The Vegan Marxist
2nd August 2010, 02:17
In a area where guerrilla warfare has been waged for the past two decades now, we find ourselves within a psychological war against those that remain as the true holders of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party, the Sendero Luminoso or better known as the Shining Path by mainstream media. Led by Chairman Gonzalo, or also known as Abimael Guzman, the Popular War was first waged on May 17, 1980. Although they [the Sendero Luminoso] trained themselves under Marxist-Leninist-Maoist thought, they also comprised themselves under the banner of what they considered as Gonzalo Thought, in which detailed certain key strategies through guerrilla war & survival. Since then, the Peruvian government, military, & media have waged both counterinsurgency & psychological warfare against the Senderos, in the hopes of eliminating any element left of this guerrilla army. Although theyve come close into doing so this past decade, the Sendero Luminoso remain in numbers & still, to this day, are waging class struggle against the Capitalist ruling class within Peru.
The Popular War is waged
The medias use of the peasantry was always a key strategy, as well used by the Peruvian military, in order to try & demonize the Sendero Luminoso, who were known for their class support in key allies such as the peasantry. In 1982, just two years after the Sendero Luminoso waged Popular War, the Peruvian military started providing training & funding to the Ronda Campesina counterrevolutionary peasant militants who provided counterinsurgency against the Senderos. [1] In 1983, by Huata, the Rondas led an attack against the Senderos, in which led to the deaths of 13 members of the Sendero Luminoso. Just a month after, another attack took place in Sacsamarca, killing leading commanders of the Senderos within the region. A month after that incident, another took place again. This time it led to the death of Olegario Curitomay, one of the commanders of the town of Lucanamarca. [2] The killing was as brutal as one could get, in which he was stoned, stabbed, set on fire, & then shot to death.
Because of this attack, which was helped funded by the Peruvian military, the Sendero Luminoso responded to these executions through counter attacks within the region of Huanca Sancos consisted of towns such as Yanaccollpa, Ataccara, Llacchua, Muylacruz and Lucanamarca in which was reported to the deaths of 69 people. This became known as the Lucanamarca Massacre. After this, other attacks were then waged against the Rondas within other regions, in which the media blamed the Senderos over this attack through claims of executions against innocent peasants, women, & children. [3] No official reports have clarified any evidence behind the deaths of children, & even if so, clarification on whether they were victimized deliberately or through the acts of cross-fire is remained unclear as well. The use of claims of innocent peasants being attacked & killed by the Sendero Luminoso was merely propaganda led by the Peruvian media. No word of the Rondas or who theyre being funded by are made public, & is rather covered up in order to falsely blame the Senderos of killing innocent peasants.
When it comes to the claims of killing women, I would point out the fact that, whether through the Sendero Luminoso or the Ronda Campesina, women were seen as militants as well, The use of trying to create a victimized image of women within these attacks are nothing more than a sexist fixation of women under guerrilla war. Many claims were made against the Senderos with claims of attacking, torturing, & killing women. Yet, as Amnesty has helped pointed out, women have also become known victims by the Peruvian military as well through the acts of torture [4] & rape. [5] Though, Amnesty tended to blame the Sendero Luminoso on these same charges as well without the understanding of womens roles through guerrilla war. Whats interesting, though, is that, despite many claims of the majority of women being victimized by the Sendero Luminoso, fact of the matter is that women are a key victim through unlawful criminal sentencing, in which puts 74% of those women locked up being charged for terrorism. [6]
Human Rights of the bourgeois
Another tactic that was used, in which was helped promoted through Amnesty International, was the claims of going against human rights. Despite the fact that on June 18, 1986, at Limas Lurigancho prison, around 300 imprisoned members of the Sendero Luminoso were killed by Armed Forces, [7] claims of human rights violations continue to be blamed on the Senderos. Though, as stated in a document by the Sendero Luminoso, the use of human rights claims were then pointed out as not being the acts of human rights of the working class, but rather human rights of the bourgeois:
We start by not ascribing to either Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Costa Rica [Convention on Human Rights], but we have used their legal devices to unmask and denounce the old Peruvian state For us, human rights are contradictory to the rights of the people, because we base rights in man as a social product, not man as an abstract with innate rights. Human rights do not exist except for the bourgeois man, a position that was at the forefront of feudalism, like liberty, equality, and fraternity were advanced for the bourgeoisie of the past. But today, since the appearance of the proletariat as an organized class in the Communist Party, with the experience of triumphant revolutions, with the construction of socialism, new democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat, it has been proven that human rights serve the oppressor class and the exploiters who run the imperialist and landowner-bureaucratic states. Bourgeois states in general Our position is very clear. We reject and condemn human rights because they are bourgeois, reactionary, counterrevolutionary rights, and are today a weapon of revisionists and imperialists, principally Yankee imperialists. [8]
Factions of the Path emerge
In 1992, the Peruvian military found themselves capturing the leader of the Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzman. Since his imprisonment, factions began emerging out of the original Senderos. One, in which is being led by Comrade Artemio, continues to uphold the original policies of the Sendero Luminoso. They have fled to the jungle area of Huallaga Valley, in which is said to be in the number of 200-300 members left. The other faction is led by the commanders Victor & Jorge Quispe Palomino & Leonardo Huaman Zuiga, also respectively known throughout their party as Comrade Jose, Comrade Raul, & Comrade Alipio, [9] who are right now within the VRAE region, acting as helpers to the peasants on coca cultivation & production.
