Wednesday, 4/30/97 Harsh reality lies under Peru Latest
terrorist situation exemplifies President Fujimoris’ tyranny,
inhumanity
By Lisa Martinez For anyone who believes in fairness and human
rights, the recent government massacre of the 14 rebels in Peru,
most of whom were teenagers, was a disgusting and cynical show of
violence and hatred before the world. Peruvian President Alberto
Fujimori lied to the world when he vowed not to use force if no
hostages were harmed, then after the blood bath, as the whole world
watched, provided a macabre, fascistic display of pumping his fist
in the air and laughing uncontrollably. Quite an unforgettable
scene and in no way the appropriate behavior for a president of a
country. Granted, the taking of hostages is a clearly illegal and
controversial move, but given the political circumstances in Peru
and other Third World nations, it’s understandable that people
would resort to that tactic. Unfortunately, nearly all
corporate-owned news mediums in the United States failed to shed
light on the political conditions in Peru which led to the taking
of the Japanese embassy. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that over
a period of more than four months, the Tupac Amaru rebels did not
hurt or kill a single hostage. And they set hundreds of them free.
In grim contrast, the Peruvian military within about 10 minutes
killed 14 human beings. The government of Alberto Fujimori has a
lot of explaining to do to the free world. If the young rebels were
engaged in a soccer game when the military stormed the building,
how is it that they put up a fierce gun battle? Recent reports tell
us the two young women guerrillas openly surrendered to the
military and were nonetheless shot in cold blood. Also, it has been
reported that a number of guerrillas, aside from having been shot
execution style in the middle of the forehead, were also found
severely mutilated. And Fujimori claims that all his military was
trying to do was simply get the hostages out safely. It looks like
Fujimori’s military made time for sadistic acts that clearly defy
the Geneva Convention. And who exactly is this "darling" of the
world’s transnational corporations who runs Peru with an iron fist?
Alberto Fujimori, backed by the military, dissolved Peru’s freely
elected congress in 1992 and passed decrees calling for a system of
military courts which deny the accused the right to an attorney and
are run by hooded judges. Human rights groups in Peru estimate that
between 700 and 1,000 innocent people have been charged and
convicted for "political crimes" under this system. American Lori
Berenson was sentenced to a life term under Fujimori’s kangaroo
court system. Her only crime is that as someone who went to Peru as
a journalist to cover the country’s poor and indigenous
populations, she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Moreover, Peru has some of the most inhumane prison conditions in
the world, yet Fujimori and many Peruvians try to pass the country
off as a "democracy." Amnesty International has documented from
1980 to 1995 the use of torture by the Peruvian national police and
thousands of cases of "disappearances" and extra-judicial
executions. According to a well-known independent magazine that
specializes in Latin American politics, a key advisor to Fujimori
and the de facto head of Peruvian National Intelligence, or SIN,
Vladimir Montesinos has ties to both drug traffickers and death
squads in Peru. He ran a lucrative law practice defending drug
lords in the ’70s and ’80s and a Peruvian drug king pin recently
testified that he provided Montesinos with money to inform him
about antidrug raids. A Peruvian DEA agent made similar allegations
in 1993. Montesinos is said to be the mastermind behind a death
squad made up of SIN and military agents which carried out the 1991
Barrios Altos massacre and the killing of nine students and a
professor from La Catuta University in 1992. Unfortunately for U.S.
taxpayers, Fujimori and Montesinos have the firm backing of the
U.S. government. Finally, there appears to be no diversity of
opinions or "marketplace of ideas" in Peru … When a country lacks
a diversity of opinions, that usually means that there’s some sort
of dictatorship in place. And let’s not forget that according to a
report this past January on CNN, anyone who openly speaks out
against the current government of Peru risks being charged as an
"apologist for terrorism" by a military court, as well as a
sentence of about 20 years in one of Peru’s dungeon-style prisons.
Martinez is a 1994 graduate of UCLA in political science and a
member of the L.A. Committee for the Human Rights of Political
Prisoners in Peru.