As a clear indication of the powerful actions of the People's War, the regime has been constantly extending the State of Emergency in about 60 per cent of the Peruvian territory. In the capital Lima, on October 15, 1997, the government extended the state of emergency in 12 districts. According to the regime, the suspension of the Constitution is needed because "the internal order has been disturbed," and the "State of Emergency must be in effect so that the government will conclude the pacification process." The same justification was given to suspend the constitutional rights of Peruvians since 1988 when the former APRA government initiated it in the name of the so-called "pacification process." But the current Fujimori clique has been blatantly violating its own Constitution and lying about its criminal intentions. From time to time, the regime claims that "Sendero is already contained and/or defeated" and "normalcy" has returned to Peru. If so, why does the regime impose the State of Emergency? Why do the military courts continue to jail hundreds of political prisoners and innocent citizens? Why are the regime's death squads such as the groups Colina, Jupiter and Alfil and others, fully operational? Why are the death threats, wire tapping, arbitrary arrests and political assassinations continuing ? Why did the psychological operations (the peace agreement plot, peace letters of Abimael, videos and other hoaxes) miserably fail? Obviously, it is because of the intense activity of the People's War.
The following districts of Lima where millions of people live and are bastions of the mass rebellion, have been affected by the fascist decree: Ate Vitarte, Carabayllo, El Agustino, Independencia, San Juan de Lurigancho, San Luis, San Martin de Porres, Villa el Salvador, and Villa Maria del Triunfo. All of them are located in metropolitan Lima.
Other areas with intense guerrilla activity are Paramonga and Pachacamac, located south and north of the city of Lima respectively. In these locations, the armed forces and their political police (SIN/SIE), continuously commit crimes against the civilian population, conducting mopping operations and mass arrests. The reactionaries can't forget the successful armed strike of July 17, 1994, in which the people with arms in their hands, have recovered their land from their exploiters, such as the case of the communities of Collanac and Pachamac.
On April 25, 1998, the State of Emergency has been extended in the jungle populations in the southern and northern zones such as those abutting the Huallaga River, Ene River Valley of Junin, Satipo, the Apurimac River valleys, provinces of Coronel Portillo and Padre Abad of Ucayali, province of Puerto Inca, Department of Hua'nuco. This is also due to "disturbances of the internal order," a code word used by reaction to refer to the guerrilla activity led by the PCP. (La Republica, April 24, 1998). In addition, the Constitution has been suspended indefinitely since 1984 and continues today in the Departments of Ayacucho, Apurimac and Huancavelica.
THE PROLETARIAT RESISTS AND FIGHTS AGAINST THE BLOODY DICTATORSHIP October 9, 1997. Construction workers protested for better wages in several cities of the country. Workers from the cities of Ica, Chiclayo, and Oroya came to the capital to protest against the regime's policies that have spread hunger and misery in the country. The workers took over the streets and culminated amidst brutal police repression, in a huge rally on October 13. The miserable wages that they earned have been frozen since 1995 (La República, October 10, 1997). In Perú more than 45,000 miners were fired arbitrarily from their jobs since 1990. Thus, in 1990 there were about 80,000 miners, and in 1998 only 35,000 remained. In the last two years (1996-1997) 20,000 miners were fired without any compensation, who together with their families, were left in absolute poverty by the "democratic" government led by the armed forces and the intelligence services through their figurehead, the puppet Fujimori (by the National Federation of Miners and Metallurgical Workers in La Republica, April 24, 1998).
EDUCATORS FIGHT THE GENOCIDAL GOVERNMENT: FREE THE IMPRISONED TEACHERS! The Peruvian teachers organized in the National Teacher's Union (SUTEP) carried out a successful national strike during the second week of October 1997. On October 15 and16, more than 6,000 teachers, joined by hundreds of construction workers, marched in the streets of Lima against the regime that spreads hunger and misery in our country. They were repressed by the police when they attempted to rally in front of the government's palace (name in Spanish is Palacio Pizarro.) Many teachers were arrested and they were shown on news time on TV, and the yellow papers as "terrorists". The teachers' salary has been frozen for the last three years, and many of them have become ambulatory peddlers after work to feed their families. The teachers also protested against the huge number of student drop outs in the schools due to malnutrition and lack of supplies. According to an official statistic published in the La Republica paper (September 8, 1997), from 11 million children in school age, only 8 million attended school in 1997. In 1998, the amount allocated for Education and Health hardly reached 13 percent of the national budget. This is a very small amount compared with the 17.5% allocated for the armed forces and police (excluding the million of dollars allocated for the purchase of warplanes and helicopters considered secret), and 22.5% for the Ministry of the President (a bureaucracy run by cronies of the dictator and the military created for purposes of Counterinsurgency).
Protests and mass mobilizations in the cities of Arequipa, Trujillo and Cusco were faced by military repression. In the cities of Cusco and Trujillo, live ammunition was fired wounding several strikers, but the teachers backed by students confronted the military with stones and Molotov cocktails and had an impressive rally on the main square. There were several arrests.
