dr. reuben abimael guzman reynoso is a revolutionary and a founder of shining path, chairman of the communist party of peru; elena iparraguirre revoredo, his partner, is a revolutionary and poet; guzman is continually accused of brutality as a guerilla leader by the euro-american press and servants of policy : after guzman was captured sept. 12, 1992, then-president of peru fujimori placed the university professor in a public cage; antonio vidal, in charge of the arresting police was u.s. trained; "dincote," the secret police was aided by the cia and cia computerized tracking; the cia considered president fujimori in the pocket of his intelligence chief, montesinos, paid by the cia; guzman was charged with treason by an anonymous secret military court, convicted without proper process, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
fujimori's low intensity warfare program took over peru's judicial system, installing secret military tribunals by the 1992 "anti-terrorist law decree," used for the persecution, arrest and imprisonment of defense lawyers; on may 8,1992, four lawyers - dr. tito valle travezaņo, dr. yovanka pardave trujillo, dr. elvia zanabria pacheco, were assassinated in prison; attorney dr. martha huatay ruiz, was kidnapped nov. 4, 1992, beaten, tortured sexually abused, imprisoned (difficult to verify since a prison doctor found no sign of torture etc.); guzman's lawyer dr. alfredo crespo, after death threats while representing his client, was arrested january 11, 1993, tortured, charged with treason and sentenced to life in prison; by 1998 the list of arrested lawyers included carlos gamero quispe, ernesto messa delgado, esteban suarez gonzalez, freddy huaraz riquez, luis ramon landaure, magno marinos abanto, rodolfo ascencios, and teodor bendezu montes; "grupo colina" (a death squad of intelligence operatives) put out a "wanted list" of 220 lawyers who represented political prisoners; the peru people's movement saw this as a psychological tactic to prepare the public for arrest of its leaders; as a tactic of low intensity warfare it prefigures bush administration threatening north american lawyers (for example, see lynne stewart), taking power away from the courts and denying due process of law domestically and at military bases abroad (see guantanamo).
although both fujimori and his security chief (montesinos began receiving money from the cia as early as the 1970's and ten million u.s. dollars during the 1990's - he was a death squad leader/graduate of the school of the americas before he became the u.s. "control" on fujimori) were subsequently recognized as criminals, the illegally convicted guzman was not freed; he was tried again in 2004 but the judges kept quitting; he was tried again in september 2006 under media blackout; he was tried for founding and leading the shining path, one of several peruvian leftist guerilla groups, and as the chairman of the communist party of peru; the actual charges against him were "aggravated terrorism"; military corporate government structures blame guzman for a guerilla war endemic in peru since the beginning of the 1960's; guzman's strongest political actions occurred during the 1990's in resistance to the u.s. takeover of his country; at re-trial he and elena iparraguirre were given life sentences; ten other prisoners were given 24 to 35 years; he was one of the earliest leftist leaders to be called a terrorist by a puppet regime; the shining path was placed on u.s., canadian and european terrorism lists which make it illegal to support him and his co-workers; it is a puzzling listing since currently the communist party of peru (aka the shining path) supports national reconciliation and political rather than armed struggle; for some years the shining path administered major portions of the peruvian countryside; with some difficulty guzman united south american native peoples under a european form of political thinking, marxism or maoism; he advanced chinese communism as an evolutionary step in marxism moving societies increasingly from rule by elites toward community empowerment, but probably not far enough; 'chairman gonzalo' is said to have surrendered the shining path and resistance to peru in 1993 after imprisonment and imprisonment of his defenders; guzman's acceptance of the peace accords are appropriate to his incarceration; aside from the arrests and murders with cia/dia cover and payments, of defense lawyers the low intensity conflict programs resulted in the "anti-terrorist command" massacre at barrios altos in 1991, the military's massacre of political prisoners at cantogrande prison in 1992, the 1992 attempted massacres by the armed forces against male and female prisons, the murders of students, labour leaders, and others; so resistance to the "peace accords" remains; the revolution in peru is referred to as "the people's war".
covert u.s. low intensity warfare tactics in other countries eventually become subject to the host country's legal structure; because these programs were illegal peru's judiciary was taken over by military controls; within american law, government waging war against its citizens is a serious crime, an impeachable offense and all participants accountable.
(info sources: "rebel leader sentenced to prison in peru, ap~ vecchio & lopez, oct. 13, 2006, new york times; "abimael guzman," wikipedia [oct.18, 2006, access: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abimael_Guzm%C3%A1n]; "a sober look at the situation of the peru revolution and its needs, " from a world to win, issue 32, posted sept. 15, 2006, rebellion is justified);"iec-us: fujimori regime arrests lawyers for defending political prisoners," sept. 1, 1998, international emergency committee to defend the life of dr. abimael guzman;"u.s. intervention in peru," heriberto ocasio, no date, international emergency committee to defend the life of dr. abimael guzman [oct. 19, 2006 access: http://www.csrp.org/iec/ocasio.htm]; "iec-us: fujimori regime arrests lawyers for defending political prisoners," sept. 1, 1998, international emergency committee to defend the life of dr. abimael guzman; "cia gave $10 million to peru's ex-spymaster," angel paez, july 3, 2001, the public; 'fujimori's rasputin' the declassified files on peru's former intelligence chief, vladimiro montesinos," nov. 22, 2000, national security archive electronic briefing book no. 37; "defend the life and integrity of progressive and democratic lawyers in peru !" april 1998, peru people's movement (n.a.) and the new flag;"crimes of the fujimori regime: summary of the charges presented by the peruuvian association of democratic lawyers to the inter-american commission of human rights (ichr)," no date, peru people's movement (mpp) and the new flag) .