Though, according to members of the original Sendero Luminoso, the faction within the VRAE region are not following the original policies of both Gonzalo Thought & Marxist-Leninist-Maoism. According to imprisoned leader Abimael Guzman, he sees this faction of Senderos as ..a group of mercenaries who look out for their personal interests and not those of the people. They are simplistic, they do not know ideology. They have practically tossed Marxism-Leninism-Maoism into the trash can. [10] According to Laura Eugenia Zambrano, who is also serving a life-sentence in prison, stated that they [original Sendero's] flatly rejected this armed group and military.. & ..are not part of the Sendero Luminoso Communist Party. She also stated that ..[drug] traffickers are anti-Gonzalo thought. [11] Another imprisoned member facing 25 years, Victoria Trujillo, stated that armed militants within the VRAE region have nothing to do with the party.. & that they are ..mercenaries against the people. [12]
The Peruvian media dont seem to put these testimonies into account apparently, since they continue to this day to blame the entirety of the Sendero Luminoso for drug trafficking, in which was put to blame on them since they initially started the Popular War against the Peruvian State. They dont put the faction split within its complete contexts & merely see it as an expanding struggle, rather than a disconnection of the struggle. Because of this, reports have been made with claims that even the faction being led by Comrade Artemio is helping in drug trafficking, along with those known in the VRAE region of said cultivation as well. [13] Though, to respond to these accusations, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Popular War first waged by Abimael Guzman, Comrade Artemio & other members of the Senderos used a vehicle in order to throw leaflets in various streets of Ayacucho, in which they started calling the leaders of the VRAE region militants mercenaries of the drug cartels and narcocamaradas, in which is being used to ..discredit the President Gonzalo and Comrade Artemio and activities of the PCP base Huallaga in order to ..destroy and disappear Gonzalo Thought. [14]
Al Jazeera ended up leading themselves to Peru in order to try & find out the truth of what is going on from reports of the Sendero Luminoso. While in Peru, they brought themselves within peasant villages that are protected by the VRAE region rebels, in which the villagers would give them their stories of the past where they once feared the Senderos, but are now being helped by the Senderos through drug trafficking &, according to their reports, are treating them [the peasants] very well. When the reporters tried going into the heart of the VRAE region in order to get an interview with members of the VRAE Senderos, they were told to get out quickly. So instead, they went to Lima in order to try & interview imprisoned members of the Sendero Luminoso & to see what their opinions were of the VRAE region faction. But, because they were not granted access into the prison with their cameras, after talks of negotiations, they found themselves interviewing a Sendero spokesman from the outside. The spokesman had stated that:
..those who are now in the VRAE have no chance of taking over the country. They are nothing but a militarized cell in the middle of the jungle, and in that hole they struggle to survive. What these anti-Maoists from the VRAE are doing today has nothing to do with the partys politics, because they have become mercenaries who offer their services to the highest bidder, including those linked to drug trafficking. Our position has always been to defend the peasantry, but we should remember that drug trafficking harms the peasantry to the benefit of powerful elites. [15]
Once a violent struggle, now a peace struggle
During the same interview with the spokesman of the Sendero Luminoso, it was then stated on where the party stands today & what it must leave behind for the time being:
In 1993 the Popular War in Peru ended and we categorically reiterate this. Our position is that we need a political solution to the problems that originated from the Popular War. We are asking for a general amnesty that will contribute to the countrys reconciliation. Revolutionary violence has been part of class struggle throughout history. When the right time comes, we will employ all mechanisms that help the struggle for socialism and communism. [16]
Peace & amnesty has become the sole movement in which the original Sendero Luminoso abide by. Negotiations between themselves & the Peruvian government has been made, but no agreement has been made. These negotiations have been promoted by Abimael Guzman through his recently published book, De puo y letra, in which he calls for peace negotiations to be held in order to bring a better relation between themselves & the people of Peru. It is also being used in order to try & help distance Guzman & his party from the anti-Maoist faction within the VRAE region. [17] Since then, peaceful rallies have been made in promotion of the class struggle & the Sendero Luminoso, especially one that was rallied on May 1st for the May Day rallies in Peru. [18]
Despite constant struggles to try & free the Sendero Luminoso from the lies & propaganda made against them by both Peruvian & US media, for example the documentary made just before Abimael Guzmans capture, People of the Shining Path [19], the psychological warfare waged against them continues to this day. Just recently, on July 13, 2010, the US has offered a $5 million bounty for the capture of the leaders of the Sendero Luminoso, in which also includes the bounty of Comrade Artemio. [20] As crippled as the Senderos may be, theyve vowed to continue the class struggle, whether it may be peaceful or violent, in order to destroy capitalism from the country of Peru.
