THE GENOCIDAL COUNTRY-SELLING DICTATOR FUJIMORI GAMBLES ALL IN ONE CARD: THE BARRIOS ALTOS CRIME MUST NOT BE COVERED UP!
On November 3, 1991, 15 people were savagely machine gunned inside a residence in the heart of Lima, while they were together having dinner. This abject genocide was perpetrated by the "Colina" death squad group led by Army General Julio Salazar, following orders of Vladimiro Montesinos, main advisor to Fujimori. Fujimori in turn has approved the criminal activities of the "Colina" group. If the world was shaken by the heinousness of the regime's henchmen and by Fujimori's cynicism, today, on the occasion of the law of "amnesty," and the retroactive "interpretative amnesty law," the genocide of Barrios Altos gets new and vibrant actuality. This time the wave of indignation has reached the world's public opinion.
After its approval, the ignominious law of "amnesty" for butchers, (among them the "Colina" group) proclaimed and defended with paws and teeth by Fujimori himself, now joins the "interpretative law of the law of amnesty" by which the rubber stamp Congress leaves without effect, the resolution of Judge Antonia Saquicuray, who had ruled that the law was inapplicable to the Barrios Altos events and that the culprits are brought to justice.
Among many other protests and condemnations are, for example, the statements by the world's Human Rights Organizations. Thus, representatives from 80 countries met in a world congress called "beyond Vienna," and called Fujimori's Amnesty Law "an affront to human dignity, since it denies the rights to justice, to the truth and reparations to the victims." Furthermore, they demanded "the forthwith condemnation by the OAS and the UN, the governments and the international community, for the purpose of demanding that the Peruvian government annul this disposition, which does not contribute to healing the wounds of the internal armed conflict in Peru."
In addition, the communique by Amnesty International (AI) condemned the "interpretative" law, which impedes that the judicial power decides on the legality or the applicability of the recently enacted Amnesty Law, calling it "an unfortunate step backwards and a new prejudicial blow against the independence of the judicial power in Peru."
Fujimori represents not only the biggest sellout and most pro- imperialist regime in the history of Peru, but also the biggest genocidal up to today.
The genocides of La Cantuta, Barrios Altos, San Gabriel and La Perla, are not by any means the only ones nor the most horrifying ones, but since they were perpetrated in Lima, they have more publicity and greater notoriety than other countless crimes committed by the reactionary armed forces in the interior of Peru, especially in the countryside where the degree of the People's War is much higher, including the existence of People's Committees in liberated areas.
To keep in mind what was said by General Rodolfo Robles in May of 1993, and his later clarifications in 1994, and 1995 denouncing that the Colina group "worked in close ties to the National Intelligence Services SIN" and that "the military high command and Alberto Fujimori knew and approved their existence." The "law of amnesty" for the members of the armed forces and police involved in genocide, which was promulgated by Fujimori, shows clearly that these crimes are being carried out by death squads directly controlled by Fujimori and his special advisor Vladimiro Montesinos.
It is interesting, besides, to recall what happened in the case of La Cantuta (torture, genocide and disappearances of nine students and professors of the National University of La Cantuta, located in the outskirts of Lima). On that occasion, Fujimori and the genocidal armed forces followed more or less the following sequence: firstly, they wanted to deny everything, then, when the clandestine mass grave was found and the scandal which ensued, they pretended to blame "the terrorists" and to intimidate and cause witnesses to disappear. Finally, once the world condemned the crime, they wanted to cover up by launching a major psy war operation they were preparing for about one year. At that time (November 18), the reactionaries were on the eve of some crucial elections to revise the constitution in accordance with the counterinsurgency war. What did they do then? CIA advisors and SIN recruited a handful of capitulators -former members of the PCP (e.g., Osman Morote) in the jail of Yanamayo, Puno. Then they fabricated a couple of letters and a grossly tailored cut and paste video, staging the lies about the "peace agreements," and "capitulation of Sendero," thus winning the elections as the immediate goal and of course, to cover up the facts of La Cantuta.
After the disastrous results they had in those elections (18 percent for president and 14 percent for parliament, out of a total of 15 million Peruvians more than 18 years of age registered to vote), Fujimori finds himself each time more isolated and based almost exclusively on the support of the armed forces, which after all, is what truly control the old Peruvian State.
