4
OPINION
*age 4
Wednesday, April 9, 1986
The Michigan Daily
4
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Senderos terrorize Peru
Vol. XCVI, No. 129
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board
All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily.
A2
schools
mis-address AIDS
T HE ANN ARBOR school board
is forming policy on the atten-
dance of students with Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome
(AIDS) and the permissability of
having teachers with the disease in
the classroom. Neither students
nor teachers with the disease
should be banned from school.
People outside the three high
risk groups (homosexual or
bisexual men, intravenous drug
'users, and hemophiliacs) are
generally not at risk of contracting
the disease. Though it is wise to be
prudent, the chance of anyone con-
tracting AIDS in the classroom is
null, as no intimate contact is
allowed.
The largest problem with AIDS
is public hysteria, in spite of
repeated assurances from
epidemiology experts that the
disease is not communicable ex-
cept through sexual contact, blood
transfusion, or direct contact with
open wounds, or possible mucous
membranes. Having AIDS infected
people in school will help to
educate the public on the disease
and the problems its sufferers
have.
The better AIDS and the needs of
its victims are understood, the
easier the time will be before a
cure is found. Instead of
ostracizing the unfortunate
children who have AIDS, citizens
should support AIDS victims and
increase awareness about AIDS -
a key step to reducing the spread of
the disease.
By Roberto Javier Frisancho
On April 14, 1985, the people of Peru went
to the polls and elected Alan Garcia Perez
their new President. It was a considerable
achievement and demonstrated stron
popular support for the electoral process.
Because, for the first time since 1912, one
freely elected president handed over power
to another. Yet Peru's democracy still
remains threatened.
Since 1980, when Peru's armed forces
stepped down after 12 years in power, eight
other countries in Latin America - in-
cluding Brazil and Argentina - have swit-
ched from military to civilian rule. Peru,
like these other countries, is in an economic
crisis, but it also faces a threat that most of
these countries don't have to deal with.
This threat is posed by the Sendero
Luminoso (Shining Path), a mysterious,
fanatical terrorist group determined to
destroy the country's existing social struc-
ture even at the cost of millions of lives.
However, the large turnout for the elec-
tion - 92 percent of the electorate - has
meant an impressive defeat for the Sen-
deros, which had proclaimed an election
boycott.
With conservative parties crushed, 49
percent of the vote* went to Garcia's left-of-
center ticket, the American Popular
Revolutionary Alliance (APRA) party and a
further 23 percent to Alfonso Barrantes
Lingan, the Marxist candidate of the United
Left coalition. *(The constitution required
Garcia to have 50 percent of the votes, but
Barrantes decided to concede the election).
So intractable is the guerilla problem that it
was not a campaign issue. None of the can-
didates, including the United Left's Barran-
tes, had anything but condemnation for the
Shining Path.
During the 15 weeks between the elections
and inauguration day on July 28, Peru's lef-
tist guerillas laid down their challenge to the
new Government. Lima, the capital of
Peru, was blacked out in an effort to disrupt
vote-counting, and the head of the election
board, Domingo Garcia Rada, was wounded
in an assassination attempt. On June 7,
1985, while outgoing President Fernando
Belaunde 'Terry was host at a state dinner
for Argentina's President, Raul Alfonsin,
the guerrillas sent a warning to heads of
state planning to attend the inauguration.
Lima was blacked out again, a car bomb
exploded ouside the presidential palace and
arsonists lit a fire in a store across the main
plaza.
The movement has adopted harsh and
Frisancho is a freshman in the
College of Engineering.
unorthodox tactics, arming its followers
with sticks of dynamite, slings and
machetes, and stirring ancient rivalries
between Indian communities in order to ex-
tend its influence. Informers, municipal
authorities and, not infrequently, those who
refuse to be recruited are brutally mur-
dered. In Lima and other cities, the Sen-
deros prefer attention-grabbing actions,
such as hanging dead dogs on lamp posts or
lighting a fire in the shape of the hammer-
and-sickle on a hillside.
The guerrillas have not actively sought a
broad base of popular support nor will they
ever receive any. Based on the movement's
sporadic propaganda, its military operations,
what is known of its origins, and interviews
with jailed guerillas, it appears the Sendero
Luminoso draws it special brand of
nihilism from a fanatic dedication to
Maoist fundamentalism. The group has
spurned Peru's established Marxist parties,
and seems intent not so much on over-
throwing the government as on gradually
destroying the society it represents.
Guerrillas literally support China's Gang of
Four and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge (who
saughtered roughly three million Kam-
pucheans during the 1970's) as models.
(New Republic, Jan. 1985)
The Peruvian Army has unfortunately
been forced to use harsh tactics in order to
combat the guerillas. This has inevitably
lead to some tragedies. But the army's
brute force has been surpassed by atrocities
committed by the guerrillas themselves.
Deriving their communist ideology from the
teachings of Mao Tse-tung, the Senderos are
led by Abimael Guzman (nom de guerre, Col.
Gonzalo), a hermit-like former professor of
philosophy. He has been underground since
1980, the year the Senderos began their
campaign by systematically killing village
officals, often slitting their throats in front
of family members. Their use of terror, in-
cluded deployment of child guerrillas as
executioners.