Red Love & Salutes!
-
[1] German Palomino, The Rise of the Rondas Campesinas in Peru (PDF), 1996.
[2] La Masacre de Lucanamarca (PDF), 1983.
[3] Peru: Human rights in a time of impunity, Amnesty International, February 1996.
[4] Peru: Summary of Amnesty Internationals concerns 1980 1995″, Amnesty International.
[5] The Womens Rights Project, Human Rights Watch.
[6] Weiss, Robert P. Comparing Prison Systems. [Amsterdam]: Routledge, 1998. Print.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Sobre Las Dos Colinas (3), NY Transfer.
[9] Minister: Shining Path Remains a Threat in Perus Jungles, Latin American Herald Tribune.
[10] Ibid.
[11] De Puo Y Letra De Abimael Guzman, Eldiario International, September 13, 2009.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Peruvian Police Identify Shining Path Commander, Latin American Herald Tribune.
[14] Artemio Brands Joseph & Raul as Mercenaries & Narcocamaradas, Red Ant Liberation Army News, May 20, 2010.
[15] The New Shining Path, Al Jazeera, July 21, 2010.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ellie Griffis, Lawyer for jailed Shining Path founder charged with apology for terrorism over book announcement, Peruvian Times, September 17, 2009.
[18] 1 de mayo 2010, Per, May 7, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWr0IYNy3Jg&feature=player_embedded
[19] Documentary: The People of the Shining Path, The Marxist-Leninist, September 22, 2008.
[20] Terry Wade, U.S. offers bounty for Shining Path leaders in Peru, Reuters, July 13, 2010.
The Popular War is waged
The medias use of the peasantry was always a key strategy, as well used by the Peruvian military, in order to try & demonize the Sendero Luminoso, who were known for their class support in key allies such as the peasantry. In 1982, just two years after the Sendero Luminoso waged Popular War, the Peruvian military started providing training & funding to the Ronda Campesina counterrevolutionary peasant militants who provided counterinsurgency against the Senderos. [1] In 1983, by Huata, the Rondas led an attack against the Senderos, in which led to the deaths of 13 members of the Sendero Luminoso. Just a month after, another attack took place in Sacsamarca, killing leading commanders of the Senderos within the region. A month after that incident, another took place again. This time it led to the death of Olegario Curitomay, one of the commanders of the town of Lucanamarca. [2] The killing was as brutal as one could get, in which he was stoned, stabbed, set on fire, & then shot to death.
Because of this attack, which was helped funded by the Peruvian military, the Sendero Luminoso responded to these executions through counter attacks within the region of Huanca Sancos consisted of towns such as Yanaccollpa, Ataccara, Llacchua, Muylacruz and Lucanamarca in which was reported to the deaths of 69 people. This became known as the Lucanamarca Massacre. After this, other attacks were then waged against the Rondas within other regions, in which the media blamed the Senderos over this attack through claims of executions against innocent peasants, women, & children. [3] No official reports have clarified any evidence behind the deaths of children, & even if so, clarification on whether they were victimized deliberately or through the acts of cross-fire is remained unclear as well. The use of claims of innocent peasants being attacked & killed by the Sendero Luminoso was merely propaganda led by the Peruvian media. No word of the Rondas or who theyre being funded by are made public, & is rather covered up in order to falsely blame the Senderos of killing innocent peasants.