With the purpose of covering up the Barrios Altos events, Fujimori had no other recourse than to do away with his own new constitution and the charade of "respect for human rights," tearing down the much proclaimed "autonomy" of the judicial system and the "equilibrium" of the powers of the State by dissolving the Congress. Instead, the armed forces engineered a submissive parliament, a complete stooge and rubber stamp of the dictator, which interprets laws against its own constitution and international treaties in order to cover up the crimes of the military, a judicial power under occupation, a manipulated prosecutor's office and a bogus "public defender" (the recently created office of public defender) had to be crowned necessarily, with the impunity of the henchmen, and of the perpetrators of his counterinsurgent strategy, focused on genocide.
Therefore, this cowardly and abject criminal Fujimori and his henchmen's Vladimiro Montesinos and Nicolas Hermoza De Bari must be pulled by the nose to be tried in an international tribunal for crimes against humanity. Their crimes must be denounced in all forums dealing with genocide, and demand those international organizations unmask the genocidal and country seller Fujimori, who is at the same time the most faithful lackey of U.S. imperialism in Peru's republican history.
We must continue to denounce before the people's of the world and we must continue to support the efforts of the families of the victims of the genocide of Barrios Altos. This case will not just remain impune. As the victims' attorney Ronald Gamarra, of the Institute of Legal Defense, pointed out that the families of the victims, once their judicial appeals in the national courts are exhausted, and the remote possibility of finding justice, they will appeal to the Inter American Commission of Human Rights.
THE ENDLESS "CAPTURE OF TERRORISTS" HIDES THEIR DEFEAT BY THE PCP
The tyrant Fujimori lies from both sides of his mouth, and
frequently contradicts his own official statements. For example,
he said recently that between January 1, 1991 and May 15, 1995,
14,504 persons had been arrested accused of "terrorism," which
mean for being members or sympathizers of the Communist Party of
Peru (PCP), but on the other hand, he says that he will continue
his strategy of capturing the new leaders of Sendero: dead or
alive, because he assures us that, "it is the same whether they
are on Earth or in Purgatory," and he added that "all the
terrorists in prison will leave their bones in jail." Then, what
is his strategy? To arrest, torture, disappear and murder in
masse? Or is it "to capture the new leaders dead or alive?" The
truth is one: they continue with their strategy of low intensity
warfare, of genocide, repression and psychological warfare
(fabricated lies and deceptions.) They are implementing the CIA
training techniques such as the "Human Resource Exploitation
Manual, 1983," and other updated versions, which basically
consist in stripping suspects naked and keeping them blindfolded
in windowless rooms without toilet, showing them forgered letters
from home asking them to become informants and finger PCP
sympathizers under the threat of being killed by the death
squads. They tell the prisoners: "if you don't cooperate, we are
going to bring your mother, or your little sister and we will
rape them, torture them and kill them."
The prisoners are not given food or water for days and can't sleep because an agent enter the room every 10-15 minutes and pours cold water on their heads. Eventually, the political prisoners "disappear," or are sent to one of the many concentrations camps in Peru (e.g., Cantogrande, Yanamayo, Cachiche, Chorrilos, Quenqoro, Lurigancho, etc.)
Captured documents by the People's Army of Liberation, which were published by the PCP, shows clearly the genocidal nature of Fujimori's reactionary Armed Forces: "the best terrorist is a dead terrorist . . . and make that extensive to his or her relatives and friends," and remember "to annihilate communists without leaving a trace," or as General Monzon declared before the Congress in 1986, "the combats and other military actions, which are inserted into the armed forces counterinsurgency strategy is subtracted from the humanitarian right of war, and to the margin of the Geneva Convention, legitimate in violent reprisals of the genocidal concept, the extrajudicial executions and the disallowance of human rights of those presumed subversive."
That is the really underlying reason at the bottom of the problem, and its genocidal concept, to carry forward their counterinsurgency warfare, which is summarized as": steal everything, burn everything, and kill everybody," then, by the use of the informational and psychological warfare at their disposal, try to impute those crimes to the PCP and the People's Army of Liberation (EPL). However, their genocidal tactics are being trashed by the People's War in the battle field, mainly in the countryside, they are losing along the entire line. They then satisfy their criminal instincts in the unarmed masses, political prisoners of war, thus, collecting false victories for the lack of genuine ones.
