No winners out of Lima incident

The following article is written exclusively for The Jakarta Post by Andre Vltchek, a visiting journalist who is the U.S. and Latin American editor of the most influential newspaper in the Czech Republic Lidove Noviny.

JAKARTA (JP): Movemiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA) attacked last Tuesday on Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima taking around 500 hostages is believed to be the most spectacular action in the 16 years civil war between the Peruvian state and the leftist guerrillas that so far claimed well over 30,000 human lives.

Reports from Lima yesterday said that the Marxist rebels freed another 225 hostages leaving some 140 in the embassy.

There are some 100,000 people of Japanese descent living presently in Peru (second largest Japanese minority in South America, after Brazil). Japanese foreign aid to Peru amounts to US$2.5 billion.

The attack came as a surprise to all analysts of South American affairs. MRTA was believed to be destroyed by Antonio Vidal, general and former chief of Peruvian anti terrorist forces in 1992. That year the guerrilla leader, Victor Polay Campos and most of the members of the Central Committee of MRTA were arrested.

In 1992, the most violent year of the civil war, almost no one abroad paid much attention to the pro-Cuban Marxist guerrilla.

Main focus of attention was on the Maoist group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) with some 50,000 fighters and collaborators. This well armed group controlled large part of the coca leaf trade.

As a result of the civil war, Peru in the beginning of 1990s was a basket case, with the negative economic growth and collapsing social structure. It became the third poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, after Haiti and Bolivia. This was exactly the goal of the SL. Guzman was often saying that the poverty "sharpens the revolutionary edge of masses."

In 1990s SL began attacking other leftist groups and individuals that were not "revolutionary enough". In January 1992 Maria Elena Mollano, socialist mayor of the shanty town Villa El Salvador (with more than one million inhabitants) was shot and killed by the members of SL. Her body was later dynamited and damaged beyond recognition. MRTA was attacked as well. From the very beginning, there was no co-operation between the two groups. For SL, MRTA was not dogmatic enough. Its members were more targets than allies.

From the very beginning MRTA was less radical, fighting for the Cuban style state, while SL aimed at the Khmer Rouge model. (Guzman was trained in China). Contrary to SL, MRTA did not use extremely brutal execution tactics. It did not attack indiscriminately; targets were always carefully selected. Money came mainly from extortion (MRTA was kidnapping rich members of the business community) and from robbing of the banks.

In 1992, both MRTA leader Victor Polay and SL leader Abimael Guzman Reynoso. After the trial and sentencing (both received life in prison), both leaders were thereafter transferred to the underground bunker on the small island that serves as a Navy base, not far from Callao, a port city bordering with the capital Lima.

For long it was believed that both SL and MRTA were destroyed, but in 1995 it was evident that SL is still controlling the drug trade in selva (jungle) and is rapidly regrouping, operating again in the urban and rural areas under the new leadership.

After the 1992 arrest, "Comrade Evaristo" and Miguel Rincon took command of what was left of the MRTA. Then in 1995 Evaristo became the only leader. His real name is Nestor Cerpa Cartolini and he used to be a union leader. He was the one who led the attack on the Japanese ambassador's residence in the middle of the posh Lima neighborhood, San Isidro.

The common believe is that the operations of the Peruvian leftist guerrillas will not stop, before the profound social and racial problems of the country will not be solved. Peru, once the richest place in South America, is now one of the poorest, with the GDP per capita only $950 (Chile has around $5,000 and Argentina $8,000). Wealth is still in the hands of the very small white minority that lives in Lima and Arequipa. "Indian" (most Peruvians are of Indian descent or mixed) is a dirty word. Four fifth of the Peruvian workforce is unemployed or underemployed. Gap between the rich and poor is one of the greatest in the world.

In 1990, Alberto Fujimori, son of Japanese immigrants, won a landslide victory over the world famous novelist Maria Vargas Llosa, and became the first non-white president of the country. Fujimori (called amiably "El Chino") introduced tough neo-liberal economic reforms, known in Peru as "Fuji shock". He also pledged to end the civil war. But in 1992 he staged army-backed "self- coup" ("autogolpe"), closing courts and Congress, declaring they were corrupt and he has to rebuilt them from the ground up. Substantial part of international aid was cut-off as a result.

The same year, leaders of the Shining Path and MRTA were arrested. Later Fujimori rewrote the Constitution. New Constitution gave him previously forbidden ability to run for the re-election in 1995 which he won by landslide again. Peruvian economy was growing spectacularly, but among the population, the gloomy mood didn't change. Common wisdom was declaring: "Peru is doing well, but Peruvians aren't". Desperate, enormous shanty towns (pueblos jovenes) built around all major cities are the living prove of it.

Peru is historically the center of Indian culture in South America. Inka Empire has its centers in Cuzco and Machu Pichu. So did the cultures of Ica, Nazca and Paracas. Historically, these cultures were strongly centralized and did not have the money based economy. Both SL and MRTA used this fact as the major argument justifying their fight.

Arrests of Guzman and Polay in 1992 didn't solve the problems of Peru.

MRTA believed that by the spectacular attack on the Japanese ambassador's residence, they may gain sympathy for their cause; in Peru and abroad. So far, reaction was overwhelmingly negative. Most of Peruvians are tired of the uncertainty. They are horrified by the prospects of continuation of the civil war. At the present time, MRTA has almost no support of the general public. Whatever the outcome of the conflict, there will be hardly any winners.

Window: In 1992, the most violent year of the civil war, almost no one abroad paid much attention to the pro-Cuban Marxist guerrillas.