A surrealist atmosphere pervades the West Coast of South America. In Ecuador, the apprentice Fujimori of that country -- Abdala Bucaram -- is forced to flee to Guayaquil and abandon his capital while the entire country demands he is thrown out into a Lunatic Asylum.
Meanwhile the MRTA action in seizing the Japanese embassy in Lima has now degenerated openly into the reactionary pro-imperialist circus which it always was, despite the silly naivete among some people in the left who fell for the insidious Fujimori/CIA/FBI propaganda presenting this action as "Anti-imperialist in Character" (see the New Flag publication sponsored by the bogus "MPP-USA" engendered by the US imperialists and the Fujimori National Intelligence Service).
Yesterday I pointed out that this supposedly "anti-imperialist action" had now turned into an institutionalised red herring being used by the dictatorship and imperialism to pull the wool over people's eyes to such an extent that the MRTA carnival now included "birthday Mariachi music for Fujimori hostage/potentates played by guitar wielding ersatz Mexican ranchers singing under the MRTA's bolt-hole's balconies, amusement park stalls doing thriving business along side the neighbouring street to the embassy grounds, and American Businessmen tourist buses having the "MRTA SEIGE SIGHTSEEING TOUR" as an obliged attraction stop in their Lima itineraries. Finally, like for example yesterday, Fujimori's own elderly mum drove aboard a bullet proof limousine to come visit the siege and bring them cakes and baskets of fruits, etc.."
Since the Japanese Emperors' birthday party they so rudely interrupted seems to be already well advanced into the process of re-starting after that nail-biting interval, the only thing now needed is that all the other guests don their party togas anew, a new supply of Champagne and canapes is provided, and just all -- including now the MRTA -- to carry on celebrating the imperialist ransacking of Peru since everyone is so happy. Is it not right to ask about these people: Are these ANTI-IMPERIALISTS FIGHTERS OR VULGAR GATE CRASHERS AT THE IMPERIAL FEAST?
MRTA HAS NOW A NEW AMBASSADOR CUM ROAD SHOW MANAGER:
On arriving in London yesterday, Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori openly revealed his new role as the new "ambassador/road show manager for the MRTA" and practically has turned himself into the chief apologist for his new partners in this "dialogue" aimed at -- in Fujimori's own words-- "maintaining and reinforcing the stability of the state."
In London, the dictator expressed that one of the principal motives of his trip was to "find a country that would give asylum to the MRTA group." This group--in the words of Domingo Palermo -- Fujimori's Minister and chief negotiator -- is unsurprisingly enough by now, the very group headed by "Don Nestor" Cerpa Cartolini now holding 73 "guests" at the Japanese ambassadors' residence in Lima, but shortly billed to appear as an star attraction at a venue (or country of asylum) near you! Now, Mr. Fujimori has found his vocation in trying to convince other countries to take his self generated problems off his broken back.
In requesting that the MRTA group be given political asylum, Fujimori, of course, is contradicting his formerly stated position about the MRTA not being guerillas, but terrorists. Apparently, and since he is now engaged openly in the business of lookin g for a country to give the MRTA group political asylum, he is in fact saying that they are after all guerilla fighters and not terrorists!
Technically, the dictator has already run afoul of his own laws regarding apology for terrorists and should be up against one of his own "faceless" military tribunals being condemned to life imprisonment and to pay 5 billion US dollars compensation as an "ambassador and chief apologist for the MRTA."
THE BROKE SEEKING ALMS FROM THE UNDONE
In visiting London, Fujimori has thrown himself at the feet of the most discredited political bunch in power anywhere in the world. The Major regime, which is already in its last legs, and therefore in no position to say no to such an embarrassing visitor, lest worse soundbites are found by their political opponents. The Peruvian dictator, however, has totally missed the point of the London business gathering he has billed back in Peru as an "exercise in reassuring the international investors." The LILA (or Link into Latin America) is to showcase Britain as a supposed gateway for business (and investment) flowing from Latin America INTO Europe.
Come to think of it, and since his partners of the MRTA cannot hold out the fort for them for ever without totally boring the punters, that IS precisely what Fujimori and his cortege of robber barons (who, in typical Latin American Somoza style of a dictator's gang, have already made substantial billions) are in fact looking for a safe haven to bring their ill gotten and drug tainted funds to safety, while in fact fishing for eventual political asylum for themselves.
