Peruvian Maoist rebels take war to new fronts

Press, 22 April 1986, Page 10

Peruvian Maoist rebels take war to new fronts

By

SIMON WALKER,

of Reuter (through NZPA) Puno, Peru Maoist guerrillas who launched their insurgency in central Peru have now pushed their rural offensive as far as the border departments (provinces), deepening military concern about the country’s security. The Sehdero Luminoso (Shining Path) rebels had opened their latest main front in the department of Puno, on the border with Bolivia, by acting as "Robin Hoods” doling out rustled cattle to the poor peasants, police said. Red flags hang over gutted ranch co-operatives where Sendero has launched at least seven attacks so far this year to hand out thousands of cows and sheep. The rebel strategy was to win a following from the poorest Puno hamlets in a department bedevilled by a severe drought in 1983 and in 1986 by the worst floods this century, municipal officials said. Some Army officers, who previously dismissed Sendero as an internal security problem, are now increasingly alarmed that rebels have increased attacks in Puno. The department of Puno harbours bases aimed at defending Peru from Chile, a traditional adversary. The War Minister, General Jorge Flores Torres, said last month that the government was weighing

the possibility of putting Puno under emergency control, which would send in the Army to battle the guerrillas. Fear of the rebels was borne out by the resignations of two mayors and a district governor after rebels assassinated Chupa’s district governor in February, officials said. The rebels, intensifying their intimidation campaign, posted death threats against the top 15 officials and merchants recently in Azangaro, the biggest city in central Puno. The police, who have led the battle against the rebels, privately say they are under-equipped. The main police force has about three working trucks and some five radios to link 40 posts dotting a police region covering most of the department — an area bigger than Belgium. In Arapa, a town of 1500, the police chief says he has only eight men to confront the fearful prospect of an attack by 50strong Sendero columns reported to be roaming nearby. He said rebels had portable radios, his men did not, and that guerrillas were armed with more powerful machine-guns. Puno is one of Peru’s poorest departments, like Ayacucho, in the southcentral Andes, where Sendero began its insurgency in 1980.

The military has contained Sendero in Ayacu-

cho and three nearby departments under an Army-controlled emergency suspending constitutional rights and enrolling peasants into patrols. The battle has cost more than 7000 lives and led to the disappearance of over 1000 people. In a bid to curb increasing Sendero attacks in Lima, the capital, the President, Mr Alan Garcia, decreed a state of emergency and a fourhour curfew in February. To date, Sendero has launched attacks in all of Peru’s 24 departments, including northern Cajamarca, which borders Ecuador. Rebels staged about 25 attacks there last year although the drive has eased recently, the police say. But the rebels’ steppedup push through Puno might prove to be more difficult to check because of signs of local resistance against a declaration of a military emergency in the department. Municipal officials and union leaders in Azangaro recently signed a statement saying they wanted the military to stay out despite recently issued death threats. “The solution of our problems is not the militarisation of Azangaro province and of Puno state like some are aiming at doing and the organisation of our population into paramilitary patrols,” it said. At 3.Bkm (12,000 ft) in altitude, Puno has mainly

been known elsewhere for picturesque scenes of Indian women wearing bowler hats and lakeside dwellers paddling boats made of reeds. But after taking office in July, Mr Garcia publicised Puno’s dramatic poverty. He doubled its development budget and cut farm Interest rates to zero. He also dealt with Puno’s most burning issue, a 1970 s agrarian reform giving most private land, with huge herds of cattle, to a minor share of peasants organised In cooperatives. Most of the department’s farmers remainedwithout new land and Sendero has capitalised on their bitterness. Besides rustling the co-operatives’ cattle for the poor, they also encouraged peasants to invade co-operatives, church officials said. In February, Mr Garcia decreed that peasants would have access to the co-operatives’ land, but none has yet been redistributed. Sendero’s assaults on co-operatives continue. Under a red Sendero flag in the midst of 10 buildings blackened by sabotage, Luis Quispe, aged 40, sadly recalled a rebel attack on the ranch co-operative of Esmeralda on March 2. “They rounded us up in this patio ... telling us we ate too much meat Then they rustled our 600 cattle to give to peasants as they were headed to a fair."