In the Departments of Huancavelica and Ayacucho, the poorests in Peru, the strike had the support of the entire population, and even the municipal authorities protested against the genocidal and country selling regime of the puppet Fujimori. The city of Huancavelica was shaken up by the mobilized masses, in which workers, students, street vendors and peasants fought courageously for two days against the reactionary armed forces and police. There were also land take overs and blockades of highways by the organized armed peasants. The regime sent military reinforcements and conducted a brutal repression, especially against the base leaders of the Teacher's Union (SUTEP) who were arrested in their homes by the armed political police SIN. The head of SUTEP, Professor German Lacho Huaman, who teaches at Colegio La Victoria in Ayacucho was kidnaped from his home and taken to the police garrison known as "Walter Rosales" in the city of Ayacucho to be later jailed in the high security prison of Yanamilla-Ayacucho. Before the strike, the paper El Comercio (September 25, 1997) leaked a report from the political police (SIN), in which they threatened to retaliate if the strike takes place by arresting the SUTEP leadership of the city of Huancavelica, and falsely accused them of being members of the People's Intellectual Movement (MIP).
In the populous Lima district of Villa el Salvador, in early July 1998, the following seven teachers were arrested after being accused (without a shred of proof) that were sympathizers of the revolution: Jose Valdez Asto, Jose Vizcardo Cerruto, Miguel Vega Moreno, Iris Quinonez Colchado, Arturo Avila Patino, Leoner Cespedes Ramirez, and Felix Huaman Huacho. The SIN prosecutor Maria del Pilar Peralta Ramirez, claimed that a repentant coded A2A000182 accussed these teachers of having participated in the Teacher's union SUTEP.
Another intellectual recently arrested by the political police (SIN) was Professor Adalberto Acevedo Jimenez, who teaches history at the University of Applied Sciences in Lima. Dincote claimed that a "capitulator told the Belgium priest Lanssier that Dr. Acevedo has made a financial contribution to the PCP," allegation denied by students and colleagues of Professor Acevedo. His arrest is most likely based on his criticism of the regime during his history classes, SIN has infiltrated snitches posing as "students" in most Peruvian universities. All this repression is taking place, while a Primer Minister appointed by the genocidal armed forces (the APRA member Javier Valle Riestra) babbles about "democratization of the Fujimori regime."
THE DEMAND OF THE TEACHERS: STOP THE CRIMINAL REPRESSION AGAINST THE PEOPLE! FREE THE IMPRISONED TEACHERS! FOR BETTER WAGES, FOR LAND AND NATIONAL PRODUCTION! DOWN WITH THE SELL-OUT GENOCIDAL DICTATORSHIP! During the first months of 1998, more than 20 lawyers, members of Peru Bar Association were arrested. The only reason for their arrest was to represent political prisoners in military courts. As a symbolic gesture, and because some conditions were imposed by foreign aid, such as the millions of dollars the regime receives from the World Bank , and the USAID (supposedly to reform the judiciary and the press). The dictatorship temporarily suspended the "hooded judges" as a symbolic measure. But to compensate for the risks faced by the identification of the military thugs playing the role of "hooded judges," the regime ordered the arrest of 200 lawyers who defend political prisoners of war nationwide. Then, what's the use of lifting the masks of the hooded criminals if the defendants won't be represented by defense attorneys in open Court? Therefore, the temporary lifting of "hooded judges" is irrelevant because the repression is institutionalized and more brutal than ever. Another token action by the regime to "neutralize" the efforts on behalf of the political prisoners and prisoners of war by the OAS's Inter American Commission of Human Rights (ICHR), was the release of the teacher Maria Elena Loayza. A few years ago, the arrest of this teacher arbitrarily arrested was publicized by the yellow press in Perú (e.g., Expreso) as a "blow to Sendero," and "Shining Path's number 2 captured." But to compensate for this release, the regime immediately arrested the General Secretary of the Teacher's Union of Huancavelica, German Lacho. Thus, all the regime's "good will," its "compliance with the ICHR decision," and "the release of a few innocent people from prison,"when at the same time the armed forces is arresting and murdering hundreds of people, is a scheme of the fascist tyranny to fool the international community. In this farce, the hypocritical Catholic Church is involved as well, through its counterinsurgency activists such as the Spaniard Juan Luis Cipriani and the Belgian Hubert Lanssiers who for years are working in close coordination with the intelligence services.
CORRUPTION AND EMBEZZLEMENT IN THE PURCHASE OF WEAPONS Scientific American Magazine (July 1998, pg. 29) listed Perú (represented by the reactionary armed forces) as the top 25 leading arms-importing countries in the world. This data is an estimate from the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) for 1995. According to ACDA, imports by countries (like Perú) that support clandestine or black-market purchases may be understated. Of course, the genocidal armed forces of Perú do not purchase nuclear or chemical weapons, but mostly counterinsurgency materials, to combat the victorious People's War. It is estimated that since 1995, weapons have been purchased in more than two billion dollars, and in order to shield the corruption within the armed forces (besides cocaine trafficking), the regime has promulgated a decree that considers any information on weapons purchases as "secret," or pertaining to "national security." However, the only secret in these transactions is the bribes and corruption of generals in the armed forces and cronies of Fujimori.
For example, the armed forces have purchased 10 used Russian MI-17 helicopters (currently used to strife civilians in Ayacucho and El Huallaga) in an estimated amount of eleven million dollars. However, the market price of the same helicopters at the time of their acquisition by the government was only 6.5 million dollars. This is a robbery of 4.5 million dollars, which, according to Congressman Fernando Olivera, appears to have been split among Army Generals Nicolas Hermoza Rios, Victor Malca, Manuel Pancorbo and others still not identified. The arm dealer in this transaction as well as in others involving the military, is Enrique Benavides Morales who is also behind several businesses run by the Fujimori family. Mr. Olivera and former General Salinas have also revealed large fees paid to the same crooks of the genocidal armed forces mentioned for the purchase of the MIG-29 warplanes from Belorussia under the excuse of "war with Ecuador."