To add to the surrealist atmosphere, The Times saluted the eve of Fujimori's arrival by dubbing him a "dictator" and berating "his barbaric and medieval dungeons." The next day, after the dictator reminded the British that "Peruvian prisons are built in accordance with international standards for terrorists" and journalists were reminded of Mr. Howard, Major's Home Secretary who has in his "democratic record" the letting of remand prisoners to die of cancer while in chains, or even pregnant women being kept clamped to their beds while giving birth, decided in their next edition that Fujimori was a "democrat" after all. Not to mention the infamous conditions of thousands of imprisoned people -- among them hundreds of asylum seekers --in Britain "zero tolerance" society.
No wonder, the Banana republic dictator and the Prime Minister of Her Gracious Majesty looked into the mirror of their own eyes and realised that after all, they were both of them rather humane! Birds of a feather, hang together!
--- from list marxism-international@lists.village.virginia.edu ---
We present this important contribution from the Editor of El Diario Internacional in order to help to clarify well the current political situation in Peru. This article continues from the previous (Revolutionaries or Vulgar Shysters), already published.
Committee Sol Peru - London Press Commission
What is the background of Victor Polay Campos?.
HISTORY OF THE MRTA "LEADER"
By: Luis Arce Borja
In the first part of our article we had strictly analysed the MRTA's action at the Japanese embassy in Lima. IN synthesis, we asserted that such action was aimed at buttressing the political and anti-insurgency plans of the Fujimori regime and US imperialism.
Now, in this part of the article, so that the reader can acquire greater information about the MRTA, we propose to give a brief analysis of the political background of Victor Polay Campos and the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA).
History of Polay, the APRA party member
What is the political origin of the MRTA leader?. Where does he come from? The media portrays him as a radical "marxist-leninist" and a follower of Che Guevara.
Victor Polay Campos, known as "comandante Rolando", is a man who was formed and shaped ideologically inside the so called Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (the APRA Party). He was induced into this party at the age of 7, and he remained a member until the end of 1980. Polay held important office in the intermediate layer of leadership of APRA and was one of the favourites of APRA founder Victor Raul Haya de la Torre.
The Apra is a party of the Peruvian right. It was founded on December 1924 by Victor Raul Haya de la Torre. This personage, made of anti-communism one of his principal political activities. Haya de la Torre, known as the "Leader" accumulated a thick curriculum of betrayals, reactionary alliances and obscure political deals with military tyrants and civilian satraps alike.
The Apra, from its foundation, tried to pass itself as part of the people's camp, making abundant use of a baroque rhetoric and adopting "anti-imperialist" poses and gestures. In its doctrine, Apra, is a mixture of bogus populism framed within a neo-fascist praxis.
Apra was never a democratic force, not even from the standpoint of bourgeois politics. Throughout its history APRA acted as the enemy of the peasants, workers and all oppressed classes. It entered into pacts with the landowners, the big bourgeois, and foreign imperialists, particularly the USA.
Haya de la Torre lived in Berlin around the mid twenties. At that time the Nazis began their march to power. From them he copied their organisational schemes, their criminal methods and the fascist fanfare that has always been an APRA characteristic. Even the "salute to the leader" -- arm high with extended palm whenever the "leader" would review his "troops" was copied directly from the Hitler gang.
The Apra characterised itself - and still does - for having the closest links with organisms which imperialism uses for its penetration. By means of their bogus workers' union (Confederacion de Trabajadores del Peru-CTP) which this party has manipulated for over 50 years, Apra maintains close relations with CIA controlled labour organisations.
Julio Antonio Mella, the noted Cuban communist militant who was assassinated in 1928, characterised then the Apra of being a new edition of "fascism" hiding behind a mask of pretended "anti-imperialism", and that its fundamental objective was to struggle against Marxist influence in Latin America.
Haya de la Torre was an intolerant and rabid enemy of the Soviet Republic-- then under Lenin and Stalin's leadership. He entered into pacts with the most rabid anti-communist forces in the Americas in order to fight against the forces and parties of the communist Third International. It was Apra who coined the phrase "Neither Washington nor Moscow, Only Apra will Save Peru". At the end of the Second World War, Apra came out in support of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. Apra negated the need for a party of the working class and advocated a party of "manual and intellectual workers" under the leadership of the latter.
