Peru deconstructs

Chauvin, Lucien

REPORT FROM LIMA PERU DECONSTRUCTS 'PATH' HITS, RESPONSE MISSES nee known as the "garden city," Lima, Peru, is being called the new Beirut. As the nation's capital, and home to more than 7...

...A majority of the barrio's 300,000 residents are unemployed and live in precarious "estera,'' straw-mat houses that lack electricity and water...
...Anyone interested should send a resume and a letter describing suitability for the position and acquaintance, if any, with the magazine...
...I don't feel safe," said Fanny San Miguel, who works for a local nongovernmental organization...
...However, the possibility of peace seems remote, especially since Fujimori's "self coup" in which he dissolved Congress and radically restructured the judiciary...
...I don't know what they [the Shining Path] are after," Remon said, "but if they want to attack the state they should go after other people and leave civilians alone...
...Citing an economic and military emergency, the popularly elected Fujimori, backed by the armed forces, suspended Peru's constitutional democracy on April 5. Municipal elections are scheduled for November, but many observers doubt the army will relinquish its newly acquired powers...
...In mid-July, forces of the Maoist Shining Path launched a new offensive against the city that in less than a 6:11 September 1992 month left more than fifty dead, hundreds wounded, and millions of dollars in damages...
...Applications or suggestions should be sent to: Editor, Commonweal, 15 Dutch Street, New York, N.Y...
...When I get on a bus, the only thing I think about is if the person sitting next to me is a subversive...
...Initially those tasks will focus on marketing and promotion...
...Indeed, many people fear that the insurgents may be gaining the upper hand militarily...
...The contrast between the people was incredible," he said, "but even more incredible was the solidarity that was obvious in the faces of the people...
...Ultimately the job will include responsibility for circulation, promotion, fund-raising, development, and general business matters as well as supervising the business staff...
...We are looking for someone to pursue the business interests of the magazine with vigor and intelligence, someone with promotion and business skills committed to working with a small staff and a limited budget to ensure the financial future of Commonweal...
...The Shining Path strategy is undoubtedly linked to the increased instability caused by the coup as well as to the nation's persistent economic problems...
...Cardillo said that since the July 16 bombing he has been wary about leaving his apartment...
...The [demented] attack in Miraflores that took innocent lives has further strengthened the armed forces' commitment to an all-out war," Fujimori said...
...As the nation's capital, and home to more than 7 million people, Lima has become the newest target in Peru's bloody twelve-year guerrilla war...
...For the first time, the people of Miraflores, who once thought the violence was directed at the poor, feel that they are now targets...
...The first step taken by Fujimori and his ministers after the July bombings was a redoubling of the current vehicle curfew—buses and private cars are forbidden to circulate between 10 p.m...
...In its war against the state, the Shining Path wants to set the conditions for a confrontation between the military and its Popular Guerrilla Army...
...People want peace...
...Please include references and salary requirement...
...He is not alone in his concern...
...In Fujimori's two years as Commonweal president, more than 6,200 people have been killed as a result of political violence...
...Shining Path cadres shot and burned alive one taxi driver and destroyed more than a dozen taxis and minivans...
...When I'm on the street I keep looking over my shoulder expecting the worst...
...Violence has intensified since April, with more than 565 Shining Path attacks— more than 400 in Lima alone—and more than 800 people have been killed, 356 of them civilians...
...In spite of twelve years of guerrilla fighting, Peru's military continues to be geared toward a conventional war in which the enemy can be identified and attacked...
...Stiff sentences are being imposed, and the government is also seriously considering the possibility of reestablishing the death penalty...
...without a safe-conduct pass—and deploying additional troops in the city...
...A quick look at Lima is telling: after dark the streets are empty, the usually bustling markets are chained shut, and many of the windows in the city's residential areas now sport masking tape as a protection against explosions...
...The subversives don't show their faces, no one knows who they are or where they are hiding...
...If this past summer is any indication, the war that has affected the interior of the country for more than a decade—more than 50 percent of Peru consists of army-controlled emergency zones—is deepening...
...Readers are invited to join in our search by passing on this announcement or by letting us know of potential candidates...
...State Department's annual country profile report...
...In a recent document, the Peruvian Conference of Bishops stated: "Poverty, which yesterday meant there was little to eat, today has become only the bitter taste of tears...
...According to Peru's bishops, the Shining Path, which is widely suspected of dealing extensively in the drug trade, may be able to count on 60,000 followers, far more than the 5,000 members mentioned in the U.S...
...The Peruvian military is an antiquated machine, lumbering forward but unable to adjust to the war against the Shining Path," said a Peruvian journalist who asked not to be identified...
...According to Cardillo, more than the destruction of the bombing, what has stayed with him is the memory of truckloads of Villa El Salvador residents who came to Miraflores to participate in a march for peace...
...Recent statistics from the Labor Association for Development put the number of unemployed and underemployed in Peru at more than 80 percent...
...10038 Commonweal 11 September 1992: 7...
...COMMONWEAL BUSINESS MANAGER In the next six months, we will be adding a business manager to our staff...
...Critics say the government, instead of listening to the warnings that increased misery and a heavy-handed, purely military response to the Shining Path would lead only to increased violence, has come up with Band-Aid solutions that have been anything but successful...
...Richard Cardillo, an American teaching at Lima's Roosevelt High School, whose apartment was destroyed in the bombing, said "there is an ominous sense that no one knows when the next bomb will explode...
...and 5 a.m...
...That fear appears to be what Shining Path is looking for...
...lucien chauvin Lucien Chauvin is on the .vta^o/Latinamerica Press and is a correspondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education...
...Despite increased police and military presence in the streets of Lima immediately following the attack, the Shining Path waited only twelve hours to strike again, this time destroying the police station and school in the poor district of Villa El Salvador...
...Unlike the people of Miraflores who have the resources to rebuild their lives and homes, the 500 families affected by the Villa El Salvador bombing had nowhere to turn...
...Twenty-two people were killed and many banks, businesses, and hotels were left in ruins...
...The bishops go on to say that "Peru will not be at peace until Peruvians can feed their children...
...Although Fujimori enjoys some popular support, he has neglected the country's massive economic and social problems in an all-out effort to convince international creditors and foreign governments that his government is legitimate...
...After several emergency meetings, the government has implemented procedures whereby accused "terrorists" can now be tried and sentenced within twenty-four hours of being captured and most will be tried in military courts or by "faceless" judges...
...The attack was meant to instill fear in the population and demonstrate that the country's security forces and President Alberto Fujimori's antisubversive strategy are not capable of defeating the Shining Path," said Peruvian journalist Cecilia Remon...
...The business manager will work with the publisher and staff on a wide variety of business tasks...
...For the present, however, the Shining Path's insurgency threatens chaos...
...Regardless of the government's hardline measures, the Shining Path declared an armed strike for July 22 and 23, and Lima residents who made it to work or to school had to do so without public transport—most of the city's buses stayed in their garages...
...And in spite of Fujimori's declarations, the Shining Path is not about to disappear in the near future...
...The government has to realize that this isn't a conventional war, but one which requires a coherent plan of military intelligence...
...Previous experience with a magazine, small business, or nonprofit organization is a plus...
...Rich and poor, Peruvians are tired of the violence...
...Fujimori says he will continue as president until his term expires in 1995...
...The first attack, by far the most devastating, came on July 16 with the explosion of two enormous car bombs in the upscale residential and commercial district of Miraflores...

Vol. 119 • September 1992 • No. 15


 
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