Let's analyze the regime's own figures, published in the official daily "El Peruano," of last June 30, (which although as we well know, they know how to paint very well the much taunted "end of the Shining Path, ") or as Fujimori cynically said, "there remain a few pockets of terrorism," but they cannot hide the formidable offensives of the People's War in the past few months.
A few extracts from the report of the Central Committee of the PCP:
"We can see the deliberate intent to show a diminishing tendency
in the number of actions, but it doesn't work out for them,
because in the first place, they start from recognizing that in
1993, there were some 59,000 actions. When we remember that,
since that year they were already speaking about the
'disappearance of terrorism.' With respect to 1994, what they
hide, are the victories of the People's Liberation Army, in all
the fronts, and what remains corroborated is the assertions of
the regime's journalists and senderologists about the
'recomposition of Sendero.' Then, where did that so-called
recomposition come from? Out of thin air? . No, what happened was
that the Party (after the successful boycott to the
constitutional elections of November of 1993), placed more
emphasis on the Strategic Plan of Construction and in preparing
for the strategic counteroffensive (as it corresponds to the
revolution presently in strategic equilibrium.) And lastly, why
don't they show the data about the last campaign? Precisely, the
one which originated the stentoreous cries about the
'recomposition of Sendero'?
Moreover, it is said that since January 1, 1991 to May 15, 1995,
14,504 "terrorists" have been captured and that the armed forces
have carried out 4,500 "counterinsurgent operations," and that
there have been 26,519 People's War actions (that is what the
military recognizes). Well, the interesting thing here is that in
just two years, 1993 and 1994, there have been 10,044 arrests of
`terrorists.' A whole army! In addition, we must add the razing
of entire villages, the extrajudicial executions, the systematic
genocide of prisoners of war. Nevertheless, the People's War
continued and will continue to advance, and fulfill what was
established by the VI Military Plan of Building the Conquest of
Power, no matter what the traitorous and repulsive revisionist
capitulators, servants of Fujimori and imperialism, may say.
Finally, and we must highlight this, the People's War continues
to advance, defeating the Yankee commandos and advisers (which
are plentiful in Peru, who are leading the counterinsurgency war,
including a huge logistic and propaganda apparatus.) Now, they
cry out in desperation, about some supposed `rebirth of
terrorism,' about a `recomposition of Sendero,' and they get
ready to stage new schemes, but, who can believe a word of what
Fujimori says? Nobody. The world's public opinion is against him,
while support with the heroic epic of the Peruvian people, the
People's War, continues to grow."
Notwithstanding that the data given by the armed forces is tailored and manipulated, but even so, they allow us to see the fallacy of the pretended `pacification.' They say that in 1994 there were only 1,680 actions, but a little later, they reported that there were 4,500 operatives in the same year 1994.
So which one is it? Or was the 4,500 mass genocide committed in
1994 as they ussually do?
Actions by the People's War according to the Armed Forces.
| Year | Violent Actions | Agitation and Propaganda | Total |
| 1990 | 2,764 | 1,559 | 4,323 |
| 1991 | 3,125 | 2,141 | 5,266 |
| 1992 | N.A. | N.A. | 5,377 |
| 1993 | 2,383 | 1,277 | 4,670 |
| 1994* | 1,024 | 656 | 1,680 |
*Data for 1994 hides their debacle in the battle field: the 1995 Central Committee report says: they launched their operatives "Aries," "Dog Ear, "Cojo Rodriguez," "Hare" I, II, III, but collected only sound defeats. And those as well as hundreds of actions of the People's Army were not included in their data.
The political and military actions for the years 1995-1997 (to the end of October), according to the reports of the war published in the documents of the PCP and supporters such as El Diario-Lima show a steady increase in the quality and quantity of military attacks and engagements with the armed forces, this considering that typical guerrilla actions have been gradually replaced by a war of movements of regular contingents of the People's Army of Liberation. E-mail:lquispe@nyxfer.blythe.org