Polay Campos enrolled himself very early in the ranks of Apra. His parents, Apra members, registered him in the CHAP (the Apra Children Organisation)when he was 7 years old in 1958. CHAP is part of the organic structure of the Apra and is dedicated to molding and shaping the future members of Apra from childhood. It is some sort of "creche cum ideological indoctrination."
When Victor Raul Haya de la Torre was still alive, the CHAP children were put in charge of giving the Nazi-Cherubs touch for the public celebrations that Party staged for the "leader's birthday." Polay, as a CHAP leader, was in charge of carrying and delivering floral arrangements for Victor Raul Haya de la Torre.
In 1968 Polay Campos was External Relations Secretary of the "Apra University Command" (CUA). This sinister organism, feared and hated by students, had a 30 years long reign of obscurantist terror in the Peruvian universities. Many students paid with their lives for having stood up to the murderous Apra thugs.
The members of the "University Command" were organised and functioned as a para-military militia. Their political line and their actions was --and is to this day -- imbued of the most rabid anti-communist ethos. In all their crimes, this "Command" always sought and received police support.
The 60s, Polay's "Golden Era" is remembered in Peru as the most violent era in the Universities. The Apra, by means of their brutal "buffalos"-- that is what their "fascios di combattimento" are called--, were able to impose themselves as a sinister presence in Peru's main universities.
It is then that the famous "Buffalo Pacheco" makes his name. This case hardened common criminal had charge of a "commando" of 40 to 50 Apra thugs who armed to the teeth with guns, sub-machine guns, chains, coshes, etc, established a state of terror in the Universities.
Beginning in 1985 (during the Apra regime of Alan Garcia), "Buffalo Pacheco" supported by police forces, widened the scope of his crimes taking on the popular masses. Many poor citizens were assassinated by the squads under the command of this Apra thug. Finally, in 1990, "Buffalo Pacheco", Polay Campos's former comrade, was ambushed and executed by a guerilla platoon of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP).
In 1970, Polay went from the "University Command" to the "Bureau for Conjunctions" (the Apra cadre school). This Apra party organ has charge of "selecting" and "preparing" their future leaders. To be chosen for this privilege, youths had to be favourites of Haya de la Torre. To the "Bureau for Conjuctions" only those enjoying the trust of the Apra party leaders, and specially those who had played a signal role in anti-communist activities. It was from this bureau that Alan Garcia Perez, who in 1985 became President of Peru, first came out. Polay Campos, today's "comandante Rolando", was then an avowed and fervent devotee of Victor Raul Haya de la Torre.
In 1972, Polay Campos goes from the "Bureau for Conjunctions" to be General Secretary of the Apra Executive Committee in Callao (Peru's principal port). The same year, Polay is arrested and accused of having taken part in the bloody events that took place in Lima on February 1970. More than 200 people were then killed in vigilante actions. Apra then negotiates with the military regime to obtain Polay's release, as well as other Apristas implicated. Victor Polay is taken out of jail and sent to a golden exile. In 1973, Polay Campos travels to Europe equipped with an "scholarship". He comes first to Madrid (Spain), and later goes to France, where he set-up a folk music duo together with Alan Garcia, the future Apra president of Peru.
"Comrade Rolando," after a lengthy stay in Europe, returns to Peru in 1978. It is the time of the "co-habitation" between Apra and the military dictatorship of General Morales Bermudez. Apra turns into the main prop for the elections to the military sponsored elections for a "Constituent Assembly." Apra achieves a plurality in that Assembly and Victor Raul Haya de la Torre is elected as its president. This Apra victory was the dining room bell that Apristas in golden exile were awaiting to make their come back. That is how Polay, Alan Garcia and others, return to Peru.
At the end of 1980, Victor Polay Campos, "officially" takes distance from Apra. The main factor for influencing Polay to resign from the Apra ranks, was the political decline of Victor Raul Haya de la Torre. The Apra leader, now over 84 years old, was at the end of his life. Having lost his mental faculties, he lost control of his party.
Polay Campos, felt he had no longer a mentor, and abandoned to his fate he felt left behind in the Apra rat race. He could not challenge the rising stars of Alan Garcia Perez, Carlos Roca, Barba Caballero, Abel salinas, Luis Negreiros, Javier Valle Riestra and others who became known as the "new Apra generation."
