Coca's Shining Path
González, Raúl
JANUARY 19, 1988. THE ENTIRE POPULATION of Barranca is in the village square, along with residents of 15 other towns visited by the column of Sendero Luminoso guerrillas. "Don't worry," the...
...Not coincidentally, the cocaine industry took off at the same time...
...From that moment on, Sendero was free to do whatever it wished in the Huallaga...
...They're hidden among the people and you won't find them...
...He exhorts, cries and begs, but it is useless...
...The MIR's work was sharpened by a radical group of leftist militants who broke away from the Revolutionary Socialist Party...
...Contrary to what one might think, it was not the police who set off the spiral of violence...
...Everything began to change: The coca buyers who flew in from Colombia wanted restaurants, cars, discotheques, brothels...and workers...
...2. The Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement is made up of several small factions of the United Left (IU) coalition...
...They claim they plan to constitute the armed wing of that coalition once the current democratic conditions end, as they expect will happen...
...And from that day on, that is what they do, nearly every week...
...They literally began to govern a zone which in the strictest sense of the word was "liberated...
...The senderistas vow to return to make sure that L6pez keeps his commitment to raise the pay of his workers and to not allow any abuse or extortion...
...They [the farmers] know that's not true, but they have no one to protect them...
...To whom do you sell your crop...
...The conversation continues and the more the driver talks the less he seems Coca's Shining Path 1. Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path") is one of several organizations which proclaim themselves to be the true "Communist Party of Peru...
...The final verdict is not surprising: L6pez must be put to death...
...No more injustices will be committed here....That L6pez will get his due...
...And they close the discotheques, the brothels, they kill the homosexuals and they send the prostitutes packing...
...In March 1987, some of those who received training were sent to attack the town of Tocache, where Sendero had begun to make its presence felt...
...At eight in the evening, L6pez is apprehended as he arrives at his farm...
...That is what Sendero offers: protection...
...S OME LOCAL OBSERVERS MAINTAIN that Sendero's presence in the Huallaga dates from 1980 when a group of migrants from Ayacucho began the slow and patient organizing that led in a few short years to Sendero's domination of the region...
...When the traffickers caught on to Sendero's game, they began to back the MRTA-sponsored organizations in some areas, while in others they allowed Sendero to move in to keep the police at bay...
...The villagers have just finished explaining that "Tito" L6pez, the valley's principal coca producer, pays his workers poorly and sponsors the worst sort of abuse...
...In 1978 the military regime of Gen...
...The money will be paid the next day: the price for staying alive...
...Both organizations took part in the formation of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA), which took up arms in 1983.2 A year later, the Peruvian government stepped up operations to eradicate coca cultivation, driving the producers to seek protection from the MRTA and, in another part of the valley, from Sendero Luminoso...
...Their slogan: iCoca o muerte...
...By the end of 1986, Sendero was moving freely in and out of towns in groups of no less than 30 heavily armed men, calling out the residents to hear their harangues, judging the local authorities, in some cases killing sicarios, and finally "electing" leaders...
...Later Sendero infiltrated the zone where the MRTA wielded influence, questioning the leadership of the existing committees and accusing them of having cut deals with the traffickers on the price of coca-a very believable charge...
...Towns sprang Guerrillas proliferate in Peru's Huallaga Valley 22 REPORT ON THE AMERICASup, banks set up branch offices to change the dollars brought by Colombian traffickers into national currency, intis, in which all of the operations linked to coca production are carried out...
...Once Sendero became strong enough, they [Sendero] turned on the traffickers and claimed the right to fix the price of coca...
...Needless to say, the traffickers were not at all pleased with the prospect of collective bargaining in the coca fields...
...L6pez is not at home, but the senderistas are in no hurry...
...Because coca buyers generally advance money well ahead of the harvest, farmers are obliged to defend their crop from the police if they wish to avoid reprisals against themselves or their families...
...iVenceremos...
...The people listen in silence, interrupting several times with applause...
...6 (MARCH 1989) 23RepCOCA4r Amei4ea COCA column retreated, and over the next few days Sendero pursued them to liquidate them...
...T HE FIRST TO CONFRONT POLICE EXTORtion and the violence of the sicarios were members of one of the factions of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), who worked among the coca and corn producers of the region of Tarapoto to organize Defense Committees...
...In April 1987 Sendero began to take control of each town, evicting the police from wherever they were stationed working with the narcos to wipe out all vestiges of "official" authority...
...Dozens of sicarios and senderistas ambushed the MRTA on the outskirts of the town...
...L6pez offers shoes, boots, pants, food, money...all the money they need...