When it comes to the claims of killing women, I would point out the fact that, whether through the Sendero Luminoso or the Ronda Campesina, women were seen as militants as well, The use of trying to create a victimized image of women within these attacks are nothing more than a sexist fixation of women under guerrilla war. Many claims were made against the Senderos with claims of attacking, torturing, & killing women. Yet, as Amnesty has helped pointed out, women have also become known victims by the Peruvian military as well through the acts of torture [4] & rape. [5] Though, Amnesty tended to blame the Sendero Luminoso on these same charges as well without the understanding of womens roles through guerrilla war. Whats interesting, though, is that, despite many claims of the majority of women being victimized by the Sendero Luminoso, fact of the matter is that women are a key victim through unlawful criminal sentencing, in which puts 74% of those women locked up being charged for terrorism. [6]
Human Rights of the bourgeois
Another tactic that was used, in which was helped promoted through Amnesty International, was the claims of going against human rights. Despite the fact that on June 18, 1986, at Limas Lurigancho prison, around 300 imprisoned members of the Sendero Luminoso were killed by Armed Forces, [7] claims of human rights violations continue to be blamed on the Senderos. Though, as stated in a document by the Sendero Luminoso, the use of human rights claims were then pointed out as not being the acts of human rights of the working class, but rather human rights of the bourgeois:
We start by not ascribing to either Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Costa Rica [Convention on Human Rights], but we have used their legal devices to unmask and denounce the old Peruvian state For us, human rights are contradictory to the rights of the people, because we base rights in man as a social product, not man as an abstract with innate rights. Human rights do not exist except for the bourgeois man, a position that was at the forefront of feudalism, like liberty, equality, and fraternity were advanced for the bourgeoisie of the past. But today, since the appearance of the proletariat as an organized class in the Communist Party, with the experience of triumphant revolutions, with the construction of socialism, new democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat, it has been proven that human rights serve the oppressor class and the exploiters who run the imperialist and landowner-bureaucratic states. Bourgeois states in general Our position is very clear. We reject and condemn human rights because they are bourgeois, reactionary, counterrevolutionary rights, and are today a weapon of revisionists and imperialists, principally Yankee imperialists. [8]
Factions of the Path emerge
In 1992, the Peruvian military found themselves capturing the leader of the Sendero Luminoso, Abimael Guzman. Since his imprisonment, factions began emerging out of the original Senderos. One, in which is being led by Comrade Artemio, continues to uphold the original policies of the Sendero Luminoso. They have fled to the jungle area of Huallaga Valley, in which is said to be in the number of 200-300 members left. The other faction is led by the commanders Victor & Jorge Quispe Palomino & Leonardo Huaman Zuiga, also respectively known throughout their party as Comrade Jose, Comrade Raul, & Comrade Alipio, [9] who are right now within the VRAE region, acting as helpers to the peasants on coca cultivation & production.
Though, according to members of the original Sendero Luminoso, the faction within the VRAE region are not following the original policies of both Gonzalo Thought & Marxist-Leninist-Maoism. According to imprisoned leader Abimael Guzman, he sees this faction of Senderos as ..a group of mercenaries who look out for their personal interests and not those of the people. They are simplistic, they do not know ideology. They have practically tossed Marxism-Leninism-Maoism into the trash can. [10] According to Laura Eugenia Zambrano, who is also serving a life-sentence in prison, stated that they [original Sendero's] flatly rejected this armed group and military.. & ..are not part of the Sendero Luminoso Communist Party. She also stated that ..[drug] traffickers are anti-Gonzalo thought. [11] Another imprisoned member facing 25 years, Victoria Trujillo, stated that armed militants within the VRAE region have nothing to do with the party.. & that they are ..mercenaries against the people. [12]
The Peruvian media dont seem to put these testimonies into account apparently, since they continue to this day to blame the entirety of the Sendero Luminoso for drug trafficking, in which was put to blame on them since they initially started the Popular War against the Peruvian State. They dont put the faction split within its complete contexts & merely see it as an expanding struggle, rather than a disconnection of the struggle. Because of this, reports have been made with claims that even the faction being led by Comrade Artemio is helping in drug trafficking, along with those known in the VRAE region of said cultivation as well. [13] Though, to respond to these accusations, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Popular War first waged by Abimael Guzman, Comrade Artemio & other members of the Senderos used a vehicle in order to throw leaflets in various streets of Ayacucho, in which they started calling the leaders of the VRAE region militants mercenaries of the drug cartels and narcocamaradas, in which is being used to ..discredit the President Gonzalo and Comrade Artemio and activities of the PCP base Huallaga in order to ..destroy and disappear Gonzalo Thought. [14]
