areas and the cities; the relations between the poor peasants and the bourgeoisie have been redefined, and most importantly, there is new role of women in society. These are the elements that will eventually culminate in the total liberation of the country from the grasp of imperialism and its puppet regime in Peru.
Fujimori's Agrarian Law (Ley de Tierras, Decree No. 26505) seeks the destruction of peasant communities through an urbanization program, and the purchase of their lands by big landowners and corporations. But so far, because of the lack of funds and the fear of being smashed by the peasant combatants in the People's War, all they can do is to change the names of some "communities" to "districts." Another tactic of the reactionaries is the construction of highways in rural areas to transport troops, and to introduce heavy artillery weapons and small planes against the PCP, which is also contradictory, since the highways may also benefit the People's War. Would the reactionaries build these highways or schools if there wasn't a vigorous People's War? Of course not.
The fourth falsification of the senderologists is to distort and demonize the role of women in the Peruvian revolution. Women's participation in the People's War and in society in general is an undeniable achievement of the revolution. For instance, it is interesting to see how in Ayacucho, the People's War has revolutionized the male/female relationship. The PCP thesis described in the document Marxism, Mariategui & the Feminist Movement (PCP Central Committee, 1976; See PCP web page, http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp), has been successfully implemented in the midst of the revolution. The participation of women in the People's Committees, together with their male comrades, has been a key factor in defeating the reactionary army in Ayacucho and in consolidating the People's Committees that today shine brightly in Peru.
The PCP sustains that "under capitalism and industrialization women make advances on the road to their emancipation." However, under this system, women do not even reach full legal equality. For this reason, the genuine Feminist Movement is solidly identified with the revolutionary movement. Woman (as well as man), is a social product, and her transformation demands the transformation of society." In other words, the true emancipation of women, depends on the victory of the People's War.
In sum, the people of Peru, fueled by their extreme poverty and inspired by their proletarian ideology, continue their heroic armed struggle against imperialism and native reaction, with a vitality never seen before in the history of Peru! They are steeled and tested in more than 16 years of victorious People's War, led by the party of the Peruvian proletariat, the PCP.
TABLE: Organizational structure of the army-run paramilitary rondas
a.k.a. Self-Defense Committees (Comites de Autodefensa Civil, DECAS.)
Political and Military Chief of the Regional Front
(An Army General and U.S. military advisors)
|
Central Base of the paramilitary rondas
(A directorate and 4 operational commands,
Civilian and military--includes foreign military--intelligence advisors)
|
Local Military Base
(Joint Navy & Army Military Base)
|
Three Ronda Zonal Committees and 3 pagos (local armed forces)
|
Police Precinct (only in areas close to the cities)
|
Paramilitary special commands named tigre, condor, etc. generally used as cannon fodder or mass killers.