...They give him a pick-up and send him off to the town of Picota to buy what he has promised...
...They took up arms on May 17, 1980...
...Besides, in this region, since there is a lot of money, there is alcohol, partying, violence....Sendero puts an end to all that and puts everyone to work...
...It was rather the bands of sicarios who tell the farmers how many kilos of coca they have to sell, who mercilessly do away with intransigent or ambitious officials, who appear at any place and any time to settle scores...
...Sendero first set about organizing in the areas untouched by the MRTA, such as the territory between Tingo Maria and Tocache...
...After much discussion, it is believed they requested assistance from Colombia's M-19 guerrillas, who apparently provided it...
...And the war was on...
...Don't worry," the man in charge says...
...Their military prowess impressed the farmers: Lucas Cachay, president of the San Martin Defense Front, explains, "The narcos often claim that the price of coca is low because of overproduction...
...The sicarios set out to ensure that the producers would continue growing coca as before...
...The Upper Huallaga did not remain Peru's El Dorado for long...
...DESPITE SENDERO'S ACTIVITY, MIDWAY through 1986, MRTA leaders believed they had achieved total and absolute control in their zone...
...T HE DRIVER WHO TAKES PEOPLE BETWEEN Juanjuf and Tarapoto tells us not to worry...
...Sendero could count on all the support they needed from the drug traffickers, since their real purpose was to destroy the MRTA-influenced organizations...
...While proclaiming itself to be the authentic carrier of the banner of orthodox Maoism, Sendero maintains that it is the founder of a fourth stage of Marxism: "the thought of Gonzalo," the name of Sendero's undisputed and undiscussed leader...
...What is more, they turned on their erstwhile allies, the narcos, and insisted they dissolve the gangs of sicarios which had run roughshod over the zone...
...The deal is made...
...It separated from the original communist party as a result of the Chinese-Soviet split in the 1960s...
...The level of violence in the region became incredibly high...
...Others claim Sendero arrived in 1982, when they realized that the MRTA had converted the Huallaga into its primary base of operations...
...Sendero and the traffickers were forced to flee or fade into the population...
...ERU'S HUALLAGA VALLEY IN THE HEART of the Amazon is a bastion of Sendero Luminoso, the country's largest guerrilla movement, known for its ruthlessness.' Settlers arrived in the region in large numbers in the 1960s when the government offered credit, services and roads, promises on which it never made good [see "El Dorado Gone Awry...
...From 1978 to the end of 1982 they encountered few obstacles, since the Committees responded to a real need, even though the farmers did not share the MIR's politics...
...The remains of the MRTA guerrillas were sitting ducks, and they received the brunt of the police's fury...
...According to one government official, "It is true that the narcos attacked the producers' organizations, but that was only in the beginning...
...Then on July 15, the government stepped in with a series of operations led by the anti-drug police...
...They then called out five to ten young men from each town for military training...
...Francisco Morales Bermfidez decided to prohibit coca cultivation and ordered that coca growers be prosecuted...
...The senderistas exchange glances, then the head of the column warns him that any trickery will bring him death...
...They spend the afternoon giving the usual speeches to the crowd, explaining how and why they must organize, how they should behave, and why the party has taken up armed struggle...
...Nevertheless, Sendero knew what was in the wind and had reached an agreement with the local narcos to keep the city from being taken...
...This won for Sendero the residents' appreciation and left the group virtually unchallenged as the de facto government of the Huallaga Valley...
...Later on they reached some accord with the leaders, and even gave them guns...
...More than 100 volunteered, but the guerrillas lacked sufficient arms and trainers to prepare them all for battle...
...Left on their own, the settlers opted for an easy solution: They planted coca, which in the Huallaga grows easily and abundantly...
...The MRTA detachment carried automatic rifles and were armed to the teeth...
...The cumpas won't attack us...
...Residents had to face continual attacks from a specialized antidrug police force on the one hand, and the traffickers' bands of hired guns, known as sicarios, on the other...
...Until it occurs to him to offer something in return: "I'm more useful to you alive than dead...
...When the operations were finished at the end of the year, and the extra contingents of police returned to Lima, the zones that had been MRTA-influenced were wide open for Sendero, as was the rest of the valley...
...The MRTA VOLUME XXII, NO...
...Ten senderistas take him to an open field and oblige him to get down on his knees...
...How much do you pay your workers...
...Simple bribery and lack of resources quickly neutralized them...
...He is brought to the plaza, where he is interrogated in front of the crowd: How much land do you have...
...Residents give conflicting accounts of how many tupacamaristas were killed, but the numbers fluctuate between 40 and 60...
Vol. 22 • March 1989 • No. 6