Al Jazeera ended up leading themselves to Peru in order to try & find out the truth of what is going on from reports of the Sendero Luminoso. While in Peru, they brought themselves within peasant villages that are protected by the VRAE region rebels, in which the villagers would give them their stories of the past where they once feared the Senderos, but are now being helped by the Senderos through drug trafficking &, according to their reports, are treating them [the peasants] very well. When the reporters tried going into the heart of the VRAE region in order to get an interview with members of the VRAE Senderos, they were told to get out quickly. So instead, they went to Lima in order to try & interview imprisoned members of the Sendero Luminoso & to see what their opinions were of the VRAE region faction. But, because they were not granted access into the prison with their cameras, after talks of negotiations, they found themselves interviewing a Sendero spokesman from the outside. The spokesman had stated that:
..those who are now in the VRAE have no chance of taking over the country. They are nothing but a militarized cell in the middle of the jungle, and in that hole they struggle to survive. What these anti-Maoists from the VRAE are doing today has nothing to do with the partys politics, because they have become mercenaries who offer their services to the highest bidder, including those linked to drug trafficking. Our position has always been to defend the peasantry, but we should remember that drug trafficking harms the peasantry to the benefit of powerful elites. [15]
Once a violent struggle, now a peace struggle
During the same interview with the spokesman of the Sendero Luminoso, it was then stated on where the party stands today & what it must leave behind for the time being:
In 1993 the Popular War in Peru ended and we categorically reiterate this. Our position is that we need a political solution to the problems that originated from the Popular War. We are asking for a general amnesty that will contribute to the countrys reconciliation. Revolutionary violence has been part of class struggle throughout history. When the right time comes, we will employ all mechanisms that help the struggle for socialism and communism. [16]
Peace & amnesty has become the sole movement in which the original Sendero Luminoso abide by. Negotiations between themselves & the Peruvian government has been made, but no agreement has been made. These negotiations have been promoted by Abimael Guzman through his recently published book, De puo y letra, in which he calls for peace negotiations to be held in order to bring a better relation between themselves & the people of Peru. It is also being used in order to try & help distance Guzman & his party from the anti-Maoist faction within the VRAE region. [17] Since then, peaceful rallies have been made in promotion of the class struggle & the Sendero Luminoso, especially one that was rallied on May 1st for the May Day rallies in Peru. [18]
Despite constant struggles to try & free the Sendero Luminoso from the lies & propaganda made against them by both Peruvian & US media, for example the documentary made just before Abimael Guzmans capture, People of the Shining Path [19], the psychological warfare waged against them continues to this day. Just recently, on July 13, 2010, the US has offered a $5 million bounty for the capture of the leaders of the Sendero Luminoso, in which also includes the bounty of Comrade Artemio. [20] As crippled as the Senderos may be, theyve vowed to continue the class struggle, whether it may be peaceful or violent, in order to destroy capitalism from the country of Peru.
Red Love & Salutes!
-
[1] German Palomino, The Rise of the Rondas Campesinas in Peru (PDF), 1996.
[2] La Masacre de Lucanamarca (PDF), 1983.
[3] Peru: Human rights in a time of impunity, Amnesty International, February 1996.
[4] Peru: Summary of Amnesty Internationals concerns 1980 1995″, Amnesty International.
[5] The Womens Rights Project, Human Rights Watch.
[6] Weiss, Robert P. Comparing Prison Systems. [Amsterdam]: Routledge, 1998. Print.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Sobre Las Dos Colinas (3), NY Transfer.
[9] Minister: Shining Path Remains a Threat in Perus Jungles, Latin American Herald Tribune.
[10] Ibid.
[11] De Puo Y Letra De Abimael Guzman, Eldiario International, September 13, 2009.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Peruvian Police Identify Shining Path Commander, Latin American Herald Tribune.
[14] Artemio Brands Joseph & Raul as Mercenaries & Narcocamaradas, Red Ant Liberation Army News, May 20, 2010.
[15] The New Shining Path, Al Jazeera, July 21, 2010.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ellie Griffis, Lawyer for jailed Shining Path founder charged with apology for terrorism over book announcement, Peruvian Times, September 17, 2009.
[18] 1 de mayo 2010, Per, May 7, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWr0IYNy3Jg&feature=player_embedded
[19] Documentary: The People of the Shining Path, The Marxist-Leninist, September 22, 2008.
[20] Terry Wade, U.S. offers bounty for Shining Path leaders in Peru, Reuters, July 13, 2010.