REGIONALIZATION OF THE COUNTRY GOES TUMBLING ON

In Peru, every reactionary regime in place has had its own "Law of Decentralization" but the country continues to be more centralized than ever. Fifteen years ago, Belaunde promulgated the law "Framework of Decentralization." In 1987, the APRA government issued its "Law of Bases for Regionalization" (Law No. 24650 of 1987), and after almost 8 eight years in government (January 1998), the dictatorship of Fujimori, which undoubtably centralizes power and is more genocidal than the previous two, hatched its own version, "New Law of Decentralization."

Why do these counterrevolutionary engenders fail? The just and correct response to this question is given by José Carlos Mariátegui, the founder of the Communist Party of Perú (PCP).

"And well, decentralization in itself, decentralization as reform and as a political and administrative tool, would not mean any progress on the road to solving the problems of the Indians (peasants) and the problem of land. It would basically return to the same problem. On the contrary, decentralization, if done for no purpose other than that of granting the regions or the departments a more or less ample autonomy, would increase the power of gamonalism (large land ownership) instead of a solution focused on the interests of the indigenous masses..."

And he concludes: "To acquire such a conviction, it suffices to ask oneself: What caste, what category, what class opposes redeeming the Indian (peasantry)? The answer cannot be one and categoric: gamonalism, feudalism, caciquism (native chief on colonial payroll). Therefore, how can we doubt that a regional administration by gamonals and chieftains is being consolidated? The more autonomous it gets, the more it would sabotage and reject any effective indigenous vindication."

What is the decentralization? It is a top-down engender that helps to perpetuate big landlord property and bureaucratic capitalism in the countryside. It also benefits oppression by way of reactionary authorities that try to manage the internal market to generate more surplus value. All of this corporative control mechanism is coordinated by the area's political and military command, and its "autonomy" also depends on being subject to the Constitution of the old Peruvian State and abiding by it.

The APRA government's "Law of Bases for Regionalization" (Law No. 24650 of 1987) proposed a Regional Assembly formed by individuals elected by direct vote, by the region's provincial mayor, and by delegates of representative institutions of the region's socioeconomic and cultural activities. It was a corporative form of organizing producers and all elements making up society. This law was in effect under Fujimori for eight years, for lack of funds and the contradictions and power appetites among the various exploiters who struggle to capture the regions for their own interests. It then collapsed.

Fujimori regime's "New Law of Decentralization" will bring the regions under its total control. The law says that the National Council of Decentralization, the umbrella under which the regions will operate, will now be controlled by the regime itself, its tainted Congress (SIN), and 2 delegates of the municipalities. In other words, this law will allow regions to exist only in name, and make out of this bureaucracy nests of corruption and nepotism for cronies of Fujimori, and revisionists of the United left or its derivatives. The same goes with the municipalities, which due to the lack of funds and resources now depend on the "good will" of the regime through the Ministry of the Presidency -a fascist entity that the government uses for counterinsurgent warfare.

There will be no true decentralization until the Peruvian masses led be the PCP conquer power countrywide, and install the People's Republic of Perú.

THE CANDIDATE BACKED BY THE ARMY TO BE MAYOR OF LIMA, HURTADO MILLER, COMPETING WITH THE LIKEWISE CORRUPT AND CRIMINAL ANDRADE

The New Flag
http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp
lquispe@nyxfer.blythe.org