In one occasion, an old Apra member said of Polay: "Polay is earnest, but he lacks political talent; he is only good for street fighting."
In Peru no one has any knowledge of any documents or texts in which the "leader" of the MRTA has broken either ideologically or politically with his former party.
On the contrary, there is abundant evidence that Polay never ceased to be drawn towards the party founded by Haya de la Torre. Here are some quotations from Polay himself that leave no room to doubt of the ideological affinity between the Apra and the MRTA leader:
"The history of the Apra party is full of a history of consistency, struggle, martyrdom .... Apra has an historical opportunity. It is either a party that would be consistent with itself, or it would be a party that would end by capitulating". (Victor Polay, "Interview while in Hiding", August 1985).
"I cannot deny that in the struggle to change the country, hundreds and thousands of Apra party members have dedicated the best part of their lives to the cause of freedom ... We stand by the example of "Buffalo" Barreto, a man of the thirties. We believe that this is but one struggle. They were Apra members, we are Tupacamaristas. It is all the same, however. We have the same ideals of justice, the same thirst for change, for democracy". (Victor Polay, La Republica, 9 July 1992).
The praise that Polay has for his old party shows the disguised Apra member lurking behind the "marxist-leninist guerilla" mask. The Apra in 1930, and the Apra today, is the same old pro-imperialist, treacherous, anti-communist, brutal, anti-working class, the ally of the rich and powerful it always was.
The Apra of Haya de la Torre is the same corrupt, criminal and fascist party that Alan Garcia Perez led into power. Apra, for more than 70 years has kept its same "ideological basis" and its same reactionary programme -- both elaborated by Haya de la Torre -- without the slightest change.
The Murky Origens of the MRTA
In 1978 Victor Polay Campos comes into contact with one of the many groups that in Peru called themselves by the name of "Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria" (MIR) - Movement of the Revolutionary Left.
Polay joins up with the miniscule faction of MIR-"Militant", led by Hugo Avellaneda Valdes, a lonely geezer completely unknown in Peruvian politics. Currently, Avellaneda lives as a political refugee in France.
Polay and Avellaneda make an odd couple frequenting the venues of the legal left with very little success. For many militants of the left, "chino Polay" was still regarded as an Apra thug. In 1980, Polay becomes friendly with Luis Varesse Scotto, a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (M-L), and president of an important non-governmental organisation (ONG) in Peru.
Varesse had just returned from Nicaragua where he had witnessed the fall of Anastasio Somoza. Together with other leaders of the SRP-ML, they underwent their guerilla experience in the Sandinista Southern Front and had been close to Eden Pastora, "Coma ndante Cero," a man who later would work for the American CIA.
The SRP-ML, emerged from a split of the "Socialist Revolutionary Party"(PSR) founded in 1977 by General Leonidas Rodriguez Figueroa. This General had been one of the head honchos of the military dictatorship of Velasco Alvarado. General Rodriguez Figue roa was chief of the sinister and corporative organisation created in June 1971 as a fascist tool of the Velasco regime, the National System for Social Mobilisation (SINAMOS). SINAMOS aimed at becoming the "political party" of the dictatorship. Its main a im was to incorporate and control the workers and popular movement. Luis Varesse Scotto worked as a functionary in this organism and was General Leonidas Rodriguez's right hand man. Both Leonidas Rodriguez, as well as Varesse left SINAMOS in 1975, when General Morales Bermudez overthrew General Velasco Alvarado.
In October 1982, the SRP-ML and MIR-Militant give birth to the Movimiento Revolucionario Tupac Amaru (MRTA). At the beginning, the party leadership is composed of a triumvirate including Luis Varesse, Polay Campos and Hugo Avellaneda. The seed money for the organisation comes initially from Varesse's ONG. Later, in 1984, Varesse and Polay fell out in a struggle for supremacy in their organisation. Polay wins out and is recognised as "comandante." Varesse is kicked out accused of cowardice and desertion. With a threat hanging over his life, Varesse prefers to give himself up to the police, and is thrown in jail. Later the Alan Garcia regime would give him amnesty and he goes to live in Mexico. Later, he goes to Nicaragua where he currently lives working as a United Nations (UN) official.
Brussels, February 6 1997