Ironically, it was the government's at-
tempt in 1960 to atone for its chronic neglect
of the Andes Mountains region, where most
of the Quechua-speaking (the language of
the Incas) Indian peasants live, that planted
the seed of Sendero Luminoso. Hoping to
make the University of Huamanga in
Ayacucho City a model of higher education
in the provinces, the government provided
some of Peru's brightest young academics
with handsome salaries to accept teaching
positons there. Among those answering the
call was Guzman. Over the next decade, he
and a coterie of students combined an-
thropological study of the region with an in-
tense devotion to Mao and the writings of the
late Peruvian Marxist Jose Carlos
Mariategui. It was from Mariategui that
they appropriated the term "Sendero
Luminoso," and eventually founded a splin-
ter Communist Party in his name. By the
late 1970's, both the party membership (con-
sisting mostly of students) and their leader
- who is now revered by his followers no
less than Mao, Marx, and Lenin - went un-
derground. Sendero Luminoso resurfaced
as a guerrilla movement shortly after the
national elections in 1980. They have been
killing every since.
One such instance is what happened in
April, 1984, when at least seventy-seven
men, women,'and children were killed in the
town of Lucanamarca, in what surviviors
described as a peasant raid led by a small
group of armed guerrillas. These type of
massacres have unfortunately lead to in-
stances where the Army in its searches has
accidently killed innocent peasants, which
human rights organizations like Amnesty
International have rightfully criticized. But
they have failed to realize the unusual cir-
cumstances that caused these tragedies and
have been duped into being used as a
propaganda weapon by the Senderos into
justifying their terrorist activities.
In addition, all this wrong condemnation
of the Peruvian government overshadows
the punishments that military has been
receiving for its abuse of its powers and
weakens the support of government in
the international community. For example,
in February, 1984, the district attorney for
Ayacucho, Jorge Zegarra, ordered the
arraignment of twenty-six members of the
counterinsurgency police for the murder of
thirty-one peasants. Also, in a toughening
up of government policy, President Garcia
fired three senior generals, in late Sep-
tember, 1985, for covering up the deaths of
69 Indians in the Ayacucho guerrilla war
zone, and six other officers were jailed for
playing a direct role.
Finally, the Peruvian government has beer
trying to negotiate with the Senderos, but
they seem determined in the total destruc-
tion of Peru. In June, 1984, the Peruvian
government's offer to recall the military
from Ayacucho in return for a truce was an-
swered with a bloody guerrilla offensive all
along the Central Andes.
It is quite ironic that the Senderos were
here twice this school year on a U.S. tour,
with help from "The Committee to Support
The Revolution ini Peru," for a fundraiser;
(selling such manuals as "Develop Guerrilla.
Warfare") and not met with any protests
whatsoever. (Drug trafficking is another
source of their income). One would have at
least condemned them. But, it seems that if
a faction is left-wing oriented, it does not
have to worry about such harassements. It
must be understood that these barbarians.
will not accept democracy at all, just total
power, and the only way to stop them is to
kill or capture them. By all definitions
possible, these savages are real terrorists
and should be banned from this campus.
Free speech i"n
shopping malls
T HE NEW YORK Supreme
Court recently decided shop-
ping mall owners must give
iheir consent to any petitions cir-
'eulated on their premises. This
'decision is dangerous because
"malls have replaced the Main
Streets of our country as com-
rnuiity gathering places;
therefore, they should retain the
'political freedoms practiced on the
streets. The decision, however,
:designates an arbitrary elite,
namely shopping mall owners, to
control a facet of American
political expression. As
businessmen, they are interested
in providing hassle-free shopping;
:as big business, they are interested
Cam
is con
g THE CAMPBELL Soup Com-
pany has finally succumbed to
the demands of the Farm Labor
Organizing Committee (FLOC),
ending a seven-year boycott of the
eompany's products.
4 FLOC works toward securing
a collective bargaining agreements
between the Campbell's Soup
Company, and the migrant farm
workers in the Midwest. FLOC
initiated the boycott to protest the
inadequate working conditions of
these farmworkers, and to force
the company to accept the
workers' rights to unionize, among
others.
The boycott is presently suspen-
ded, but FLOC warns that it could
be reinstated if Campbell's does
not honor the collective bargaining
agreement. Despite this con-
tingency, it is important to
recognize the significance of any
in not allowing certain viewpoints
to petition.
While some claim this is an issue
of property rights, the issue of free
speech takes priority.The New
York decision plus similar
decisions by the Connecticut,
Michigan, and U.S. Supreme Courts
interpret, freedom of speech and
assembly as applying to speech in-
fringements by the government,
not by property owners. Con-
sidering the immense popularity of
malls today and the huge numbers
of people who go to them, it is im-
portant that the guarantees of free
speech, not the mall owner, dic-
tates who may circulate petitions
there.
Chassy
1 SEND A PREPPY TEXAN TO TALK OZL V/ZIh AFA5I..
pbell's
quered
determination and vision of many
concerned individuals. Boycotts,
particularly, are only effective if
the public can persevere and main-
tain consistent, economic pressure
over long periods of time.
Recognizing its economic
weakness as a solitary
organization, FLOC wisely chose
to call on other groups sympathetic
to its cause, to join the boycott. Ac-
cording to Agenda: "Ann Arbor's
Alternative Newsmonthly," vic-
tory for FLOC came three days
before the National Council of
Churches, which represents 40
million potential consumers, was
to announce endorsement of the
boycott of Campbell's.
Those that supported the fair
treatment of farm workers by par-
ticipating in the boycott should be
commended for their patience and
committment. This victory should
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LETTERS:
Re ferences to Sandinistas are biased
To the Daily:
Could you please refrain from
inserting an adjective before the
words "Sandinista government"
communist party or movement.
Nor is Marxism or communism
an official ideology of the present
government of Nicaragua, in
x-in th C nr :iicfo cv..hn
perialist United States gover-
nment," I don't think you'd print
it, even though both of these ac-
cusations have some basis in
r_.
dinista leadership, party mem-
hers, or the people who voted
them into office. Please try to
keep these opinions on the