Peru: Amnesty Speaks Out
Wise, Carol
A report recently released by Amnesty International entitled "Peru: Torture and Extra-judicial Executions," has served to confirm allegations by the Lima press and human rights organizations...
...Carol Wise is a graduate student in political science at Columbia University and recently spent a year as a visting researcher at Lima's Pacific University...
...Verdict: Collective Guilt At least half the 66-page report is devoted to analyzing the still controversial events surrounding the brutal massacre of eight journalists last January in the village of Uchuraccay.* Here, Amnesty questions the final conclusions drawn by the government's investigative commission headed by celebrated Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa...
...In its documentation of torture and extra-judicial executions in the occupied zone, Amnesty provides a slant quite different from the picture painted by Vargas Llosa in his New York Times Magazine (July 31, 1983) account of conflict in the Andes...
...The report appeared in the wake of a series of bombings and attacks by Sendero in the capital, with President Belaunde's Popular Action Party headquarters and a number of police stations the major targets...
...The government puts the total deaths at 1,500 since May 1980 when Sendero surfaced...
...The novelist's portrayal of a military and police force committing some infractions because they are "out of training" for democracy, yet fighting to maintain Peru's vulnerable democratic institutions, is a far cry from the nightly roundups and arbitrary murders documented in the report...
...Peru, although the torturing of youths in this manner is something new...
...He accused the organization of having "communist ties," and of being part of a subversive network abroad which he has consistently blamed for Peru's present "terrorist cancer...
...In these attempts to discredit the conservative civilian regime as a "democratic farce," Sendero has gained some momentum by provoking the state into responding with more visible authoritarian measures...
...Amnesty discounts official estimates of disappearances and extra-judicial deaths as superficially low, due to the information blackout in the south, and a total disregard for due process on the part of the military command...
...Victims have been systematically beaten and held under water-to the point of drowning-at "Los Cabitos," Ayacucho's military barracks and torture center...
...A report recently released by Amnesty International entitled "Peru: Torture and Extra-judicial Executions," has served to confirm allegations by the Lima press and human rights organizations in Peru concerning the government's use of unchecked violence in attempting to eradicate the Maoist guerrilla movement, "Sendero Luminoso...
...This is not a novel practice in 41update * update . update * update E ( Counterinsurgency squads arrive in Ayacucho in August 1982...
...The dire economic situation also continues to give Sendero leverage...
...Since Sendero's last campaign on Lima, American International Underwriters has notified the state insurance company that it will not be issuing terrorist protection policies to new clients this year...
...Given the government's continuing disregard for even minimal economic justice and the inefficacy of warfare tactics to date, as well as Sendero's dogmatic adherence to violent and non-parliamentary solutions, the most likely scenario is that put forth by exPresident Morales Bermtidez in a recent speech in Lima...
...Belaunde responded promptly by relieving NACLA Reportupdate . update . update * update his finance minister of duties ef- fective January 1. As the polarization between Sendero and the state approaches its highest pitch, Amnesty's findings provoked an expected round of denials on the part of President Belaunde...
...The report becomes particularly heated in its descriptions of torture tactics employed on suspects, many of them minors...
...Subsequent to the release of the report, the appearance in Lima of two Ayacucho school teachers whom Amnesty had listed as dead lent some credence to the president's criticisms...
...The United Left won handily in Lima and the other principal opposition party, the centrist APRA, took the rest of the country...
...The international business community seems to share this future vision for Peru...
...The general public, concerned over the obvious rise in terrorism and government repression, has been more receptive to Amnesty's findings despite the report's errors...
...That is, a stalemate, regardless of military or civilian rule, which resembles the current situation in Colombia...
...The report notes the widespread bloodshed which has resulted from the indoctrination and payoff by the military of peasant community patrols organized to fight Sendero...
...Colombian-Style Stalemate Although Amnesty's findings corroborate what has been suspected all along, the organization is certainly not telling the government anything it does not already know...
...JanlFeb 1984 many unresolved contradictions and inconsistencies in the govern's testimony, Amnesty has appealed-unsuccessfully-to the Peruvian government to reopen the investigation of the massacre and initiate the proper prosecution proceedings...
...In November's municipal elections-widely viewed as a plebiscite on government policyBelaunde's administration met with resounding disapproval...
...Under the guidance of Finance Minister Rodriguez Pastor, a strict orthodox monetarist, Peru's major economic indicators have slumped to levels on a par with those witnessed at the end of the last century while the country was at war with Chile and Bolivia...
...Yet the government remains committed to its own form of terrorism...
...Among opposition political forces, there is a mounting sentiment that a blitzkrieg development 42 effort is the only viable solution to the problems of the improverished sierra region where Sendero is strong...
...These southern departments-Ayacucho, Apurimac and Huancavelica-have been under military occupation since December 1982...
...There, a similar mix of political and economic contingencies has perpetuated a deadlock between the state and guerrilla insurgents for some 20 years...
...Press disclosures indicate that defense expenditures now consume 30% of the national budget...
...Eye witness testimony gathered by Amnesty directly contradicts military communiques which state that the majority of deaths are occurring during active combat against the guerrillas...
...President Reagan's fiscal 1984 budget requests a five-fold increase in military aid to Peru to support the purchase of high-tech counterinsurgency equipment...
...Confining its investigation to complaints filed within the southern Andean departments (states) where the fighting has been the heaviest, Amnesty has concluded that the nature and extent of human rights abuse occurring in the context of the guerrilla war has reached proportions un40 precedented in Peru...
...Contrary to the official verdict of collective guilt with impunity for the peasants involved in the grisly incident, and complete government ablution, Amnesty points to the massacre as a direct result of government security policy in the military occupied zone...
...Because of the *See "Peru: 'Dirty War' in Ayacucho," NACLA Report on the Americas (MayJune 1983...
Vol. 18 • January 1984 • No. 1
