Journalist Mirko Lauer's "SL: Not Just Local Color" (La Republica , July 23, 1996) states: "The July edition of the senderista bulletin The New Flag (TNF), the organ of the Peru People's Movement in the U.S., is circulating. It has appeared in English since 1994. It uses the same slightly psychopathic prose style of the commissar which we have grown accustomed to in the local publications of SL, but with an academic and journalistic wrapper that speaks of a First World material base."
[Reply: While in Peru "normal" reporting means to practice yellow journalism; to be an unconditional propagandist of SIN and apologist for the genocidal regime, proletarian journalism means "abnormal" or "psychopathic" reporting. Further, Mr. Lauer makes an interesting admission: in spite of the brutal press censorship in the country, a variety of PCP publications circulate amongst the Peruvian people .]
"Unlike what the local SL does, the central worry of TNF is to clean up the image of the party. The objective is to dispel the versions that say the movement is divided and defeated, and the accusations that they are tied to drug trafficking. Never before this 64 page pamphlet has SL achieved a more political image, as opposed to military."
[Reply: The counterrevolutionary propaganda gratuitously slanders the democratic character of the People's War. Their attacks are full of contradictions and inaccuracies that we can easily refute. One ounce of truth delivered by the revolutionaries is enough to refute one ton of lies of the enemy. Thus, we set the record straight that the PCP is not "terrorist" nor a cult but a genuine Communist Party leading the Peruvian revolution. Ideology is the strength of the PCP. In every action politics is always in command. The People's War is also politics by other means, and will continue until the conquest of power countrywide. Let it be clear, however, that the PCP International Directive to its supporters worldwide calls for the creation of a favorable public opinion for the victory of the People's War. That's precisely what we are doing.]
"What creates this impression of more politics and less bullets is the apparent broadening of the spectrum of concerns: human rights, women, population, economics and some other sections that border on the journalistic. If at heart the theme is one and the same--SL's armed struggle--the focus of their promotions is more sophisticated.
"None of this stops their arguments from being so infantile that it would be tragic if it weren't so repellant because of their essential cynicism. Like explaining that there is no need to get funds from the drug trade because a dynamite attack against a bank doesn't cost more than $36.75 US (with an actual expenditure of only $3 US 'if the support of the masses is taken into account.')"
[Reply: It is impossible for the reactionaries to substantiate the charges of "narcoterrorism" by the PCP. This term has been used since the Reagan's time to discredit revolutionary struggles. The most bitter enemies of the Peruvian revolution have acknowledged that the PCP is ingrained in the masses; that's who really supports the People's War.]
"Less grotesque are their statistics, with which TNF tries to explain the reduction of the impact their actions have on the country, but which nevertheless reveal some interesting figures, based on the authority of legal sources. For example, they note that the percentage of territory under the state of emergency, which dropped from 1990 to 1992, rose in 1994 (25%) and 1995 (30%).
"Nevertheless, the efforts at arithmetical objectivity founder when the magazine incorporates 400,000 ronderos into the ranks of the Peruvian Armed Forces to convert them into the second biggest force on the continent. Or the insistence on the number of actions from 1980 to 1993 as proof of the current health of the party.
[Reply: In spite of their contradictions, the paramilitary rondas are organized, armed, trained and controlled by the military. According to the Armed Forces "Instituto de Investigaciones para la Defensa Nacional-INIDEM), by March 1994 there were 400,360 paramilitary ronderos nationwide. They play a role in the counterinsurgency campaign and, therefore, must be counted]
"But what is most revealing about the basic strangeness of the magazine and its total divorce from Peruvian politics is its indifference to local developments. For TNF the true movie villains are the Peruvian and US senderologists, probably because they are most responsible for poisoning the waters of university financing."
[Reply: It is imperialism, mainly Yankee, and the puppet Fujimori who are the real enemies of the people. The senderologists such as Ivan Degregori, Raul Gonzalez, Carlos Tapia, etc. are mercenaries who package and deliver the SIN/CIA hoaxes and slanders against the People's War. Yes, the influence of the senderologists have been mostly in the academic community abroad. We are waging the struggle there as well to clear up their fog of lies. Mr. Lauer's insinuation that TNF has university financing is baseless. It is the people (only the people) who support this publication.]
"Is this publication representative of SL? TNF is very clear in denouncing 'the farcical peace accords' of the so-called Sendero Negro, but at the same time real information about the saga of Feliciano in Huallaga is practically null."
[Reply: FYI. We are not Fujimori's "Ambassadors" neither have we ever claimed to be "representatives" of anyone; we are the voice of the oppressed in our country, those people who with their blood and sweat are waging a glorious People's War of Liberation. Fantasies such as "Sendero Negro" or "Feliciano vs. Guzman" only exist in the obsessed minds of the reactionaries. The PCP is united as steel; it is indestructible and invincible.]
"In the final analysis this is an ideological inversion of information that appears in the legal Peruvian press. This effort to whitewash the image of a party that has gorged itself on corpses in the time of 'crossing the river of blood' speaks more to the candor of First World Maoists than the praetorian stubborness of some senderistas in the jungle. If they are trying to get out of the barracks and enter politics, this magazine doesn't remotely resemble the correct path."
[Reply: When was there an "objective" press in Peru? Never! There was always a revolutionary press (brutally censored and persecuted by the old State) and a counterrevolutionary press controlled by the ruling class and the government. The reactionary press, including that of the revisionists, serves the state and the regime whereas the revolutionary press serves the people and the revolution. Abroad, our role is to shape public opinion favorable to the victory of the People's War. And this victory will be inevitable, the people of Peru will cross the "river of blood" generated by the murderous armed forces.]